The Daily Orange

Media Credit: Hua Xin

For Sgt. David Mancuso, beginning college life after serving in the military was a difficult and lonely experience.

"You don't feel like you can relate to anybody, and you don't know if there are other veterans out there," said Mancuso, a Syracuse University master's student in exercise science who served at Al-Asad Airfield, the second largest airbase in Iraq, in 2004.

But Mancuso is hopeful that the newly opened Veterans Resource Center at SU can benefit veterans.

"We can all go to the Veterans Center and hang out," Mancuso said. "It's a great place to share stories and connect with people who have had the same experiences as you."

University College held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house Wednesday at 4 p.m. to officially open the new Veterans Center, which is part of several new measures being taken on campus to aid student veterans. SU's administration in University College has been making plans to create the resource center since October 2008, Stearns said. University College is the home college for non-traditional students at Syracuse. Non-traditional students include part-time students, returning adult students and veterans.

As a veteran, Mancuso said it's hard to know about available benefits on campus. The resource center will be a place where veterans can find out about their educational and health benefits, and scholarship opportunities, Mancuso said.

"It's reassuring to know that there are people out there that are seeking the same things as you are, and now we have way to access those things," Mancuso said. "In undergrad, I had trouble accessing my benefits. You miss out on a lot of great opportunities, and you miss deadlines because you don't know opportunities are available."

At the ribbon cutting, University College Dean Bea Gonzalez gave a speech, acknowledging the importance of supporting military veterans.

"It is really important to create a space for our veteran students, so that they can feel comfortable," Gonzalez said. "What the veterans do for us, what they allow because of what they do, is to let us peacefully live our lives."

The average age of a returning veteran is 25 years old, and Gonzalez said she is proud to have the University College be the home for these students. Gonzalez also said she recognizes the importance of having a place where veterans can find one another.

Peg Stearns, University College director of financial aid, said the center will help veterans with networking. "The most important thing that veterans can find in the resource center is a fellow veteran. There are lots of other resources too, mostly literature on how to access the administration's, county and city services that are available to them and their families."

Currently the most popular areas of study among veterans are in the Whitman School of Management, the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, and the School of Social Work. Most of the veterans at Syracuse are in their late 20s to early 30s and have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, Stearns said.

Many of the university's administrative offices have been meeting to prepare for working with veterans, including the counseling, dining and health offices. They are learning how to work through the problems that could arise during the transition from military to civilian life, Stearns said.

rastrum@syr.edu

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