Recognizing and Serving our Nation’s Veterans

Campus Update

Chancellor Block sent the following message to the UCLA campus community.

Dear Bruin Community:

Tomorrow our nation will celebrate Veterans Day, honoring the many individuals who serve or have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. The day marks an important opportunity to express our gratitude for the courage, commitment and sacrifice demonstrated by America’s veterans — a group that counts many Bruins among them.

UCLA takes its obligation to the veterans in our community very seriously. Our Veteran Resource Center has long provided academic support, career resources and a second home to UCLA’s student veterans, and its excellent work is a primary reason that UCLA was recently named the nation’s best public university for veterans by U.S. News & World Report for the fifth year in a row. After more than a year of offering remote services, the center is once again open for in-person visits.

In line with our public mission, we also do much to lift up and support veterans in the broader Los Angeles region through initiatives like the UCLA/VA Veteran Family Wellness Center, UCLA Veteran Affairs Relations and UCLA Dining Services’ partnership with Village for Vets, UCLA School of Law’s Veterans Legal Clinic and UCLA Health’s Operation Mend. I am grateful for the opportunity to walk with Operation Mend doctors, program staff and patients in tomorrow’s Veterans Day parade in New York, celebrating those who have served and reaffirming the importance of healing the physical and mental wounds of war.

While I hope that you will take time tomorrow to reflect on our veterans’ service — and to express appreciation directly to the veterans you may know — this is not the only chance to join UCLA in thanking our veteran community. On November 13, we will honor veterans on the field at the Bruin football game against Colorado at the Rose Bowl. Students, staff and faculty who are veterans will also be able to participate in a special tailgate before the game; those interested can learn more and register on the UCLA Veterans website.

America’s veterans come from every region of the country, a wide range of ethnic backgrounds and a variety of political persuasions, but they are bound together by their selfless service to our nation. Tomorrow and throughout the year, let us remember them, honor them and take inspiration from the example they set.

Sincerely,