Vets still have to put up with occasional anti-military biases on campus

“Why should we pay for these guys to go to college?” Hakim said he recalls a female student asking during a discussion on the nation’s responsibility to service members returning from war. “Everybody who goes into the military is stupid – that’s why they joined the military instead of going to college.”

Hakim – a Marine infantryman in Iraq and Afghanistan – immediately vowed to out-study every classmate on the midterm exam and said he ultimately posted the highest mark: 98 out of 100. Later, he said, he overheard that same female student reveal her grade: F.

“I guess I proved her wrong,” Hakim said. “It wasn’t a me-versus-her thing, more like: Maybe now she realizes how idiotic her statement was.”