As more veterans enroll each semester at the University of Akron, school officials expect a new lounge formally opened Monday to take on greater importance in campus life for those who once wore the uniform of their country.“We are reaching out to the more than 50,000 Ohio service members who will be returning home in the next several years,” said Dr. Karla Mugler, UA’s associate vice president, integrated student experience, during the formal opening Monday of the Musson Veterans Lounge on the third floor at InfoCision Stadium.The opening of the room, where veterans can socialize and study, was welcome news to UA freshman Jon Heath, 26, of Hartville.“It’s hard to study in the library,” said Heath, an Army veteran who served two tours in Iraq and is majoring in electrical engineering at UA.“It gets loud. Here, you can run off to the corner and do what you have to do.”Donations for the lounge, which includes an endowment for maintenance and other programs, came to $363,000, including a $220,000 gift from the R.C. Musson and Katharine M. Musson Charitable Foundation, university officials said.The Musson foundation has been a donor to UA since 1989.Other organizations and individuals making donations were Northern Ohio Golf Charities, the Charles E. and Mabel M. Ritchie Memorial Foundation, the Blair Family Foundation, Lt. Gen. Paul T. and. Janis L. Mikolashek, Guy M. Cecchini, Lawrence E. Chapanar, Eric B. Vermillion, Marlene K. Toot and Ellen Perduyn.Jay Musson is a trustee for the Musson Foundation and a member of the University of Akron Foundation board of directors, a UA graduate and a Vietnam veteran. He said Vietnam Veterans of America has a motto that “never will a generation of veterans abandon another,” so this lounge is critically important.“The university’s goal is to become the most veteran-friendly” school in Ohio, said Musson, who received a Purple Heart in Vietnam.He works for the VA in Cleveland and is a descendant of John R. Buchtel, who founded Buchtel College, which became UA. His great-uncle was the grandson of Buchtel’s sister, Harriett Buchtel Musson.Military-friendly schoolUA announced this month that G.I. Jobs magazine has for the third year in a row designated the school as a “military-friendly school.”Along with the lounge, UA has a Military Services Center that is staffed by experts who work to assist veterans; a Military Veterans Association; the Veterans Office in UA Adult Focus and a Veterans Steering Committee.There are about 1,400 veterans enrolled at the university.Pre-med sophomore Victoria Barrientos, 23, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, Qatar and Yemen and continues her military career as an Army Reservist, said having a place where veterans can gather will be helpful.She said veterans are looking for the camaraderie they had while on active duty and the lounge is a place where that kind of tight friendship can be formed.“Here we are able to form that again and help each other coming into society,” she said, “Not having anyone to lean on is very difficult.”Alexander Payne, 28, is a public affairs officer for the Military Veterans Association, an Army veteran who served 3› years in Iraq and a mechanical engineering technology major. He said the new lounge shows UA supports its veterans.Heath, who served with the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, is happy to be a student and is looking forward to graduating and getting into the work force. But he said his time in the service was something he cherishes.“I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” he said.Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or at jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.