Liberty University opens new Veterans Center for fall semester

LYNCHBURG (WSLS 10) - Liberty University is opening a new center for veterans this semester to support them as they make the transition from active duty into the classroom.

Currently, there are more than 900 veterans on-campus.

Student veteran Drew Novy says when he left the military, he didn't know if civilian life would be for him.

"When you're getting out of the military, there's a lot of people who are highly encouraged to re-enlist, only because you hear of all these stories of people who just didn't make it, and that's what's really great is Liberty University and the Office of Military Affairs really helps make it a smooth transition," said Novy.

The Office of Military Affairs has been a staple at the university for years, helping thousands like Novy, but he says until this year, getting organized was difficult.

"We had military affairs office in a different building and we would have to go to that office. We didn't necessarily have a center for veterans to meet, we would kind of meet on our own, with each other," said Novy.

Now, the brand new Montview Student Union has a "Veterans Center" built right in.

With it comes several new services.

"It's a place where we can get together and have that community, which is always really important. It's also a staging area, a meeting area, for when we go and do service initiatives off-campus," said Military Student Liason Jon Norman.

It also provides a place for staff to communicate with Liberty's more than 30 thousand online student veterans.

"We have such a big community of military that are online, we now have access to essentially through video, where we can Skype with them and have them inside the Veterans Center, we can communicate with them that way," said Novy.

Also new this semester, the school is pairing veterans with faculty mentors, working through the new office to help students better achieve their career goals.

"We just really feel that this dedicated space is really showing the high esteem that Liberty holds for its military veterans," said Novy.