The Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center celebrated a decade of service in 2025! Its grand opening was Nov. 5, 2015.
Now a major expansion is set to take place that will combine first- and third-floor spaces (bringing together all but one member of the Daniels Center’s staff, a career counselor who is embedded in the Career Center and is charged with assisting military-connected students). It will also create new space for growth, increasing the center’s square footage from 3,200 to 4,079 square feet. Construction will begin during spring break and will conclude this summer in time for the start of school.
The Charlie Daniels Legacy Wall has already been installed at the front entrance.
The University has a long tradition of aiding veterans in the transition from military to civilian life. Student enrollment now surpasses 1,200 regularly. 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.
But the Daniels Center can assist any military- connected person—no MTSU affiliation is necessary. There is no charge, either.
We serve everyone in the military community—veterans, current service members, dependents, spouses, JROTC and ROTC cadets, MTSU students, and those unaffiliated with MTSU.
This unrestricted mission has not changed since we opened the center’s doors.
The work the center does goes beyond degree-seeking. It offers employment services, mental health services, and direct connectivity to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
In addition to Daniels Center staff, two VA employees—a full-time mental health counselor and a VetSuccess on Campus counselor—and two full-time state employees, both Veterans Service Officers, are stationed at the center. We have in fact become a field office for the Tennessee Department of Veterans Services.
We also now routinely host VA benefits workshops both for the community and for companies bringing in their veterans as a group.
MTSU’s retired three-star general, Keith Huber, who retired from 38 years in the U.S. Army, 14 of them as a general officer—and the last two as a commanding general in Afghanistan—and Daniels Center Director Hilary Miller have led the center to great heights over the past decade.
Entering its second decade, the Daniels Center keeps expanding in scope, reach, funding, and physical space to help both military-connected students at MTSU and American veterans across the globe.