The Office of Veteran Services will have a new home in the Arena come fall.
The Veteran’s Academic Resource Center will open in November and provide veterans with their own space on campus.
“This new building will give us a stronger presence on campus and be a place for veterans,” said Tim Robison, a junior information technology major, Veteran Services Office employee and army veteran.
Jim Middlekauff, the assistant university registrar in the Office of Veteran Services, hopes the new office will improve veteran relations, provide better services and help the veteran community.
“It’s going to be a one-stop shop providing many services to veterans,” Middlekauff said. “It will help veterans feel better on campus while making campus more veteran friendly.”
The new office will be located inside the Arena beside Jimmy John’s, across from Tower 3 on the northeast side of campus and features six offices, a common room lounge and four study rooms.
Currently, the 3,400-square-foot office is nothing but “dirt floors,” Middlekauff said, with construction beginning in July. Construction is tentatively set to be complete by the beginning of September, with a grand opening in November.
The Veteran Services Office will maintain its current space in the registrar’s office until the end of December before moving all operations to the new space.
Veteran Services will still be maintained under the registrar’s umbrella and offer select services of the that office, such as change-of-major forms.
“The new office will be good for work,” said Seth Grubb, a junior micro and molecular biology major, Veteran Services Office employee and army veteran. “We won’t have to piggyback off the registrar’s office. We’ll have our own area. I think we needed that. We don’t really have a place of our own on campus.”
Veteran Services signed the lease with the Arena for the next four years with an option for a fifth, choosing the space in the Arena because it “was one of the places on campus that had the space,” according to Mark Allen Poisel, associate vice president of Student Development and Enrollment Services.
Construction on the existing space will cost between $300,000 and $400,000, with $300,000 coming out of the provost’s budget, and the remaining difference being covered by the student development and enrollment board, according to Poisel.
This total accounts for all build-out costs for the offices and study rooms, including fixtures, furniture, design and construction.
The connecting study spaces are available to all students, not just veterans, and will be open until 11 p.m., even though the Veteran Services Office will close at 5 p.m. or 5:30 p.m., depending on the day of the week.
The study spaces can be reached through the office of Veteran Services or through the Arena.
Tutoring will be offered in these study rooms through the Student Academic Resource Center’s office. The rooms will also be available for reservations, much like the study rooms in the library.
“We hear students complain about not having a study space near the Towers,” Middlekauff said. “There are only so many spots in the library.”
Middlekauff says he hopes the new office and study spaces will not only help veterans but also SARC and the businesses in and around the arena.
This new office should further ensure UCF’s continued presence among the top 15 percent of G.I. Jobs magazine’s national list of the most “military friendly schools” whose recruiting programs and veterans services are the most embracing of veteran turned students.