U.S. Army General George W. Casey to be Honorary Guest at 2012 Class Day Ceremony

Dean Peter Awn announced today that U.S. Army General George W. Casey, Jr., the retired 36th U.S. Army chief of staff and the commanding general for Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2004-2007, will be an honorary guest for Class Day on Sunday, May 13. Casey will be present to celebrate the 41 U.S. Military veterans graduating this year.

"I am honored to be present for the graduation of the largest number of veteran undergraduates from Columbia since World War II. The leadership skills that these men and women received in the military and the education that they received from Columbia have prepared them to lead this country into a complex, uncertain, and demanding future. I applaud Columbia for its efforts to make world-class educational opportunities available to our veterans," Casey said.

A career soldier, General Casey was commissioned through the Georgetown University Army ROTC following his graduation in 1970. At the start of his career, he served in the Mechanized Infantry and moved up the ranks where he commanded the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division and served as an assistant division commander in the 1st Armored Division in Germany and Croatia. From 1996-1997, he deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina and in 1999 he took command for two years of the 1st Armored Division in Germany and Kosovo.

After relinquishing his command in Croatia, Casey returned to Washington, D.C. in October 2001, where he served as the director of strategic plans and policy and the director of the joint staff at the Pentagon, which eventually led to his nomination as Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army.

In 2004, Casey began serving as the senior coalition commander in Iraq. He relinquished his command in 2007 when he was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as the U.S. Army’s chief of staff, where he led more than 1.1 million people and managed a $200 billion budget. He not only accelerated the growth of the Army, but also instituted retention bonuses for officers, increased funding of soldier and family programs, improved care for wounded soldiers and leadership training for officers, and instituted a rotational deployment program similar to the Marine Corps.

Casey retired from the U.S. Army on April 11, 2011 at a ceremony in Fort Myer, Virginia.

"General Casey’s presence at our Class Day celebration is a tribute to the accomplishments our service women and men have made both during their careers in the military and their studies here at Columbia University. I am extremely proud that he will be with us to recognize the achievements of all our graduates," said Dean Awn in an email sent to graduating students.

In addition to the speeches by keynote speaker Thomas Reardon, Valedictorian Maxwell Bertolero, and Salutatorian Kathryn Minogue-Nachison, Casey will make brief remarks to the graduates.

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The Columbia University School of General Studies (GS) is the premier liberal arts college in the United States for nontraditional undergraduate students seeking a rigorous, traditional, Ivy League education, including those who have served in the U.S. and foreign militaries. GS students take the same courses, study with the same faculty, and earn the same degree as all other undergraduates at Columbia University.

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