The Mission Continues

Transitioning from military life to college is a daunting task. The bureaucracy surrounding admissions, registration, and educational benefits can be confusing and complicated.

Many veterans are older, with established careers and families, which can be isolating among classmates starting college straight out of high school.

MTSU’s 3,200-square-foot Daniels Center provides service and support for the thousands of veterans and family members who attend MTSU. Everything a student veteran needs to succeed is available through the center, from getting advice on courses and completing government paperwork to getting questions answered about benefits and employment opportunities.

Conveniently located in the Keathley University Center (and not far from where planes used to take flight and land on the campus airstrip), the Daniels Center is a one-stop shop for student veterans.

While addressing residency, prior learning assessment, and navigating the GI Bill® are still items the Daniels Center attends to, its focus has gravitated toward academic success, tapping into noneducational VA resources, and assisting with post-graduation employment opportunities.

“We are laser-focused on ensuring that our students get strong advising and degree-planning and that they make good grades,” Daniels Center Director Hilary Miller said.

The center will provide parking passes to any non-MTSU connected veterans on campus for appointments—and also helps anyone, anywhere over the phone.

During the COVID-19 pandemic period, the MTSU center never closed. Staff also turned their attention to fundraising to fill in the gaps, giving out more than $100,000 to students and the veterans community while also helping veterans from across the state and nation.

The Daniels Center is now a field office for the Tennessee Department of Veterans Services, with a second Veterans Service Officer (VSO) on site as of July 2025. The center will provide parking passes to any non-MTSU connected veterans on campus for appointments—and also helps anyone, anywhere over the phone.

Miller’s goal for the Daniels Center is that every visit or connection a veteran makes with the MTSU center is “transformational.”

“We have no recruitment mission at all,” she said. “It’s about how many people we get to their next place. What I really want is that when people come to us, that we assist them and help them achieve whatever success means for them and their family.”

One recent case involved a student whose father, a veteran, had died. While transferring to MTSU, she couldn’t understand why her benefits weren’t transferring, and Daniels Center staff discovered that her identity had been stolen. Staff worked diligently to rectify the situation while assisting with finding housing, financial aid, and even keeping the student safe.

“That’s the kind of transformational work we get to do on a daily basis over and over again,” Miller said. “It is exciting to watch as the center itself continues to transition, at all times moving toward providing better and more inclusive services—and leading the way for student veterans.”

That’s the goal of MTSU’s outreach to veterans: to transform soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, guardians, and all other men and women who have served the U.S. into that other staple of a strong nation—college graduates.