For military veterans, the return to college after war is now more common and a less difficult transition thanks to the University’s Veteran and Military Student Services.
VMSS was established in February 2013 after Kurt Keppler, Vice Chancellor for Student Life and Enrollment Services, recognized the University’s need to better serve the veteran and military student population. 
VMSS coordinator Adam Jennings said he worked closely with Keppler to establish the office in Johnston Hall to recruit potential students and provide
services for those already at the University.
The VMSS office has since moved to the third floor of Hatcher Hall, which Keppler said is a transition space for all new offices on campus.
Jennings said now that the office has been established, his role is
recruitment.
“A lot of what I do involves going to the military, looking for people getting out of the military and trying to get them to come to LSU,” Jennings said. “I also work with dependents of veterans whose parents may be on the GI Bill — and I sometimes recruit them, but mostly I just answer questions they may have.”
In addition, Jennings speaks with veterans about their experiences, giving them advice about what to do if their classes get purged and puts them in contact with Veterans Affairs.
“Adam has done a great job getting this program going,” Keppler said. “He holds meetings, creates study hours and even organizes tailgates for the vets. Overall, he’s getting people to get more involved and is giving the vets a place to call their own.”
Jennings said he and Keppler are not the only University resources that have helped make VMSS successful. A number of National Guard members, reservists and staff members from First Year Experience, the Center for Academic Success and Career Services have also worked to provide academic support for the veterans.
“The scariest part is coming out of the military and facing the ‘Now what?’ question,” Jennings said. “Our work study students are really good at providing an answer to this question for incoming veterans because they have their own personal experience and have been at LSU … and some of them are even still in the [National] Guard and other reserves.”
Statistics prove the positive effect the presence of the VMSS center has had on students, Jennings said. Every semester, veteran enrollment and participation in the services program increases.
“We also get a good bit of feedback from veterans who have graduated from LSU,” Jennings said. “They keep saying they wish [the Veterans Center] would have been here while they still were.”
Jennings said an estimated 500 people between the ages of 22 and 30 are enrolled in VMSS. After legislation was passed in 2013 to allow veterans who have been out of the military for one year to go to school in Louisiana for in-state prices, Keppler thinks this number will increase.
Most students receiving the office’s services now are engineering and business administration majors.
Nick Trapani, who came to the University in 2013, is one of the program’s business management veterans. He is also the student veteran president.
Trapani said having a designated location to go to each day, like the center’s recreational room, lounge and education center, has benefited many of the veterans and military students and allowed the program to grow. 
“The Veteran Center gives people like us a place to come to besides the library,” Trapani said. “It connects us to other veterans, which is probably the greatest benefit of all, because being older, you don’t really relate to
18-year-olds all that much.”
Keppler said the University faculty currently is looking at options for constructing a larger VMSS center between the Women’s Center and the African American Cultural Center. The space was initially intended to a restaurant or retail center, but it has not been completed.
“The prospect of having a new Veteran Center in that space is something [LSU] President [F. King] Alexander is very excited about,” Keppler said. “The Office of Student Life and Enrollment has already begun fundraising for the new center.”
Keppler said completion of the new facility will not be as costly because of a $10,000 grant VMSS received from the Home Depot Foundation, but it will depend on how long the fundraising takes. 
Jennings said the goal is to raise $7.5 million to cover the cost of the facility and renovate the clock tower to build a war museum there for the public and cadets of the Old War Skule.

Gallery • 3 Photos

Sam Karlin

Student veterans relax, eat, and study at the Veterans Center in Hatcher Hall on Wednesday.