October 28, 2025

Area veterans are invited to be honored at a ceremony on Monday, Nov. 10 that kicks off a day-long series of events at Columbus State University commemorating Veterans Day. The ceremony and many of the events that follow are open to all members of the campus and the greater Columbus community.

The ceremony begins at 10 a.m. in the University Hall Auditorium [map] on CSU’s Main Campus. Col. Corey Woods, deputy chief of staff of the Maneuver Center for Excellence at Fort Benning, will share his two decades of military experience as the guest speaker. The ceremony will also feature the ROTC Cougar Battalion and a musical performance by Schwob School of Music graduate student Noel Lewandowski. During the ceremony, Maj. Gen. (ret.) Pat Donahoe, CSU’s chief operating officer and a former U.S. Army Fort Moore commanding general, will recognize veterans in attendance.

"With gratitude for the courage of our past and hope for the promise of tomorrow, we honor our veterans—whose service shapes our freedom and inspires our future,” explained Kimberly Scranage (pictured), the university’s chief student experience officer.

“The veterans who study on our campus, who teach in our classrooms, who hang their CSU degrees on their walls, and who live and serve in Columbus enrich our university and community in numerous ways,” she continued. “We look forward to honoring their contributions to Columbus State, the Chattahoochee Valley, and our nation."

Events following the ceremony and open to the public include:

• 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Military-Connected Student Services Open House, 117 Schuster Student Success Center [map]: active-duty personnel, veterans, retirees and their families can learn about educational opportunities, military-specific student support programs, and how to maximize their military educational tuition benefits.
• 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Books & Bites Veterans Day Experience, Whitley Clock Tower grounds [map]: show off your skills and experience life as a soldier through the Obstacle Course Challenge and MRE tasting. Other activities will include a military archive display by the university’s Archives & Special Collections, as well as sno-cones and other refreshments.
• 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., Green Zone Training, 130 Schuster Student Success Center [map]: training that helps CSU faculty and staff meet the unique needs of military-connected students and contribute to their academic, career and military-to-civilian transition success. Employees can register by emailing Susan Lovell.

This year’s Veterans Day program complements the Col. Richard R. Hallock Endowment for Military History’s year-round focus on understanding the military, those who serve in it, the wars it fights and its place in U.S. culture. Hallock Endowment programs span students’ academic studies in the Department of History, Geography & Philosophy, community lectures and panels on military history, and military history preservation by CSU’s Archives & Special Collections.

For over a decade, Columbus State has been recognized by MilitaryFriendly.com as a military-friendly institution. CSU is currently a Gold Status university among small, public military-friendly schools and recently ranked as a Top-10 Military Spouse-Friendly School for the first time. CSU is also the only small public college in Georgia currently with these honors.

Special military-connected opportunities are available to traditional-aged and Green to Gold students through the university’s ROTC program. Additionally, graduates of all of the U.S. Army’s Captains Career Courses and its Sergeant Majors Academy can apply pre-approved transfer credits from their military studies toward fully online master’s degrees in the university’s organizational leadership, public administration or strategic communication management programs.

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Media contact: Michael Tullier, APR, Executive Director of Strategic Communication + Marketing, 706.507.8729, mtullier@columbusstate.edu