A statement from CMU President Tim Foster
Universities wouldn't exist as we know them today if not for veterans of the United States. This fact is worth contemplating on Veterans Day 2019.CMU serves more than 400 service women and men from all branches of the nation's armed services. Each of these student veterans have made material sacrifices. The ongoing commitment of veterans to defending the moral ethic within the Declaration of Independence allows equality of opportunity to increase for people as the history of the nation unfolds.
Service member veterans of CMU have lost friends. They have lost limbs and mobility. They have compromised mental health and well-being. They have missed holidays with family. They experienced the birth of their child through pictures. They celebrated their wedding anniversary over video chat. They engaged years of service while those they grew up with went to college, or worked and built businesses living in the relative tranquility and safety of civil society.
Today Maverick veterans deserve more than platitudes. They deserve reflection on the connection between the role they play fighting anti-academic forces like poverty, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, radical populism and shallow, unexamined ideologies. Fighting these forces in the world afford us the rare luxury of free expression — the extent of which exists almost nowhere else in the world today or in history. That means today, student veterans deserve a handshake, a hug or thank you as we pass them on our way to and from class.
On November 16, CMU will honor veterans during the football game at Stoker Stadium and we hope that veterans, community, students, faculty and alumni join us for that moment.