The three-story, 4,700-square-foot center at Brodschi Hall features a study room, lounge and meeting space, a lactation room and offices for five full-time staff. There is also flexible office space for support staff to assist military-connected students from the center, kitchenettes and ADA-compliant restrooms with a shower.

Outside, there is a 20-foot flagpole flying the American flag and a Prisoner of War/Missing in Action flag and an ADA-compliant picnic bench.

The Center for Military-Connected Students was renovated using $600,000 in state funds. The Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs is using the center as a model for other state institutions, and the center has hosted visits from institutions as far away as California.

“This ribbon-cutting marks the achievement of a long-term goal of creating a dedicated and welcoming space to serve these students, who make up more than 10 percent of UofL’s student population,” said Kim Schatzel, president of UofL. “I want to thank Gov. Andy Beshear, state Rep. Kevin Bratcher and the rest of the legislature for providing the funding to enable this project. But even while we celebrate this achievement, we remain committed to continually improving how we serve this important population.”

The next phase of the renovation includes a dedicated space for UofL’s chapter of the Student Veterans of America, an additional study room and lending library in the basement. The basement will also feature a TV, pool table and foosball table for students.

Among the center’s key functions include identifying and tracking military-connected students, policy advocacy, advising use of and processing Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) education benefits, and Military Tuition Assistance processing and residency coding. It also performs undergraduate admissions actions for currently serving members, veterans and dependents using VA education benefits, and advocacy and assistance for graduate admissions.

The center, which moved into Brodschi Hall in October, was formed in 2022 by merging the Office of Military and Veteran Student Services (formerly part of Undergraduate Admissions) and the university’s Fort Knox campus (formerly part of the College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development).

Directed by U.S. Air Force veteran Kyle Hurwitz, the center was cited as a factor in UofL earning the 2023 “Gold” designation from Military Friendly. Of the more than 1,800 participating institutions, UofL was among one of only 33 Carnegie Designated Tier 1 Research institutions in the nation to earn this designation. This recognition highlights the institution’s “commitment, effort and success in creating sustainable and meaningful benefits for the military community.”

Through the center and this new space, the university will increase military-connected student persistence and success rates, as well as enhance their higher education experience through innovation, accessibility, connection and appreciation,” Hurwitz said. “We hope it will be the national model for empowering and supporting military-connected student success.”

Its goal is to improve UofL’s ability to address the academic, financial, physical and social needs of students who are active-duty service members, in the National Guard and the Reserves, are veterans or dependents or who are Army Reserve Officer Training Corps or Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets.

There are currently 2,356 military-connected students enrolled at UofL.

View pictures from the ribbon cutting ceremony of .��

“They’re kind of consumed with the computer instead of having eye contact on you,” said Dr. Jason Saleem, a researcher and assistant professor at the University of Louisville J.B. Speed School of Engineering.

But Saleem is trying to fix that through design. He worked with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to test whether their new exam room design would positively impact patient care. The new design mounts the computer monitor to the wall with a moveable arm, rather than stationary in the corner.

“The VA has a new emphasis on veteran experience,” said Dr. Jennifer Herout, who was on the VA advisory board for the project. “And Dr.��Saleem’s work is one important aspect of outpatient visit experience.”

Backed by a grant from the , Saleem’s team tested the idea by setting up model exam rooms in UofL’s Center for Ergonomics, where Saleem is also the director. One room had the new design, and another had a “legacy” design where the computer was stationary in the corner of the room.

The team tested the rooms on 28 volunteer primary care physicians to see how the changes affected their efficiency, errors, mental workload, amount of screen sharing with the patient, eye gaze on the patient, situation awareness and workflow integration.

In the test, the rooms showed little difference in terms of physician efficiency, errors and time spent with the patient. But the new layout did show significant improvement in patient-centricity measures.

For example, doctors spent 75 percent more time sharing the computer screen with their patients in the room with the new layout than they did in the model legacy room, allowing patients to more actively participate in their own care.

“…previous research indicates that patients have better outcomes when they are more involved in the delivery of their own care,” said Dustin Weiler, who worked on the project while completing his master’s degree at UofL. He’s also the lead author on the resulting paper, published in IISE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors.

The UofL research also showed that physicians had a reduced cognitive load (down 31 percent) when using the new room design, because of the closer proximity of the computer screen in relation to the patient. They also gave higher ratings for situational awareness (up 14 percent) and workflow integration (up 17 percent).

The team repeated the lab tests in a follow-up field study at the Phoenix VA Medical Center, which has already implemented the new exam room design in one of its clinics. That test yielded very similar results and support for the new exam room design.

“While much of the focus in healthcare lately has been on technology, the physical configuration in which the technology is located is critical to its successful use,” Herout said.

Saleem is now working on a new grant application to extend this research into ways to optimize the exam room layout in the patient-centered medical home model of care. He’s hoping to work with several health care sites across the U.S., including some clinics at UofL.

Listen to Saleem’s .��