Ret. U.S. Army Gen. George Casey Honoring Graduating Veterans at Columbia University

Ret. U.S. Army Gen. George Casey to Speak at Columbia University Graduation

NEW YORK, May 4, 2012—Ret. Gen. George W. Casey, the 36^th U.S. Army chief of staff and the commanding general for Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2004-2007, will be an honorary guest and give brief remarks at Columbia University School of General Studies graduation on May 13 at 9 a.m. in New York City. Casey’s attendance is a way to honor the 41 U.S. Military veterans graduating—the largest number of undergraduate veterans to graduate from Columbia University since the period following World War II.

Casey, who was commissioned through the Georgetown University Army ROTC following his graduation in 1970, said he is humbled to recognize student-veterans at this remarkable moment in their lives.

"I am honored to be present for the graduation of the largest number of veteran undergraduates from Columbia since World War II. The leadership skills that these men and women received in the military and the education that they received from Columbia have prepared them to lead this country into a complex, uncertain and demanding future. I applaud Columbia for its efforts to make world-class educational opportunities available to our veterans,” Casey said.
  

The 41 U.S. Military veteran-graduates are a part of a veteran community of more than 210 at Columbia GS—a college founded in 1947 largely to accommodate returning servicemembers from World War II—and of more than 450 at Columbia.  The Columbia student-veteran population is the largest in the Ivy League and one of the largest in the nation.

In addition to having the largest student-veteran population in the Ivy League, Columbia GS is one of the U.S. Marine Corps Leadership Scholar Program’s founding members and was also one of the first schools to participate in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Yellow Ribbon Program where up to 300 eligible student-veterans continue receive $7,000 per year matched by the VA.

The School of General Studies of Columbia University is a liberal arts college in the United States created specifically for students with nontraditional backgrounds seeking a rigorous, traditional, Ivy League undergraduate degree full- or part-time. GS students take the same courses, with the same faculty, and earn the same degree as all other Columbia undergraduates.

 (Photo: Official DoD photo, Photo by Monica King, U.S. Army, released)