Many greetings and smiles welcomed Congresswoman Young Kim (R-40) on her visit to Chapman on May 10 when she opened up a discussion with Chapman’s student veterans about their concerns for campus resources and space. 

California’s 40th district, of which Kim represents, includes the city of Orange and stretches from areas like Mission Viejo to Chino Hills.

Her visit to Chapman commenced at the Veterans Resource Center (VRC), where she was given a tour of the space and learned more about the VRC’s concerns. The VRC is located at 526 N. Shaffer St., about a six minute walk from the university. Veteran and military-connected students can come to the VRC to receive resources and help with their VA benefits. 

Kim then made her way to the Leatherby Entrepreneurship Center for Business Ethics, which is located at 549 W. Palm Ave and provides the veteran students with a place to gather. 

There, Chapman veteran students in attendance introduced themselves to Kim. Veterans Club President Karla “Roxie” Arce moderated a discussion amongst Kim and veteran students. 

Kim states her commitment to Chapman’s veteran population

Kim emphasized her devotion to help Chapman’s veteran population.

“I also want you to understand that I am a wife and sister of a veteran myself,” Kim said. “So, helping veterans is very, very important to me, and it's very personal to me. So, I'll do everything I can in terms of helping the veterans. I pay a lot of attention to the healthcare issue.”

Kim mentioned that she supported the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022, and according to Congress’ summary, it “addresses health care, presumption of service-connection, research, resources and other matters related to veterans who were exposed to toxic substances during military service.”

“(The Honoring our PACT Act) was very important for the individuals who served during combat,” Kim said at the event. “Especially those areas that would give the veterans the exposure to toxins. And then helping to make sure that the active duty veterans understand that they can sign up for healthcare so that there is no lapse once you've been discharged from the time that you are qualified to get the access.”

 Kim stated she wants to partner with Chapman’s student veterans.

“As your representative here, I want to be able to offer our office’s service, resources,” Kim said. “And then help elevate really important services that you provide so more people know about it. That's at a minimum what I can do.”

Attendees discuss the veterans’ concern for space on campus with Young Kim

Also in attendance were Cynthia West, the director of Chapman’s Leatherby Center, along with VRC Director Steve Leader and Student Veterans of America representatives from Cypress College and Irvine Valley College. Members of Chapman’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) office, including DEI Vice President Reginald Chhen Stewart and Director for LGBTQ Pride and Achievement Kevin Nguyen-Stockbridge, were also present.

Stewart told Kim that the DEI office is “always trying to learn ways to better serve all of our students, so we're here to learn.”

“I'm actually glad that you're here,” Kim said to DEI Vice President Stewart.

She went on to discuss the current VRC location’s small size.

“Your main office is very tiny, and I know the challenges of what you have to deal with, especially when you're trying to address and serve the veteran population on campus,” Kim said. “And much of it obviously has to do with a lot of private personal information. It's just like counseling offices, right? You want to be able to respect the privacy of those individuals so they can come and have a very frank, open, honest dialogue.”

Kim said she will do her part to bring the veterans’ concerns about the VRC to the Board of Trustees and community leaders’ attention. She also recognized that because Chapman is a private university, there is a limitation to how much the government can do.

“And that's really what we're looking for,” Arce told Kim. “It's more advocacy on our behalf. As student veterans, we can only do so much. Sometimes, it feels like we're saying, ‘Well, we did all this, so we deserve that.’ And that's not necessarily the case because of the things that we have experienced and the services that we provided to our country. We're not asking for handouts, but we're asking for support so that way we can be viable to the rest of society.”

Arce chimed in on behalf of the student veterans at Chapman.

She continued: “A lot of us came from community colleges, and having those spaces really affirmed our position here as well as our transition into civilian life. And with our space here at Chapman University being 231 square feet, it doesn't quite meet that with all of our challenges and obstacles that we've had in place. So, we really do appreciate you coming and speaking with us and having this dialogue showing that we have support of our community, that our partners here have come to support our community and continue to advocate for us, so thank you.”

