A&M-Victoria receives new A&M System support for Hazlewood commitment
Texas A&M University-Victoria will receive about $325,000 for the 2026-27 academic year through a new initiative from The Texas A&M University System that will help universities cover the unreimbursed cost of serving Texas veterans under the Hazlewood Act.
The funding will help offset the tuition and mandatory fee revenue A&M-Victoria forgoes when eligible veterans receive Hazlewood benefits. This support will allow the university to direct additional resources toward instruction, student services and other priorities that benefit all students.
“Texas made a promise to the men and women who wore our nation’s uniform, and we intend to keep it,” said Robert L. Albritton, chairman of the A&M System’s board of regents. “But keeping that promise should not weaken the universities that serve so many veterans and military families. This initiative gives those campuses meaningful relief while protecting the education of every student who walks through their doors.”
“This support funding from the A&M System is a welcome boost to our commitment to serving veteran students and their families,” A&M-Victoria President Christian Hardigree said. “This first year of funding will go a long way in helping us to continue the services that honor the service of our student veterans and dependents and help them prepare for their future careers.”
The Hazlewood Act provides qualifying Texas veterans with up to 150 semester credit hours of tuition exemption, including most mandatory fees, at public colleges and universities. Eligible veterans may transfer unused hours to a qualifying child through the Hazlewood Legacy program. Benefits also are available to certain spouses and dependent children of veterans who are disabled, missing or killed as a result of military service.
Based on fiscal 2025 data, state funding reimbursed about 67% of the cost of exemptions transferred to children through the Legacy program. Exemptions used directly by veterans are currently not reimbursed, leaving public universities to absorb those costs.
The board authorized up to $30 million annually for three years for the Hazlewood Veteran Initiative. Funding for the systemwide initiative will come from the Available University Fund. The $325,000 allocation to A&M-Victoria applies only to the initiative’s first year. Allocations for the second and third years will be determined separately in those years.
The initiative does not change Hazlewood eligibility or benefits. It provides institutional support so universities can continue serving eligible veterans without shifting the unreimbursed cost to other campus priorities.
Texas A&M University-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 50 academic programs in the colleges of Business, Education & Health Professions, Liberal Arts & Social Sciences, and Natural & Applied Science. A&M-Victoria provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as online classes that students can take from anywhere. The university supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.