By Benjamin Sarnitsky, Guest Columnist
The fall semester looks good for the students at Gettysburg College. Student Rights & Responsibilities policy changes have given many clubs what they need to make Gettysburg look like college; the changes in regulation of alcohol and student events has shifted the campus culture in the right direction, emphasizing student responsibility; and thanks to students, the dining centers have stayed mostly the same.
Even in Student Senate, the angriest buzz can be heard in whines and whimpers about the lines in Servo, or the number of chicken fingers they received on ‘Chicken Finger Friday.’ Bob Iuliano has given students and staff a lofty waiting room to collect themselves while he works his way around financial transparency, but there is one expenditure that he and the Board of Trustees can’t hide.
According to last year’s article by former Gettysburgian Editor-in-Chief Laken Franchetti and Managing Editor Ella Prieto, Investigating the Total Compensations of Gettysburg College Administration Members, Iuliano’s salary has increased by 21% between the years 2019 and 2023.
Iuliano is quoted to have given up pay raises during Covid, while also giving back 15% of his compensation. With the recent decline in the student population, one would think that Iuliano would hold true to this same standard, but one would be dead wrong.
In fact, tax filings on ProPublica have shown that in the last fiscal year, Iuliano’s compensation has increased to a total of $731,660. To put this into perspective, Iuliano’s salary is shy of double that of the College’s Vice President of Student Advancement, Clarence Mullis III. In the fiscal year of 2022, Iuliano’s total compensation sat at a total of $625,894, which means his base compensation has increased by over $100,000, or about 20%.
This means that President Iuliano’s compensation at Gettysburg College has increased by more than 30% since he started in July 2019. In light of this, at a recent faculty meeting held on campus, Iuliano is quoted to have stated that the financial situation at Gettysburg College has become much more dire, meaning that “budget cuts” would have to occur. In the words of one of my favorite TV characters, Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys, “Oh, that’s greasy. Gree-heee-heeee-eeeeeasy.”
While professors wait for raises or tenure, adjunct professors get fired and students have to fight for an air conditioning unit, Iuliano is able to score one hundred thousand more dollars onto his annual compensation. There is no semblance of trust left on the campus of Gettysburg College. If Gettysburg is in poor financial standing, why has Iuliano’s compensation increased so much?
These revelations leave obvious questions in the minds of students: why would the administration shut down the Gettysburg Review and cut back funding to the CWI fellows? If we can afford the WiFi enhancement, how did all the chaos with dining cuts come about last semester? If the campus is losing so much money, wouldn’t financial transparency only support the case of Iuliano and the Board of Trustees?
