Marywood University's Nazareth Student Center became a temporary memorial on Monday, built of the spoken names of the more than 6,600 U.S. servicemen and servicewomen who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since October 2001.
For nine hours in the Fireplace Lounge, visitors paused to listen as veterans, students, faculty and administrators took turns reading the names in the order of the date they died. For each name, there is also an American flag planted on the campus commons.
The Veterans Day roll call and memorial, new to Marywood this year, are meant to encourage students to recognize the growing number of veterans on the campus and to teach them about the experiences and sacrifices of their peers.
Lauren Williams, Marywood's director of military and veteran services, said more veterans are taking advantage of education benefits than ever before, and that is changing the population of campuses all over the country.
At Marywood, students have embraced the memorials - they carefully stop and fix flags that have blown out of place - and that has helped the school's veterans recognize that they are part of the campus community, she said.
"It makes the veterans feel that they have a home here at Marywood," she said. "They bring leadership and strength. They bring a whole new life to the school."
Marywood President Sister Anne Munley, I.H.M., read the names of those who died in May 2008, including Marywood alumnus 1st Lt. Jeffrey F. DePrimo.
The memorials are "very moving," she said - she finds herself stopping to pray every time she passes the sea of flags on the commons.
"It really makes it real for all our students," she said.
Former Army Staff Sgt. Earl Granville took up the list after Sister Munley on Monday afternoon and struggled to say names so familiar to him: the comrades who were killed by the roadside bomb in Afghanistan that caused him to lose his left leg.
He had never read their names like this before, he said afterward. He called it an honor to introduce them to people who never knew them.
"I really didn't know how to prepare for this," he said. "It brought back great memories of them and also dark times."
Contact the writer: llegere@timesshamrock.com