[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 23526]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                  SERVICE MEMBERS OPPORTUNITY COLLEGES

  Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, it is with great pleasure that I rise to 
bring to the attention of the Senate a true national asset, the Service 
Members Opportunity Colleges, (SOC). The SOC is a consortium of over 
1500 Colleges and Universities across the Nation that have taken on the 
privilege of educating our Nation's men and women in uniform.
  Founded in 1972 the SOC was created to ``provide educational 
opportunities to service members, who, because they frequently moved 
from place to place, had trouble completing college degrees.''
  In fulfilling this primary role the SOC and their member institutions 
currently serve hundreds of thousands of service members. They work 
very hard to provide opportunities for our brave young men and women to 
educate themselves while serving our Nation. Consequently the SOC is 
helping prepare the future leaders of our military and our country. For 
this I salute them.
  However, in addition to their stated mission the SOC, and their 
director Dr. Steven Kime, have dedicated themselves to ensuring that 
our men and women in the Guard and Reserve are taken care of when our 
Nation calls upon them and they are forced to leave school. The SOC 
does this by using their extensive network to ensure that students 
called to service are either refunded their tuition or receive credits 
for later education. Through their hard work SOC has helped create a 
sense of duty among their member institutions who regularly prove their 
devotion to this Nation by providing help and assistance to their 
students called upon to serve.
  Consequently SOC has ensured that our brave young men and women 
called to active duty have one less worry on their already heavy 
shoulders. In these trying times it is this type of duty and leadership 
that proves our Nation and the American people are without equal.
  Again, I would like to offer my thanks and admiration to the 
Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges and their men and women working so 
hard to make life better for our men and women in uniform.

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