Midwestern State University hosted a construction kickoff celebration for its Military Education Center at the Bridwell Activities Center Monday.
The center will serve as a centralized support hub for services to military-affiliated students and their families.
“Our goal, obviously, is to ensure that those students process, stage and go on to a life well-lived,” MSU President Stacia Haynie said. “But it’s also so that this community becomes a destination where people want to be stationed.”
She thanked the individuals, government leaders and foundations who she said made the project a reality.
“The generosity of this community cannot be overstated,” she said.
Brig. Gen. Paul Filcek, installation commander at Sheppard Air Force Base, said even if only one out of 10 airmen and their families returns to Wichita Falls to make it their permanent home, they will have made “a significant difference. They will have made a difference for the defense of our nation.”
When operational, the center will offer services that involve admissions, registration, financial aid, veterans’ benefits, academic advising and technological support services.
It will be located on the second floor of the Bridwell Center in an 11,000 square-foot space that had remained unfinished.
Haynie said the cost of construction will be about $4 million. The city of Wichita Falls Economic Development Corporation chipped in $1 million, and the city’s Sales Tax Corporation provided another $1 million.
The Bridwell Foundation contributed $1 million in cash and pledged another $1 million.
Haynie said about $850,000 has been pledged in scholarships. The state will pay for salaries, she said.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: MSU celebrates construction of military center on campus
Reporting by Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News / Wichita Falls Times Record News
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