The Center for Military Affiliated Students held its grand opening on Nov. 14. This center provides veteran and military-affiliated students with services available in one office location.

“Veteran and Military Affairs, what it is now, used to be four different offices,” William Lansdon, Veteran and Military Affairs program coordinator, said. “It was us, Veteran Certification, Hazelwood and the Success on Campus, which is actually a VA component that is housed on campus.”

According to Lansdon, the center not only combines the four offices into one location, but it also involves restructuring. The restructuring includes Veteran and Military Affairs working under the guidance of Air Force Colonel Lisa Carrington Firmin, associate vice president for Veteran and Military Affairs.

“We have been restructured since November of last year, but we didn’t actually physically come together until May of this year,” Lansdon said. “The reason why is because we had to do so much construction in here.”

The grand opening did not occur in May when the office was physically consolidated due to preparations for the fall semester.

“We did not want to have any event like that to impede veterans certifying for classes and getting enrolled in school,” Lansdon said. “For instance, they can’t do any certification right now because we’re in here. This is all protected information, and we want to make sure that we’re protecting the privacy of our students.”

Veteran and Military Affairs works with freshman orientation and regularly sends emails to inform veterans and military-affiliated students of the services available to them.

The Center for Military Affiliated Students is located in the John Peace Library in room 1.01.14. For more information on the services provided to veterans and military-affiliated students, visit the Veteran and Military Affairs website at www.utsa.edu/va.