Student veterans will soon have a place on campus to call home.
The space for a new Veterans Student Learning Center is the first room to be dedicated solely to student veterans at Cal State Long Beach.
College of Engineering Dean Forouzan Golshani gathered faculty, staff and student veterans at Engineering Building 2 for a preview of the room last week.
“It is important that [student veterans] can find one another and to have a place to go so they can be around people who have the same [military] background,” Golshani said.
He also felt it was necessary for student veterans to get the chance to form an alliance like other student clubs on campus.
“Here at the College of Engineering, I’m interested in developing all of our students,” he said. “Veterans are just another student group that come with us with quite a bit of maturity and experience in technology.”
Golshani began taking interest in student veterans when he took part in helping disabled students years ago. During his time with disabled students, he found out that many of them were veterans who had trouble transitioning from being a soldier to a student.
Golshani said the average age of a student veteran is around 27, so they experience college differently than students who attend college immediately after high school.
“We need to be cognitive of those perimeters,” he said.
The 180-square-foot room is located at EN2-302. It currently contains a couple of chairs and a fold-out table borrowed from neighbors and supporters.
COE Student Veteran Ambassador Lee Lim, who is in charge of creating a comfortable atmosphere for the room, is still waiting to acquire second-hand surplus furniture from the university. He said the “hurdle” of obtaining furniture is holding up the center’s grand opening but hopes the center can officially open this semester.
Completing his first semester as a transfer student, Lim said he never expected to see a center for veterans.
“This isn’t a new infrastructure, but it’s a space for student veterans to come together for support,” Golshani said, adding that he hopes a philanthropist will take interest in the center.
Lim envisions the center as a “sanctuary” for student veterans and plans to collect military photographs from student veterans to fill the blank walls.
“A lot of the public, when they think of the military, they think about planes flying and bombs dropping,” he said. “There are other kinds of pictures we have taken over there and we want people to walk by and think, ‘That’s interesting; there’s some soldier standing next to a Middle Eastern boy,’ or maybe a veteran can say, ‘Hey, I think I’ve been there.’ “
The center’s appearance may still be a work in progress, but Lim said the purpose of the space is already being fulfilled.
“A vet came in yesterday while I was doing my homework and we just talked for hours,” he said. “We talked about life in general and it’s really cool because that’s exactly what this room is supposed to be for.”
Golshani said he hopes other deans will consider being proactive in helping their student veterans succeed.
“I know whatever we do with this center will determine the future of other student veterans in other colleges,” Lim said.
Although the center is built mainly for COE student veterans, Lim said he wouldn’t turn anyone away.
“It would be unfortunate if [the university] neglected [student veterans],” Golshani said.
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