Ashland University alumna Deborah Liebert Karl has made a $1 million donation to the university to fund the construction of a resource center for students that are military veterans.

The resource center is an effort to aid with the academic and personal needs of military veterans while they pursue their education at Ashland University.

“(The resource center) will provide for a place where veterans can come and get all of their academic and co-academic needs met,” University President Carlos Campo said.

The facility will be equipped with offices and conference spaces, a veteran’s lounge, and two studio apartments that will allow for veteran students to register for classes, receive academic advising, apply for financial aid, and provide an option for transitional housing.

Although the location of the facility is in the preliminary stages, administration has decided to make the brethren offices the ideal location for the construction of the resource center.

“Our current plan is to take over that building and reconstruct it,” Campo said.

However, the location is subject to change within the proceeding months.

The resource center is set to be open for commission in the fall of 2018.

Campo credits Karl’s motivation for donating for the resource center to her involvement with military services at Ohio State University, and her desire to provide the same services to military veterans attending her alma mater.

The university is still seeking input from current Ashland military students to further supply the resource center with the resources they need.

“We’re still in the formative stages, we want to get some military students together and talk to them about what their needs might be,” Campo said.

Karl has an impactful history of donating to Ashland University, prior to her $1 million gift she donated $250,000 to renovate the tennis courts used by the AU women’s tennis team.

“She funded that entirely and she gave us an endowment so that we can keep that maintained over the years,” Campo said.
Campo believes Karl’s donation for the veterans resource center will increase the university’s effort in providing aid to military students.

“We are hoping that this center will launch our greater intentionality,” Campo said.

In addition, an increase in university staff members with a military background can help further the assimilation of veteran students.

“The truth is we can be better, and part of it is having experts. People that are tuned to those things,” Campo said. “We need to hire people with a background in the military, so they understand what the assimilation process entails.”

The resource center in its entirety allows for Ashland University to reward its military students for their service to the country.

“We have at Ashland for so long believed that our military are our heroes. These are people who have committed their lives to help protect our country, so we want to honor them,” Campo said.