The primary focus of the Veterans Resource Center is to help student veterans transition back into civilian life.
Financial details, working student veterans back into the classroom and developing study habits are common issues student veterans face during the transition back into civilian life, according to the center’s director Dave Millet.
“A lot of these service members have been in the military for four, six years and are now stepping away from that support network and coming back to a campus,” said Millet. “I would call us a bridge — a connector between our student veterans and the community. We can help get the word out to the community about what our student veterans have to offer and conversely, those in the community can come straight to us.”
Millet says the veterans center is the first stop for student veterans. Students can find financial and advising resources that help kick start where they need to go next. The center, located in Showalter Hall 122, includes a computer lab, lounge, kitchen area and a place for students to work.
According to Millet, since the center opened in July, there has been steady foot traffic. Eastern currently hosts about 600 student veterans, many of whom deal with ins-and-outs of applying for the G.I. Bill.
Lane Anderson, the center’s veteran’s affair certifying official said, “The most common issue is delay and processing on the [veteran’s affair] side. Everything goes into one main office before process. … [veteran’s affair] generally tells us payment can come as early as two weeks or it can be up to eight weeks or more, just depending on their particular workload.”
Anderson is the only veteran’s affair staff member at the center, granting students his full attention.
“I am dedicated solely to our veterans and to facilitate with their troubles with the G.I Bill,” he said.For the fourth consecutive year, the university was honored as a military friendly school for 2013 by G.I. Jobs Magazine. The honor establishes EWU in the top 15 percent of all colleges and universities nationwide.
Millet said this center is going to actively recruit and help retain students, help them graduate and help students find employment once they graduate.
“It really gives them a place where they can come and connect with each other and to get help and resources that they need,” Center Recruiter and Adviser Billie Jean Hall said.
As part of her role, Hall will be going out and meeting with veterans, seeing if they would be interested in attending Eastern and whether or not Eastern would be a good fit for them.
“I will be advising them through the admission’s whole process and getting them enrolled,” said Hall. “Be sure that they get everything done and when they need to get it done.”
Hall hopes that the student veterans who come through the center can come in and trust the staff to guide them.
In addition, the university is committed to having faculty liaisons from each college that will be in the center one day a week who will assist students with those particular colleges.
The work and planning of the center took three years with the help of a committee of faculty, staff and students. In November, 2011, a presentation to the board of trustees paved way for the university to open a center for student veterans.
The final decision to go forward with the center came last March. Between March and the opening in July, the center underwent renovation, staff placement and funding details.
According to Millet, the delay of the center surrounded budget issues and finding funding resources.
“We don’t have that solidified,” Millet said of the center’s operational budget. “We just opened. We’re brand new and we’re still doing cost analysis. …We have an operational budget that is being supported by student affairs and the university.”