The Veterans Resource Center has been relocated from its previous home in Bethany Hall to the first floor of the Learning Commons.

Over the summer, university administrators decided the Bethany Hall location would be converted to on-campus student housing.

In 2014, Bethany Hall was renovated into a space specifically designed to meet the needs of student veterans. According to a previously published The Wood Word article, the establishment of a designated veteran’s specific resource center was made possible in part through grants to the Marywood Student Veteran Alliance from “the National Organization of Veteran Advocates (NOVA), Student Veterans of America, and The Home Depot Foundation, through the VetCenter Initiative.”

Upon its opening, The Wood Word described the Veterans Resource Center as “a place where veterans, their families, and Marywood’s staff, faculty, administration, and student body can build relationships and exchange personal stories, experiences, and the different services the students and veterans share in the community.”

The Veterans Resource Center’s current location consists of an office space on the first floor of the Learning Commons with an adjoining public lounge space.

Student veterans and students who frequented the center’s former location expressed sadness and frustration over the seemingly sudden changes.

Former student government representative and veteran Jeffery Behnke described the move as “very short-sighted and ill-thought-out,” adding he felt the veteran demographic has “been cast aside.”

Current student government representative Rosalyn Page said that the sudden change came as a shock to the student veteran population on campus.

“While I’m sure that this was a calculated decision made by the staff of Marywood, it felt very abrupt. Marywood was still able to give the veteran affiliated students on campus a place of their own; however, it looks vastly different then the previous place we called home,” Page said.

In the midst of these changes, Raul Santana Nuñez, the director of the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs, resigned and that position has yet to be filled.

According to a campus-wide memo from the Vice President for Enrollment Management Rob Piurowski, “this new location continues to provide [veterans] with their own designated space, while also placing them at the center of campus, closer to vital learning resources and student support.”

Other than a mention on Marywood’s website of an “office space in LC (Learning Commons) 166 and the adjoining lounge area,” at the time of publication, there are no physical indicators, such as signage, that veterans are welcome in this “designated space” as the memo describes.

Page explained that the former space housed not only the center’s Director, but also work study offices, kitchen, living and study spaces. “When students walked into this space they were met with a beautiful mural on the wall representing the different branches of the armed forces and a display of sand jars, holding earth and sand from places all over the world where previous Marywood students had been deployed. While the size of the new space in the LC is adequate for the number of military affiliated students, it has a much different feel then Bethany Hall did.”said Page.

Also in the campus-wide memo, Piurowski mentioned that this lounge is “currently under renovation and will be completed by the end of the semester.” However, no specific dates have been set as to when these renovations will be completed.

One plan for the space is to make sure that “there is ample office space, not only for the new person coming into that [coordinator] role but also if there is a graduate assistant or work-study as needed, we’ll try to identify that space as well,” explained Piurowski. The goal is to hire a new coordinator of Military and Veteran Services and Recruitmentby the end of the Fall 2023 semester. The position is currently posted on the Marywood website.

Behnke was also concerned about the treatment of the many objects the former Veterans Resource Center housed. Several American flags were found lying on the ground beside boxes in the center’s basement.

“As for the materials inside the Veterans Resource Center, I know that the flags are definitely in the basement unsheathed. I’d have to assume that the other items are down (there), hopefully not the mobility scooters. I’m really hoping that the scooters are accounted for by someone and that they’re not just rotting away down there. Someone could actually use the scooters,” said Behnke.

Piurowski noted many items from the center are donations that he hopes to repurpose in the new space.

“What we want to do is make sure that flags and other pictures, we are able to hang up in those areas or offices as well,” he said.

Despite these significant changes, administrators say that they are committed to continuing traditions started by the center, including events like the Field of Flags and the annual Veterans Day ceremony.

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