New center offers veteran students more centralized services and resources.
New center offers veteran students more centralized services and resources.

The Veterans Academic Resource Center (VARC) is a newly opened facility at the University of Central Florida, designed to meet the needs of and provide programming for the student veteran community. Under the direction of the Registrar’s Office, the center exists as a collaboration among the offices of Career Services, the Counseling Center, Student Disabilities Services, and Transfer and Transition Services within the Division of SDES, and provides a new home for Veteran Services. VARC has been designated as a Center for Excellence for Veteran Student Success and is partially funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education.

Located at UCF Knights Plaza/Arena across from Barnes & Noble, VARC is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays (until 5:30 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays) and provides office space along with study, tutor and lounge areas for student veterans. The facility provides greater access to virtual resources which allows staff to communicate through the latest technology with student veterans no matter where they are.

Associate University Registrar Paul Viau commented, “This is a unique and outstanding resource for the academic needs of our student veterans. UCF is now amongst a small but growing number of institutions that are reaching out to this most deserving of student populations.”