Recognition for Violet Veterans Part of Broader Effort
In a ceremony in Schwartz Plaza today, veterans from among NYU’s students, faculty, staff and alumni came together to unveil a monument recognizing the courage, service, and sacrifice of members of the University community who have served as members of the Armed Forces since the school’s founding in 1831.
In spite of having several hundred students who are veterans, having thousands of alumni veterans, and educating more vets on the GI Bill than any other university in the aftermath of World War II, NYU’s Greenwich Village campus lacked any monument to its veterans until recently.
The installation of the plaque today was meant to set that right. It also serves as a sign of NYU’s increasing efforts to support veterans, which in recent months include:
- Announcing in May 2016 that NYU would triple its “Yellow Ribbon” scholarship grants to vets to $10,000/year
- Increasing the size of “Yellow Ribbon” grants in several grad schools
- Removing restrictions on the number of “Yellow Ribbon” recipients accepted by the business and nursing schools
- A $15 million gift from the Fertitta family for scholarships for vets in the Stern School of Business
- A gift from the Schultz Family Foundation to support veterans who want to pursue social work degrees
Provost Katherine Fleming, who presided at the ceremony, said, “There’s a good feeling in taking care of something that’s overdue. But beyond giving credit and recognition where it is due, as valuable as that is, today’s occasion is emblematic of a something even more important: a renewed focus by NYU on its veteran community.”