The University of North Dakota athletics department is playing a major role in a community show of gratitude for military personnel.

"Operation Enduring Friendship" will permit active personnel from nearby Grand Forks Air Force Base and their dependents to attend an array of entertainment events in Grand Forks by showing their active-duty ID card at the ticket window. The program includes the local symphony, the North Dakota Museum of Art and the Dakota Science Center, but perhaps the linchpin of the program involves access to North Dakota athletics events.

Although many institutions, including North Dakota, previously have permitted active-duty military personnel to attend particular contests free of charge on "appreciation days," this is thought to be the first case in which a school has made all of its home events accessible for military personnel at no cost, provided the games are not otherwise sold out. In this case, that excludes men's ice hockey games, the homecoming football game and the football game against intrastate rival North Dakota State University.

The program will apply to about 90 North Dakota home events and will be in effect for the 2003-04 academic year. After that, the school will review the program to determine if there is enough interest in maintaining it.

"We'll see what happens," said Phil Harmeson, senior associate to the president and faculty athletics representative at North Dakota. "We want to make sure that we don't exclude any cash customers, but this is a great opportunity to show appreciation to our military personnel while also making them aware of high-quality athletics competition that they might not otherwise have experienced."

The program provides the additional benefit of increasing crowds at certain events so that participating student-athletes have a better competition experience.

Harmeson, who estimates that the benefit extends to about 6,500 active-duty personnel and their dependents, conceived the idea for Operation Enduring Friendship based on success he experienced with earlier events that were made available at no cost to military personnel.

Mike Marcil, commissioner of the North Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, was among the dignitaries who attended a May 28 ceremony announcing the program (North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven also attended).

"Operation Enduring Friendship speaks well for Grand Forks and especially for the University of North Dakota," Marcil said. "I would think that there are many similar communities throughout the country with similar circumstances that might want to consider programs like this one."