Former Gov. Pat Quinn will celebrate the creation of the University’s Center for Wounded Veterans in Higher Education at a luncheon Thursday.

According to a press release, the luncheon will be held at 12:15 p.m. at the Champaign Country Club, 1211 S. Prospect Ave. The new center opened at the beginning of the school year to help veterans with disabilities readjust to civilian life. The center will provide services to 350 veterans and 150 dependents while they attend college.

The center was partly funded through a $4 million investment from Quinn’s Illinois Jobs Now! capital construction program; the facility cost $14 million to build and is named after Ronald L. Chez, an army veteran who graduated from the University in 1962. In 2012 Chez expressed a desire to donate $6 million to wounded veterans at the University if the state also provided funds.

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