By Vincent DiFonzo, Editor-in-Chief
President’s Remarks
President Bob Iuliano opened Thursday’s faculty meeting by addressing the complaint filed to the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in the Department of Education by the Young America’s Foundation (YAF), which alleges Gettysburg College is violating federal law relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
The letter of complaint, sent on Monday, alleges “ongoing civil rights violations against conservative students at Gettysburg College.”
Iuliano sent a campus-wide email addressing the letter on Thursday afternoon, a few hours before the faculty meeting began. He explained that the letter is simply a request by the advocacy organization asking the OCR to launch an investigation into Gettysburg College.
“There’s not a legal action in and of itself, yet, whether OCR will conduct an investigation is a judgment that OCR will need to make for itself,” said Iuliano. “If it does, we will, of course, forcefully defend our values and our programs.”
Iuliano also acknowledged and thanked economics professor Brendan Cushing-Daniels, who spent spring break with Iuliano in South Carolina on a development trip. Iuliano and Cushing-Daniels met with alumni, watched the Gettysburg golf and tennis teams play and visited a private high school that the College is developing a relationship with.
“[Cushing-Daniels is] a good travel companion, so I would urge you to travel with him,” said Iuliano. “But even more importantly, the presence of a faculty member in these settings adds an incredible degree of texture and richness to what we do.”
Cushing-Daniels joked in response, “We didn’t get to play golf, by the way.”
Iuliano next acknowledged environmental studies professor Randy Wilson, who published a book last semester called “A Place Called Yellowstone: The Epic History of the World’s First National Park.” His book won the New York Historical 2025 Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize, recognizing his work as the best in American history or biography.
“[Wilson] himself now carries the title of ‘American Historian Laureate,’” said Iuliano. “In writing about this remarkable accomplishment just a few days ago the New York Times included the following quote from the historical board chair, noting that the book ‘redefined the concept of biography’ and told a ‘more encompassing history about America than most biographies of Americans.’”
“So [Wilson], at a time when the value of education and scholarship is being questioned, your work is a shining illustration of why what we do matters,” said Iuliano.
The faculty then recognized Wilson with a standing ovation.
Provost’s Report
Provost Jamila Bookwala first addressed the letter of complaint sent to the OCR, stating her office’s commitment to the College’s mission statement.
“This mission is built on our core values, including the worth and dignity of all people, the commitment to a diverse and inclusive learning environment that enables students to realize their full potential for responsible citizenship and the free and open exchange of ideas,” she said.
Bookwala referenced a FAQ document released by the Department of Education that clarified positions made in a Feb. 14 “Dear Colleague” letter sent to hundreds of colleges across the country. Quoting the FAQ, she affirmed that the College is not violating federal law simply through language related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
She affirmed that it is legal for colleges to operate programs based on particular cultures, heritages, and areas of the world, as long as they are “open to all students, regardless of race.” There are no programs at Gettysburg that exclude based on race, sexuality or identity.
Bookwala said that her office will soon send out a list of resources faculty may want to use “as they plan discussions and activities around potentially sensitive and controversial topics.” Her office will also share information explaining the protections in place for faculty members “in their role as instructors, advisors and employees.”
Next, Bookwala provided an update on staffing requests for tenure-track faculty. She shared that her office received 13 tenure track line requests from nine academic departments, but her office can only allocate two or three tenure track line requests.
She said the faculty Academic Policy and Program Committee (APPC) is responsible for making recommendations to the Provost regarding where to allocate tenure track line requests.
Bookwala, along with Assistant Provost for Faculty Affairs Michelle Schmidt, will meet with APPC faculty on April 20 to discuss the requests and take a final recommendation. Final decisions are expected to be announced in early May, and hired tenure track faculty would begin in the 2026-27 academic year.
Bookwala said that they will make the decisions based on three criteria: enrollment pressures, curricular needs and institutional priorities.
Vote on Communication Studies Major Proposal
Next, the faculty voted on the proposed communication studies major, which was presented at the last faculty meeting on March 6.
Iuliano opened the floor for faculty comments and questions. No faculty members spoke, so the motion proceeded to a vote.
The communication studies major passed by a vote of 91-14, with two abstentions. The major will be available for students to declare starting in the fall 2025 semester.
Discussion on Faculty Governance
Next, psychology professor and chair of the Faculty Council Richard Russell led a discussion on the role of faculty in the governance of the College. Initially, chair of the Faculty Governance Committee (FGC) and sociology professor Cassie Hays was meant to give this presentation, but Russell explained that she was out sick.
