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School of General Studies students John McClelland and Sean O’Keefe were sitting in a Starbucks in mid-July when they came up with an idea.
Both veterans of the U.S. Army, McClelland and O’Keefe had seen their classmate Brendan Rooney take a leave of absence from Columbia after he could no longer afford tuition. With a new program that gives student veterans a full tuition break at participating private universities—now including Columbia—Rooney has been able to re-enroll this year, and will graduate in 2011. A program like this, they decided, needed an inauguration.
Under the Yellow Ribbon Program, which is a part of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act, an institution could provide the student veteran with a tuition waiver or grant, which would then be matched by the Department of Veteran Affairs. The entire student tuition would be covered.
McClelland and O’Keefe, the vice president and president of the U.S. Military Veterans of Columbia, respectively, went knocking on doors in D.C. this summer to drum up enthusiasm from policy-makers. Closer to home, they appealed to the School of General Studies and central administration for their support. They were persistent.
“We knocked on Sen. [Frank] Lautenberg’s door no less than three times,” McClelland said. Lautenberg (D-New Jersey), was ideal for their keynote speaker. As a Columbia alum and veteran of the Army Signal Corps, Lautenberg was able to attend Columbia with aid from the 1944 GI Bill, which footed the tuition for those returning from World War II. He graduated from the School of Business in 1949.
McClelland and O’Keefe’s perseverance paid off. On Thursday evening, Lautenberg addressed a room full of Columbia students past and present who had served in the military and would now see their school become a little more accessible for others in uniform.
With an emphasis on exploring the student veteran identity, the evening stressed the importance of a different kind of classroom diversity: the diversity of experience.
“Veterans contribute something unique to the intellectual discourse in the classroom,” GS Dean Peter Awn said.
The inauguration was held in the newly re-opened Faculty House, and attendees mingled in a mix of uniforms and formal dress.
Rory Minnis, a GS student who served in the Marine Corps and who will be graduating in 2011, said he had dreamed of going to Columbia since high school. But as a Marine Corp who enlisted at 17, he never imagined he would be able to attend free of charge.
“All the people who spoke and the words that were said made me so proud of the service that I’ve accomplished and the service of my fellow veterans here, and just how amazing it is to be part of this community. I’m stunned right now,” Minnis said.
“It shows that they’re actually taking a leap of faith and giving back to the veteran community, which is big, seeing that we were willing to sacrifice for them,” Rooney noted.
As for Lautenberg, he said the opportunity to attend Columbia turned his life around and laid the groundwork for his success.
“I came from a poor family, I was accustomed to blue collar living, and I never believed what life could be like until I went to Columbia,” Lautenberg explained after his speech.
He was surrounded by student veterans wearing matching blue pins with a new insignia, one that would comprehensively represent their accomplishments at Columbia as well as their service in the military. Awn told them they were to be worn with their cap and gowns when the students would finally go up to collect their diplomas.
Lautenberg glanced around: “It was here that I learned that there was more out there than that which I saw from behind the candy counter, you know?”
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