KU Student Veteran Center (SVC)

Each year the University of Kansas is proud to welcome an ever-growing population of veterans and active duty military to our student body.  Currently,  more than 1,000 of our students are veterans or family members of veterans. Upon return from military service, this population of students encounters a unique set of challenges around adaptation and assimilation into a traditional collegiate culture.  At the University of Kansas we believe in honoring our civic responsibilities and demonstrating support for those who have served our country. To address the transition and support requirements of these students, KU is establishing the KU Student Veteran Center (SVC).  The SVC will provide counseling, peer mentoring, academic and career advising, behavioral health professionals and perhaps most importantly, a place for community.  The services offered by SVC aim to impact our student veterans’ most common roadblocks to successful degree completion: transition from the military to an academic environment, persistence to graduation and post-college personal and professional success.

Aside from the cost of tuition, there are many contributing factors to a student’s success. With only 51.7% of student veterans nationally successfully completing a college degree program, it is clear this particular population requires special support. As the flagship university in the State of Kansas, KU intends to pioneer such a support program.  The SVC will be housed on the third floor of Summerfield Hall on the Lawrence campus, but will coordinate services on all five of KU’s campuses (Lawrence, Kansas City, Overland Park, Wichita, Salina). The location of the center will be adjacent to the directors of other key student service centers (Undergraduate Advising Center, University Career Center, etc.), which will serve to galvanize the SVC as an integral resource within the university student services landscape.  Moreover, student services, resource connectivity and social camaraderie all come together in this one location, which will be a natural home for KU student veterans. In addition to the 2,300 square feet in Summerfield Hall allocated to the SVC, the Chancellor has also budgeted state funds to recruit an experienced and highly qualified director, who will integrate established university resources and identify gaps in student support for the KU veteran population.