A Century of Honor

Military culture is deeply embedded into MTSU’s DNA, and the University has a long tradition of aiding veterans in the transition from military to civilian life.

William J. McConnell, who wrote the school’s original fight song, was among the first alumni to give their lives for their country in World War I. During World War II, President Q.M. Smith secured valuable training contracts with the military industry (which featured a hangar and tarmac in the heart of campus and became the impetus for the college’s pilottraining program.)

And when the war was over, the people who had worked and trained at MTSU used their GI Bill ® benefits to come back to campus and get educations. So many veterans enrolled that the college built barracks-style housing for former service members and their families. Thousands of MTSU students continued serving through later wars, including in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

In the 2000s, a motivated group of MTSU staffers and professors—many of whom were veterans themselves—formed a Veterans and Military Affairs Committee. They met regularly (and still do) to discuss concerns like how to deal with students and professors’ getting called to active duty midsemester. They wrote and submitted policy for University approval.

Read about MTSU’s 71 fallen heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice at mtsu.edu/military/rollofhonor

“We were very much fertile ground. We had already done a lot of the work,” said Hilary Miller, director of MTSU’s Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center and a campus pioneer on veteran outreach efforts long before the center came to fruition in 2015.

Committee fundraising to create a Veterans Memorial began in 2004, and its 2009 completion and unveiling recognizes the contributions of alumni and others who have served in the nation’s armed forces since the institution’s inception in 1911. The memorial hosts a variety of annual events honoring veterans and future military leaders. No other college campus in America boasts a similar Veterans Memorial.

In 2011, MTSU became the first institution of higher education in the state—and one of the first in the nation—to partner with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ new VetSuccess on Campus program. A VA mental health counselor was later added to expand services offered on campus. Such continuous progress paved the way for organizers to finally gain support for additional veteran-focused campus initiatives—notably a full-fledged veterans center, opened a decade ago, that became a model for other U.S. universities.

RELATED ARTICLE—A History of Service: MTSU military and Daniels Center timeline