(Radio Iowa) -In advance of Veterans Day on Saturday, the University of Iowa will hold a ceremony on Friday afternoon to dedicate a new area of campus to remember those who served our country in uniform. Bill Nelson, executive director of the Iowa Memorial Union, says the 2 P-M service to officially open the new Veterans Plaza will include comments by several dignitaries, including U-I President Barbara Wilson and the head of the U-I’s new student-veteran support program.

“We’ll be presenting and raising the flag for the first time,” Nelson says. “That will be presented and raised by our students with the University of Iowa Veterans Association. There’ll be a playing of the National Anthem. The flag will fly and wave in perpetuity and it will be managed by our UIVA program and it will be illuminated, again, in perpetuity.” The plaza is located near the banks of the Iowa River and is flanked by trees and a green space.

Veterans Plaza (UI photo)

“The plaza is directly north of the Iowa Memorial Union. There are seven granite monuments, one monument for each branch of the armed services and then the seventh monument is a descriptor of the plaza,” Nelson says, “and there are four benches that create a backdrop.” Those six branches are: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and Space Force. Nelson says this new plaza will be used for decades to come to remember and honor veterans among the U-I’s faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

“It certainly will be featured during our Memorial Day program, some of our Veterans Day activities,” Nelson says. “We have a well-established Hawkeye Distinguished Veterans Awards program which is, frankly, this evening and we will tie that program in.” The location for the new plaza was special and deliberate.

“The Iowa Memorial Union was built in 1924, built for and dedicated at that time to our World War One veterans,” Nelson says, “and so it’s completely fitting that this space be adjacent to our building.” An unnamed donor is making the project possible with a final price tag between 80- and 90-thousand dollars.