By Ella Prieto, Editor-in-Chief
Last semester, student staff of the Office of Student Activities and Greek Life (OSAGL) and Residential Education (ResEd) were alerted via email that the two offices were merging into an Office of Campus Life. It featured a forwarded email by Vice President for College Life Anne Ehrlich, where she stated, “This strategic integration reflects a fundamental truth about the student experience: students don’t separate their residential life from their campus engagement, and neither should we. By bringing these teams together, we’re creating a more seamless approach where living, engagement, and support are truly integrated. This unified structure will maximize our collective capacity to support the whole student.”
This merger was Ehrlich’s vision, as the previous college she worked at had one office for student activities and residential education. She believed a similar office would improve Gettysburg, and saw now as the time to act, as the College works on several initiatives to improve student experience.
The main goals for the merger are to streamline student experiences and reduce redundancies. In the past, students have often been bounced between OSAGL and ResEd for their needs; additionally, student leaders often undergo training in both offices, which can be repetitive. One Office aims to cut down on that, by creating a singular place where students can be helped.
“I want a super vibrant Office where, if students feel like they need support, need community, need to have fun, they know they can go to that Office, and all their needs are going to be met,” said Ehrlich. “They will find their people, find their support system and find a social life that is as vibrant as the academic life on campus.”
Ehrlich also compared the merger to the creation of the Center for Student Success, which was a merger between the Office of Academic Advising and the Office of First Year Programming.
“What was happening is that students were going to Academic Advising because they were having trouble in a class, and they needed support. But then maybe the reason they were having trouble is that they were having a really hard time adjusting to living here,” Ehrlich explained. “So then they were being bounced around both offices, as they were trying to help with two issues that were essentially the same problem, just different sides. So, we merged the offices together, because we realized most classroom problems are somehow related to personal problems. We are trying to do a similar process with the Office of Campus Life.”
The thought process for Campus Life was that the two main ways students find community are through their residential experience and student activities, so making those feel more cohesive will increase student belonging and community. Current projects spearheaded by OSAGL and ResEd, such as the Independent Living Communities (ILC), will also now be easier to accomplish.
In recent months, the integration process has already produced changes at the College. OSAGL Director Jon Allen has been promoted to Associate Dean for Campus Life, while ResEd Director Danielle Phillips will serve as the Assistant Dean of the Office. Two employees have also been let go, one from OSAGL and one from College Life. Ehrlich elaborated on this decision, saying it was not solely because of the Campus Life merger.
“We have known for years that our student body is shrinking, and therefore, in some areas, our workforce has to shrink,” she explained. “In terms of realizing that we had the capacity to eliminate two positions in College Life, that happened over the course of conversations with leadership in each office. It was really, really hard to eliminate those two positions. That’s never going to be our preference. But this merger presented an opportunity that we couldn’t pass up, and it was the responsible thing to do.”
Moving forward, the College is working to eliminate positions through employees voluntarily leaving, arranging initiatives such as the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP). However, Ehrlich emphasized that critical positions, such as Campus Safety Officers, will continue to be filled and maintained. She also assured that the College does not want to eliminate student employees, as those roles are needed by many to fund their education and provide work experience.
In the new Office, roles are being shifted to better serve students. Phillips, for example, will be taking on conduct processes, and current Associate Director of Paige Cook will supervise non-college house and upperclassmen residences while she continues to oversee social programming. The goal of these shifts is to strategically place responsibilities with the employees most capable of handling them while also maintaining a balanced workload for them, so they can best serve students.
Some students have expressed their worry over this change, not seeing the need for the merger and worrying it will make it more difficult to meet with staff members as they take on different roles.
“I would encourage people to have an open mind in experiencing the new Office of Campus Life,” replied Ehrlich to those concerns. “I have tremendous faith in Jon [Allen] and Danielle [Phillips] to create something that’s vibrant and exciting, and we will get lots of feedback along the way and make tweaks when needed.”
Allen and Phillips both expressed their excitement at the merger, reiterating the message of a more supportive space for the student experience.
“I want to be part of an office that can be a seamless resource for students and help students think about their experience more comprehensively. And to do that in a way that is responsible with resources and as efficiently as possible,” said Phillips. “I think the biggest takeaway I have for students who are concerned is to engage with us. Ask us your questions.”
“The overarching goals are for everyone to find a community and to feel supported,” added Allen. “We are also helping other departments, hence our name of ‘Campus’ Life. That includes the scheduling pieces and the event support. We want to create a cohesive place where all of campus can find what they need to produce the best possible outcomes for their projects.”
The work for the Office of Campus Life is still ongoing, as leadership works to finalize a mission statement, which they will then exhibit to stakeholders to get feedback on. The current timeline is for the Office to be finalized by the end of this semester, so staff can work throughout the summer to operate as one office by the start of the next academic year. Those with questions or concerns about the merger can be on the lookout for a survey sent from the Office for feedback or reach out to jallen@gettysburg.edu
This article originally appeared on pages 4-5 of the March 2026 edition of The Gettysburgian magazine.
