A Note from the Magazine Editor: On Using the Past to Contextualize the Present
By Phoebe Doscher, Magazine Editor Those of us living, studying, and teaching on Gettysburg’s historic campus know full well that the past is constantly aligned with the present moment. Every step we take on Stine Lake, every time we enter Penn Hall, and each visit to the battlefield allows us to confront the past in real time. We centered this edition of the magazine around just that: What does the past mean? How do we use it to...
Editorial: The Case for an Additional Wellness Day
By The Gettysburgian Editorial Board The wellness day on April 7, though well-intentioned, was inadequate in improving student mental health and is indicative of the administration’s apparent lack of trust in the student body. Like the March 2 wellness day, the administration kept it a secret until the day before, both failing to prepare students for time off and generally fraying student-administration trust. The confidentiality of...
Editorial: Strengthening Gettysburg College During the COVID-19 Pandemic
By The Gettysburgian Editorial Board Long before 2020, Gettysburg College faced serious financial challenges stemming from an impending demographic cliff that promises to complicate future class sizes at liberal arts institutions. This past October, in a prelude to the college’s next strategic plan, President Bob Iuliano underscored these economic uncertainties. “Before COVID hit, national projections estimated that the college-bound...
Opinion: Online Learning Amplifies Inequity
By Abigail Marconi, Contributing Writer Ever since Gettysburg College moved to online learning last March, we have all felt challenges and frustration with online school. Hearing fellow students mention “Zoom University” or post memes online are humorous ways to cope with awful circumstances. While online learning is inconvenient, we cannot forget that for many students it is more serious than that: it is a tragedy. Schools across the...
Opinion: DPS Should Not Have Access to Tasers
By Colin Hughes, Contributing Writer DPS officers have been equipped with tasers for the last few years, and they pose a serious danger to public safety on campus. DPS introduced stun guns because of an external report that recommended the use of stun guns to better protect DPS employees and individuals on campus from serious bodily harm without resorting to lethal weaponry. Unfortunately, this recommendation — though...
Opinion: Pandemic Burnout—It’s Not Your Fault and It’s Not Just You
By Phoebe Doscher, Magazine Editor “How are you doing, really?” This is the question that precipitated a Gettysburgian editorial last fall deconstructing stress culture at Gettysburg. We discovered that we were not, in fact, “good,” or even okay for that matter, and addressed the toxic behavior of letting our mental health slide during a busy semester. That was in 2019. Fast forward 14 months, and we find ourselves in the midst of...
