UofL is creating a new Center for Military-Connected Students that will improve the university’s ability to connect its 1,700 military-connected students with resources on campus as well as improve these students’ ability to connect with each other.
Following the renovation, the center will occupy Brodschi Hall on the university’s Belknap Campus in June 2023. The 5,000-square-foot space will enable the center to include office space for full-time center staff and flexible office space for support staff from student services areas. Additionally, in accordance with industry best practices for supporting these students, the center will include a student lounge, quiet study space and kitchen.
Kyle Hurwitz, director of military initiatives in the Office of the President, has been appointed as the center’s director. To enable the center to coordinate, facilitate and address issues across campus, the center will report through Douglas Craddock, chief of staff to the executive vice president and provost.
The center was created by combining the Office of Military and Veteran Student Services, currently housed in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, and UofL’s Fort Knox campus, currently housed in the College of Education and Human Development. Fort Knox campus staff will remain at Fort Knox but will move administratively under the center. Combined, the staff of the Center will have over 70 years of experience at UofL, including Kristen Roy, a senior program coordinator from the Office of Military and Veteran Students who have more than 40 years at UofL.
As a resource for military-connected students as well as staff and faculty who work with military-connected students, UofL launched a virtual Center for Military-Connected Students website. This site centralizes resources and information important to this population that previously were spread across multiple websites.
“We are grateful to Gov. Andy Beshear and Kentucky’s legislature for providing this support to help us serve the needs of military-connected students. We are thrilled to create this center and eager to improve how we serve this population,” UofL Interim President Lori Stewart Gonzalez said. “Military-connected students make up 8 percent of our total enrollment and more than 20 percent of our online program enrollment, so we remain committed to doing whatever we can to improve services to this student population.”
UofL has consistently demonstrated strong support for military-connected students. Several recent initiatives include the creation of a Military-Connected Student Advisory Council to build on efficiencies and share best practices in serving this population, working with the university’s sizeable veteran student population to reactivate the dormant Student Veterans Association chapter, and offering waived undergraduate and graduate application fees, and providing priority course registration.
UofL has offered a special tuition rate to active-duty members and qualifying members of the Reserves and National Guard for many years. The special rate of $250 per credit hour applies to all undergraduate programs, as well as to most graduate programs, for qualified military-connected students.
This makes UofL one of the few Carnegie Foundation-designated very-high-level research institutions to offer graduate programs at the $250 per credit hour rate to this population. This special rate is one of the main reasons UofL has more students using military tuition assistance among the 15 institutions in the Atlantic Coast Conference combined.
In fall 2022 UofL will begin offering a Salute to Service scholarship for veteran and dependent students. The scholarship was made possible thanks to generous support from the UPS Foundation.
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