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The George Street House in the center of the Ole Miss campus welcomes student veterans home to the university, providing a one-stop shop for them to access administrative support, schedule doctors’ appointments, get help with VA disabilities, apply for services and simply relax, eat and study with other veterans.
But currently, the “study” part of the Veterans Resource Center is made more difficult by the lack of technology students need to access materials for classes and complete projects.
“We have only two computers available for all our students to use, and both are so old that they don’t function properly,” said Andrew Newby, the principal administrator for Veteran and Military Services at Ole Miss. “We’ve worked hard to make this home a welcoming place for our student veterans in every way, but we must upgrade our computer lab to make this usable to them as a study space.”
The Office of Veteran and Military Services renovated the George Street House into a welcoming home for student veterans.To celebrate Veterans Day and truly thank our student veterans for their service, please give to the Veterans Resource Center Technology Support Fund. Your gifts will go directly to buy computers, printers, a smart board, bookshelves and desks to fully outfit the house’s computer lab and study space.
Study spaces in the house and out-of-date technology still need a major upgrade.Geology major Jamie King, the president of the Student Veterans Association who served as an 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper in Iraq, said many of the computer programs he and other students use daily for classes are too advanced for the old computers currently in George Street House.
“As a university, we have resources on the SAP portal that you can use for supercomputing. Take Mathematica for example. I mean, that program is applicable to chemistry, to geology, to engineering. You can do everything with this program, but it takes so much to run it that a lot of people’s personal computers can’t do it,” King said. “So we need something here.”
Since arriving at Ole Miss fresh from the Army in 2017, King has seen the Veterans Resource Center grow to become a place of belonging.
“My first year here, I felt alienated and isolated. I was in a dark place,” King said. “The whole purpose of this house is to give students who might be feeling like I did a welcoming, secure place to find their way at the university and be successful. Everything in this house is here for a reason. I would like the computer lab to be as welcoming as the rest of the house, but be as functional as it needs to be.”
Please make a gift to our student veterans today! Every contribution has an immediate positive impact for our members of the Ole Miss family who, as King said, “put on America’s away jersey” and served for you.
The Student Veterans Association at the University of Mississippi was founded more than 100 years ago in 1920 to help integrate returning World War I veterans into the community. Veterans of every American war since then have been welcomed home at Ole Miss.
Armistice Day was celebrated on Nov. 11 every year to commemorate the end of World War I. However, in 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower established Nov. 11 as a day to celebrate veterans of all wars and peacetime service. Honor our student veterans with a gift of $54!
The George Street House, the home for the Office of Veteran and Military Services and the Student Veterans Association at Ole Miss, was built 111 years ago as a residence for the dean of the law school. Over the years, it housed sororities, faculty groups and the offices for a revolving door of departments. Named for a former university administrator, the house finally was re-dedicated to our student veterans last year.
Five years ago, the University of Mississippi was named a Purple Heart University by the Military Order of the Purple Heart for its dedication to serving the needs of veterans. The Purple Heart was first awarded 239 years ago in 1782 by George Washington. The George Street House is a symbol of the university's commitment to our student veterans. Support them today with a gift!
More than 1,300 military veterans currently study at the University of Mississippi and are served by the Office of Veteran and Military Services. Show your support for all of them with your gift!