Four Navy College Offices in U.S. to stay open through 2017

Four Navy College Offices will remain open until October through fiscal year 2017 to ease the transition to an all online and hotline-based system for applying for education benefits. of applying for tuition assistance and getting off duty education counseling. 

The move is a temporary delay of the Navy's plan to shutter all 20 of its U.S.-based offices where sailors can sign apply for tuition assistance and off-duty education counseling, a plan that sparked a furor among higher education institutions worried they would need to drop some on-base courses. they'd get less This change to the Navy’s previously announced October 2017 closure of all Navy College offices in the continental United States means only 16 offices of the Navy’s 20 US-based Navy College will shutter at the beginning of the fiscal year ’17 according to Lt. Cmdr. Kate Meadows, spokeswoman for the Navy Education and Training Command. 

Open for an additional year in the fleet concentration are the NCO’s The Navy College Offices in Norfolk, Va., San Diego, Calif., Jacksonville, Fla., and Kitsap, Wash. will remain open until But Meadows confirmed that these offices, too will close for good on Sept. 30, 2017. All others will shutdown by this October.

Meadows says that the changes were "the Navy’s own" and not mandated by the Department of Defense, which last month said they would review the Navy’s decision to do away with the remainder of it’s on-base NCO’s and the face-to-face counseling they offercurrently provide.

Those sources told Navy Times that As the Navy has moved towards its all virtual education center-based approach, it's became evident there were too many unknowns on how the Navy’s new system, said sources familiar with the transition plan would work. 

The Navy College website needed to be improved and upgraded from simply pages of links and information, as sailors are forced to get information elsewhere.

As the offices close, the Navy’s plans are to have some of their functions of Navy College offices will be picked up Navy Regional Advisers, who will located at the four Navy regions. Their job will be to to support and advise installation leaders on off-duty education matters like such as base access for academic institutions and academic testing for sailors.
 
Leaving the four offices open keeps the biggest fleet areas supported while the Navy works through kinks with the new system. So, leaving the four offices open while the sources say while closing the 16 others at the more isolated bases, allow the Navy to this new plans while keeping the some of the old capability in place in the areas of greatest sailor concentration as kinks and unintended consequences are discovered and fixed.

There's a possibility these four offices could be kept open longer if needed. And though the Navy’s stated plans are to close the remaining four by the end of next year, there’s aways the possibility that could be stretched out further if it’s discovered that a longer phase in is necessary to fully transition as issues are discovered. 

Another problem area of concern is the Navy’s Virtual Education center, the sources say. Right now, it’s basically a call center. The Navy plans to hire more counselors to help with online and phone help for sailors, but the extra year will ensure the virtual center can ramp up to increased use. also give that new capability time to mature in place, the sources say and ensure they can handle the expected increase in traffic.  

There’s still no plans to close any of the Navy’s  11 overseas Navy College Offices in . Those offices are located in Atsugi, Guam, Misawa, Sasebo, Yokosuka, Bahrain, Guantanamo, Rota, Sigonella, Naples, and Pearl Harbor.

The following NCOs will still close on Oct.1: Bethesda, Md.; New London, Conn.; Little Creek, Va.; Pensacola, Fla.; Charleston, S.C.; Gulfport, Miss.; Kings Bay, Ga.; Ventura County, Lemoore and Coronado, Calif.; Coronado, Calif., Lemoore, Calif., Fallon, Nev.; Whidbey Island, Wash.; Everett, Wash.; Great Lakes, Ill.; Millington, Tenn.; and Corpus Christi, Texas.