Veterans angry over failed scholarship program

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Veterans angry over failed scholarship program
Man claims university broke its promise
Associated Press
CHAMPAIGN - Last spring, the University of Illinois made a promise to veterans and members of the military interested in getting an MBA: It would provide 110 full-ride scholarships to those who qualified.

What happened next is a matter of dispute.

The man who created the program -- which got national attention and praise from then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld -- claims the university abruptly scaled back the plan after some officials worried privately about the cost and diluting the master's of business administration program with too many "jar heads" -- slang for Marines.

The university denies that claim and says it never intended to award all the scholarships immediately.

A year ago, some 70 people thought they would be accepted into the program, but about half later were told that they weren't -- including Michael Purvis.

At 43, Purvis had been regular Army for 17 years and a National Guardsman for another eight. A first sergeant in the Guard, he spent 2005 north of Baghdad leading 150 military police. With a wife, two young sons and a job as an analyst at an information technology company, he said his transition to full-time civilian life was rocky.

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