“We wanted to offer a primer on faculty governance, because there have been a number of concerns in recent years about the role of the faculty in governing the college,” said Russell. “So our hope is that by providing some guidance on this, we can increase [faculty] ability to participate effectively in the governance of the college.”
First, Russell discussed the concept of “shared governance,” which is how the majority of American colleges and universities operate. He described it as “the joint responsibility of the faculty, the administration and the Board of Trustees to govern the College, and the weight of a group’s voice on an issue is determined by the extent of the group’s responsibility for that issue and also on their expertise on that particular issue.”
He said that faculty expertise, in a broad sense, is in academics. The Board of Trustees holds the ultimate legal authority of the College.
Russell went through the College’s Charter, its bylaws and the faculty handbook, explaining how each document describes how the College should be governed and the faculty’s role in governance.
Russell said that the bylaws include some broad academic-related responsibilities in its description of the responsibilities of the Board of Trustees. He expressed that the Board “shouldn’t be too involved in setting [academic] policies because it is “outside their area of responsibility and expertise.”
The College Charter also affirms that faculty have primacy over academic matters. However, Russell pointed out that the Charter states that faculty should have a say in the admissions process of the College.
“Admissions is an area where, probably, over the past century, there’s been somewhat of an erosion of faculty involvement,” said Russell. “I think we could all agree that we’ve seen the development of admissions personnel with expertise in admissions that we don’t really have as a faculty.”
Russell also brought up a few other points of ambiguity between the College Charter: the bylaws and the faculty handbook. He also discussed the role of faculty committees.
“The Faculty Handbook is telling us that the roles of the committees are fairly expansive, that we should be active in our committees, that the committees should be doing things like studying these matters and then recommending to the faculty the adoption of policies consistent with these objectives,” he said.
The floor was opened for faculty comments and questions.
Iuliano posed the first question, asking Russell what he plans to do with the information presented. Russell said he was aiming to clear confusion regarding what falls under the governance of the faculty versus the administration.
“This issue comes up all the time of what is the responsibility of the faculty, and what is the responsibility of the administration,” answered Russell. “This has been something that a lot of faculty have contacted faculty counsel about in different ways, you know?”
He said that there are many areas, such as curricular efficiencies, in which faculty and administration must work closely together even if only one has the ultimate authority over it.
Professor Kurt Andresen asked how disagreements between the Board of Trustees, the administration and the faculty should be handled. Russell responded, explaining that the reason he believes it is important for faculty to understand the faculty handbook and bylaws is because it helps faculty “exert [their] voice” in College policy.
Professor Timothy Shannon asked if committees have had staffing issues given that the size of the faculty has decreased. Professor Lindsay Reid, who serves on the FGC, responded and expressed concern about the long-term ability for committees to be adequately staffed. She said that there have not been major problems staffing committees yet.
Professor Char Weise questioned if it would be worth creating a coordinated effort to rewrite the faculty handbook. He jokingly said to Russell, “Thanks for translating the handbook from the original Aramaic,” and stated that he believes the faculty handbook is a “mess” because of the way its evolved over the years.
He said there are two ways the handbook gets revised: when it gets revised through the Provost’s office and through faculty motions to amend particular portions of the handbook.
“So the whole thing then turns out to be a mess, and sometimes self contradictory,” he stated.
Russell responded, stating that he believes it would be a good idea to coordinate a rewrite of the handbook. However, he expressed concern over the time and effort it would take, saying “it could be a lot of work sitting on faculty committees, and I’m not sure that that’s how I would say they should be spending their time.”
Professor Bill Bowman made the final comment, expressing that it may be beneficial to consolidate the functions of some faculty committees.
Concluding Announcements
Iuliano made the first announcement in which he acknowledged that President Donald Trump signed an executive order during the faculty meeting ordering the shut down of the Department of Education. It remains unclear exactly what the impact of this executive order will be.
“I don’t know what [the shutdown] means, because the answer, it’s going to take time to understand that,” said Iuliano. “I will tell you my principal worry is making sure that student financial aid continues to be properly paid in a timely manner, and we’ll see how they manage to navigate the transition to whoever’s going to pick that up.”
Professor Tres Lambert in German studies announced that the College is hosting the annual conference of the Austrian Studies Association. The conference begins on Thursday, March 27 and will bring “80 to 90 scholars, diplomats and artists” to campus.
“You may find that more German is being spoken on campus over the weekend, so I apologize for the inconvenience,” Lambert joked.
Iuliano then concluded the meeting.