Arce mentioned Leader’s limitations as VRC director, having to juggle various tasks for Chapman’s military-connected and veteran students. 

DEI Vice President Stewart shared with Kim the university’s plans to offer veteran students an adequate and accessible space in the future.

“We're building a student achievement center, and I'm on that planning committee,” Stewart said. “And there's not a single meeting that I'm in that we don't talk about the Veterans Resource Center in that meeting, so it's just important to know. But that's a 2029, 2030 solution, so you have to sort of reverse engineer between that and now.

Stewart continued: “ I think it's important to sort of articulate that that's on the leading edge of that conversation, both for disability and for veterans. But to get to that place and what do we do for all of the people who are coming through graduating interim? So as long as I think your argument is positioned, that's an important part of it. It's a 2024 to when that center opens conversation.”

A discussion on profanity

Director West mentioned her concern of profanity when Chapman veterans gather at Leatherby. Those in attendance laughed in agreement that swearing is part of the military culture. She also explained to Kim why Leatherby cannot become the location for a new VRC.

“One of the first conversations that Steven Leader and I had was he was saying, ‘We need a place where we can hang out and be ourselves.’ And then they brought up the cursing and swearing. I said, ‘Well, we do have students that are 17, 18 years old, and they're coming from a very different place. And so, we can't let everything hang out all the time. It is a campus. So I mean, it's not going to be a dedicated VRC because we have classes Monday through Thursday.”

Director West continued to explain her conversation with Leader to Kim.

“When he went down the whole, ‘We just wanna let everything all hang out,’ I think the dean would have issue if there's some 18-year-old from some rural zone who seemed very intimidated by all these very strong, commanding personalities swearing and carrying on and letting everything hang out,” West said.

Director West said that even though Leatherby isn’t an official location for student veterans, they’re still welcome to study there.

Veterans share their personal thoughts on Chapman’s veteran services

A veteran student who attended the discussion offered Young Kim his own perspective.

“Just to offer a perspective on what it's been like before this year, I transferred here (in) spring 2022,” the veteran student said to Kim. “And so, since spring of 2022 — it's about a year and a half — I didn't really have any friends on campus. I have my friends outside of campus, but it was very much a transactional-style relationship where I showed up, I got my homework, I got my lessons, and then I left, and the VA foot the bill. But up until this point, I haven't had anywhere to go on campus. I haven't had anybody to talk to, or even though I knew who Steve was, I didn't know where the VRC was.”

The student continued: “The campus tours — they don't even go by the VRC — so if you're a student veteran and you're coming in trying to figure out what campus is like, you're not really going to get the veteran experience.”

He also added that the student veterans want to begin starting their own campus tours for incoming and prospective Chapman students who are veterans and military-connected. The attendee also shed more light onto the Chapman veteran experience and reiterated the importance of an available space for veterans to congregate.

“We have a mentorship program here in the veteran community,” he said. “And one of my mentees is dealing with the feeling right now. He's a newer student. He's just having that issue of he doesn't know where to go. He spends a lot of time just in his car in the parking structure because he doesn't know where to go. And that's not what veterans should have when they're here. That's what no student should have. You shouldn't feel like the only safe place on campus is your car which is under the football field. That's the reason why we're having these conversations.”

Another veteran student brought up accessibility concerns regarding transportation because many veterans face mobility challenges. Director West said that she timed the distance between campus and the Leatherby Center, which according to her, is a seven minute walk. She also noted that the buses come by every 20 minutes, but students need to request to be dropped off at Leatherby.

Kim’s final promises

Kim told the veteran students that two members of Chapman’s Board of Trustees met with her.

“I'm happy to just let them know that I've visited with you guys, have this conversation (and) understand the challenges you have and from the faculty and leadership perspective,” Kim said. “You are already looking into the future, but it doesn't come until four, five years later. So we're going to just constantly talk about it. As I mentioned earlier, if you have events going on related to the veterans population, please invite me.”

The next major event for military-connected and veteran students at Chapman will be a student-led orientation in either late August or early September.