By Ella Prieto, Editor-in-Chief
This academic year, Gettysburg College President Bob Iuliano has frequently mentioned “Gettysburg 2.0” in faculty meetings and emails alike. He has discussed 2.0’s overall importance and essential work, along with working groups, retreats and conducting market research for the project. But what truly is it?
“2.0 is asking fundamental questions, given the evolving nature of the way students learn, of the availability of technology, of the jobs students are vying for after graduation,” explained Iuliano in an interview with The Gettysburgian. “We are exploring how to restate and redefine a liberal arts education.”
With so many simultaneous changes occurring at the College, spanning projects like the CUB Ballroom renovation to the creation of the Office of College Life, it can be hard to determine what is or is not a part of the 2.0 initiative. Iuliano clarified that the proposals and implementation of projects related to 2.0 have not fully started, as that will be dependent on the forthcoming market research. However, the CUB Ballroom renovation and Office of College Life projects are still related to 2.0, as they aim to better the College overall.
That distinction raises a natural question for some students, who have wondered why the College chooses to spend money on construction renovations and similar projects while operating at a deficit and cutting other programs and staff.
“It’s an entirely understandable question,” said Iuliano. “But the approach for the College is to make sure that we are investing in the things that will strengthen the College prospectively, and that’s going to require us to stop doing some things and invest in other things.”
The Ballroom renovation, for example, was chosen because it often operates as the front door of the College. “If you’re trying to encourage students to think about the College, you want to lead with your best foot forward,” said Iuliano. Other new programs, like the new majors and master’s programs, reflect the same forward-looking logic. “We are always going to be asking ourselves how do we make sure that we are investing in ways that are going to make us stronger, even as we’re reducing costs in other spaces.”
This vision for strategic investment is not new to this academic year. Iuliano first announced the Gettysburg 2.0 project through an email to College employees in April of last year, inviting them to join him and other senior leaders for a working meeting about the future direction of the College.
“Over the past year, faculty, staff, trustees, and students have been exploring transformational ideas aimed at ensuring Gettysburg College is distinctively positioned in an increasingly competitive landscape,” he explained. “These early-stage efforts, known internally as Gettysburg 2.0, have focused on thinking boldly to strengthen our market position, increase demand, and—most importantly—prepare our students for lives of meaning and consequence.”
Underlying much of that urgency is the demographic cliff, a nationwide decline in college-age students that has affected all institutions of higher education and was further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. For Gettysburg specifically, the pressures have been notable: S&P Global revised its bond outlook to negative for the College due to “ongoing undergraduate enrollment declines and associated pressures on net tuition revenue, leading to worsening operating deficits.”
When asked about the revised bond outlook, Iuliano was measured in his response.
“Would it be my preference? No,” he said. “But it’s a byproduct of the changing outlook on higher education as a whole, and in our case, the fact that our student body has now adjusted to be roughly the same size as our competitors. There are some additional pressures we’re facing in enrollment that others aren’t, because it has taken us more time to get smaller.”
Despite those headwinds, Iuliano has remained assured that the moment calls for boldness rather than retreat. Reflecting on the changes to higher education at a recent faculty meeting, he stated, “The changes happening in American higher education right now, they’re not transient. I think they’re going to be enduring for the foreseeable future, and we have an opportunity by being smart, bold, and thoughtful to not only meet this moment, but to redefine what a dynamic liberal arts education looks like.”
To that end, roughly 25 faculty members joined the 2.0 work last year alongside staff, trustees and others, generating new ideas and contributing to the initiative’s market research. That research, conducted on students who expressed interest in or had been admitted to the College, sought to identify how Gettysburg can convert more prospective students into applicants and more admitted students into enrollees. The research has recently concluded, giving way to a new phase of working groups across the College—comprising roughly 50 people, half of them faculty members—tasked with analyzing the findings.
In early April, Iuliano was briefed on the data, describing it as “really interesting” and “encouraging.” The findings will be shared with faculty on April 28 at 4 p.m. in the College Union Building, after which a new group will work over the summer to translate the research into a set of concrete proposals. Those proposals are set to be discussed when the faculty reconvenes in the fall.
For students, faculty, and staff alike, the coming months will offer the clearest picture yet of where Gettysburg College is headed, and what it is willing to change to get there.
This article originally appeared on pages 4-5 of the April 2026 edition of The Gettysburgian magazine.
