The News Site of Fresno City College

The Rampage Online

The News Site of Fresno City College

The Rampage Online

The News Site of Fresno City College

The Rampage Online

Veteran’s Resource Center set to open

Although the opening of Fresno City College’s Veteran’s Resource Center has been delayed since last semester, it now has a tentative opening date in the fall 2014 semester. In addition, the Veteran’s Office is planning to expand services offered to student veterans in the upcoming semester.

FCC Veteran’s counselor and founding member of FCC’s Veterans Association Mario Reposo highlighted the importance of the upcoming services for veterans.

 “These are our brothers, sisters, sons and daughters that have given, at minimum four years and much of their youth in service to our country,” he said.  “Society owes them the opportunity to heal and re-enter civilian life with as few obstacles as possible.”

The Veterans Resource Center will be located in the old Business Office on the west side of FCC’s campus. According to members of FCC’s Veterans Association, it would be a place where student veterans could go to receive help for their academic needs, find out about local resources, receive help with applying for benefits as well as create a community support group where the veterans could get help with needs that arise during their time at FCC.

The establishment of the Veteran’s Resource Center has had a number of setbacks since it was first announced, according Reposo.

“[The Veteran’s Resource Center] was supposed to open last semester but it keeps being pushed back,” said Reposo.

However, a tentative date of November 2014 has been set for the Veteran’s Resource Center’s opening, according to Reposo.

The opening of the Veteran’s Resource Center couldn’t come at a more needed time, as the needs of the student veterans are only expected to increase. According to a September 2011 report by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, entitled “Connecting Military Service and Civilian Life,” California’s veteran population of over 2.2 million exceeds that of any other state.

FCC’s Veterans Association is a campus organization composed of students, staff and faculty; The Veterans Association describes its mission as “to serve as a permanent and stable advocacy organization for student veterans and to ensure that FCC’s educational environment is in-tune with the needs of our student veterans.”

As of fall of 2011, over 26,600 veterans have enrolled in California community colleges – and that number is expected to grow as the Iraq War has ended and the war in Afghanistan is winding down, according to the same report.

The Veteran’s Resource Center would consolidate the existing services provided on campus, according to FCC Veterans Association President and Financial Aid Department Secretary Josephine Llanos.

In addition, agencies currently providing services for veteran students off campus could provide them at the Veteran’s Resource Center. “There’ll be outside agencies connected to veterans, for example [the Department of Veteran’s Affairs], who will come in and offer the services on our campus,” Llanos said.

But while the opening of the Veteran’s Resource Center will be a big step in making the FCC campus more veteran-friendly, there is still work that needs to be done to make people aware of veteran’s needs and how to be sensitive to those needs, according to Disabled Students Program and Services counselor Sam Alvarado.

One issue in particular, Alvarado notes, is that veteran’s sometime face difficulties in classrooms because their disability is not always visible.

“When someone comes in and [the instructor] can’t see the disability, they assume that there isn’t one,” Alvarado said.

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