There are currently over 300 veterans and 100 dependents of veterans at Pace university.

On a national level, the university was ranked by College Factual as #157 out of over 1700 colleges for veterans, within the top 10 percent, and #8 out of over 130 colleges within New York state.

The Division of Veteran Services has been serving the campus community for many years, but in a way was re-organized in early 2019, according to the director of Veteran’s Services retired Colonel Peter Riley.

The university has two active Student Veteran’s of America (SVA) chapters. The Pleasantville chapter was founded in 2011 by Jason Roth and Mark DeJesus and the New York City chapter was founded in 2012 by Dustin Shyrock and Tony Tse.

“The mission of Veteran Services is to ensure that student veterans and their dependents understand and receive the military educational benefits that they are entitled to [and] the support [they may need] to succeed academically, socially, emotionally and in their chosen field at Pace and beyond,” Riley said.

He added that the university is also an unlimited Yellow Ribbon participant, which helps provide veterans and their dependents additional funding for their tuition and other fees.

Pace has two Veteran Student Centers, one on each undergraduate campus. The one in New York City is located at 41 Park Row, and the one in Pleasantville, which was supposed to have a ribbon-cutting opening ceremony on May 1 but has since been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is located next to the campus bookstore on the lower level of Kessel student center.

“[University] facilities chose to locate the center is Kessel, which is a great centralized location for students to congregate,” Riley said. “The Center will give Student Veterans a place to relax, socialize with other Veterans and will also have computer kiosks and light refreshments . . . many other colleges and universities have Student Veteran Centers, so Pace is keeping up with the times.”

The center in Pleasantville was funded by a $200,000 grant secured by New York State senator Pete Harckham.

SVA chose a student at Pace’s New York City campus, information technology major Bonita Rodriguez as their 2020 Student Veteran of the year, from a pool 750,000 members nation-wide.

“Veterans and their dependents understand very well the challenges and hardships that a national crisis [such as COVID-19] can bring,” Riley said. “They have the resilience, patience and flexibility to get through this crucial and challenging time in our history as a university, city, state and country.”