Cottage becomes service outpost for university’s veterans

Before this semester, the Roudebush Cottage was used for the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program on campus, but it now serves as the UNC Veteran Services center.

The new location has been open for about a month, and an open house hosted Tuesday at the cottage.

"The reason we're holding the open house is because it's a big kick-off," said Laucas DeKinder, the assistant registrar for Veteran and Military Services. "This is a new facility for veterans on campus. It's very unique to the area — to the nation really."

DeKinder noted that before now, there hasn't been one place for veterans to find out about the benefits they receive, making it difficult to take full advantage of what's given to them.

"We have more veterans that are coming back to school now, and it's important to have a place for them," DeKinder said. "Their benefits are really unique; their education benefits will pay for school, so they need a place to kind of figure out how to get all that taken care of, so they can start getting money and going to school."

In addition to providing a central location for veterans, the center also gives them a place to study and socialize. There is a lounge, a study room and free wireless Internet.

Jenn Orona, a sophomore elementary education major who served twice in Iraq, said the center has really helped her become familiar with the benefits available.

"When I first came here freshman year first semester, this office wasn't conceptualized, and it's really hard to figure out the benefits to get paid correctly, to understand the system — even coming to school was hard because I am a non-traditional student," Orona said. "It's hard to be a part of campus, and so the office has (...) made it so much more navigable."

Konrad Schlarbaum, a sophomore recreation and tourism major who is also a veteran, said he also thought the center was helpful in getting situated on campus.

"It centralizes the information pool where you can go to find out about the benefits that you have that you've earned, and also where you can go to know more about your medical benefits or jobs or housing around Greeley," Schlarbaum said. "It's not only a campus thing, it's a community thing."

Orna said it has been nice to meet other veterans who attend the University of Northern Colorado; however, she also said she doesn't really fit in with the traditional students.

"It's so wonderful the school made the commitment to help the veteran student's, and it's made a big difference," she said.