Today will bring many different things for all of us — challenges and difficulties, successes and opportunities. But in the face of all these things we share a commonality: Each of us will have the right to express our opinion and to make our own choices. This right, that we so often take for granted, is perhaps the greatest hallmark of a free society — and it is ours today because members of our Armed Forces have been willing to defend that which was first expressed in the Declaration of Independence and later in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Particularly in a society struggling with political polarization and challenging topics, and particularly on a university campus, we should always celebrate open debate, civil disagreement, and the freedom in which we engage them.

So today, Veterans Day, I hope you’ll join me in thanking our faculty, staff, students, and alumni who have served in the armed forces, the members of their families who have sacrificed so much in service to their country, and our ROTC cadre and cadets. Our nation and our campus community honor you and are proud of you.

While it may be the simplest thing we can say, the following is also the most heartfelt: Thank you from Colorado State University.

Dr. Tony Frank
President
Colorado State University