Dear 2023 CWI Participants,
It’s hard to believe we are just a few weeks out from the start of this year’s CWI conference!
I would like to share some updates, logistical information, and friendly reminders with you. I apologize in advance for the lengthy email, but would appreciate it if you could take the time to read it through from top to bottom (even for our veteran attendees!), as it contains important new information about this year’s conference.
Check-in & parking
Check-in will begin at noon on Friday, June 9 in the main lobby of the College Union Building (CUB), located on West Lincoln Avenue. Please park in the STUDENT PARKING section of Musselman (Stadium) Lot. See the attached campus map for more details.
FOR HANDICAP PARKING, we will have a few spots reserved on West Lincoln Ave, just outside the CUB building (look for signs and sandwich boards!)
The check-in desk/”headquarters” for CWI staff during the entirety of the conference will be located inside the College Union Building in room 126 (adjacent to the ballroom).
Upon check-in, all participants will receive a conference program, name tag, info. card with your pre-assigned tour and dine-in placements, parking hang tag (if parking on campus), meal card & keys (for those who have purchased a meal plan and/or are staying on-campus), a bound map & documents reader for lectures/tours/dine-ins, and a small tote bag containing literature about other Gettysburg-area attractions and dining options. In addition to a complete schedule of conference activities, your conference program will also include a map of the college campus, Gettysburg College rules & regulations, emergency contact numbers, and other important information pertaining to campus facilities and CWI protocol. ALL ATTENDEES MUST ABIDE BY THE COLLEGE’S COVID-19 POLICIES AT ALL TIMES. PLEASE NOTE THAT MASKS ARE NOT REQUIRED FOR ANY ON-CAMPUS PORTION OF THE CONFERENCE. Campers/attendees must not come knowing they have COVID, and those who do attend must immediately report any known cases that occur during their time on campus to myself, who will then relay that information to the Camps & Conferences office. The person who is now known to have COVID must leave campus immediately & the COVID cleaning protocols will be started.
***If parking on campus, please remember to fill out your parking hangtag at check-in and hand in the bottom half of the tag to a CWI staff member so that we can return this information to Public Safety. Please also remember to display your hangtag in your rearview mirror or on your dashboard so you don’t get ticketed!!***
Each participant will also receive a small card in their name tag pouch listing their battlefield tour assignments & dine-in assignments (where applicable). All tour and dine-in attendees must have received a formal assignment in order to participate in these events. All tour placements and dine-in assignments are final. If for any reason you are unable to attend a tour or dine-in, please let me know as soon as possible so that we can give your seat to another attendee who has not received an assignment. Participants MUST wear their conference name tags at all times while attending conference-related events.
**THIS YEAR, WE WILL MAINTAIN A CONTINUOUSLY UPDATED LIST OF LAST-MINUTE TOUR AND DINE-IN OPENINGS. PLEASE CHECK WITH IN WITH ME TO SEE IF THERE ARE ANY NEW OPENINGS ON PREVIOUSLY FULL TOURS/DINE-INS! IF THERE IS A TOUR OR DINE-IN THAT OPENS UP DURING THE CONFERENCE THAT YOU ARE VERY INTERESTED IN, WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO ACCOMMODATE YOU. HOWEVER, DUE TO MEAL ORDERS AND OTHER LOGISTICAL CONCERNS, WE CANNOT GUARANTEE YOU A SPOT IN ONE OF THESE VACANCIES. THESE SPOTS WILL BE AVAILABLE ON A FIRST-COME, FIRST SERVED BASIS**
Merchandise for sale-----For those attendees who are interested, we will have an array of CWI-related merchandise available for purchase in CUB 126.
Used Book Sale----This year, the used book sale will be returning to CWI! We will have many titles available (at a discounted price) that have been donated from various individuals over the past year. If you have any military or history books that you would like to contribute to the sale, please feel free to drop off your donations at the used book sale desk. The used book sale will take place adjacent to the general merchandise sale in CUB 126.
1st session location & main-stage lecture location
Pete Carmichael’s opening remarks will take place in the CUB Ballroom, on the first floor of the CUB, on Friday at 3:00 p.m. The CUB Ballroom will be the location for all main-stage lectures, with concurrent sessions taking place in various classrooms across campus. All session locations will be noted in your program.
Long-Term Parking
Quarry residents should park in the STUDENT PARKING section of Musselman (Stadium) Lot, located nearby the Quarry Suites.
Due to the relatively small size of the Paxton Hall and Lahm Hall parking lots, some participants staying in Paxton or Lahm may need to park in nearby lots. Participants are welcome to park in ALL of the STUDENT PARKING lots along Carlisle Street (i.e., the Smyser Hall lot [345 Carlisle Street], the Appleford Inn lot [218 Carlisle Street], the lots behind 227 and 223 Carlisle Street, and the Colonial Hall lot at the corner of Carlisle Street and Water Street).”
Participants not staying on campus should park in the Student Parking section of Musselman (Stadium) Lot, located between the College Union Building and the Quarry Suites.
The larger parking lots are labeled on the Campus Map.
Check-out
Check-out for all FULL TIME participants will take place from 7 am to 9 am on Wednesday, June 14 in CUB 126. All full-time participants who are staying on-campus OR who have purchased a meal plan MUST check out no later than 9 am on June 14 and return all keys and meal cards to CWI staff at this time. We are unable to accommodate any Wednesday check-outs prior to 7 am.
Part-time participants must turn in their room keys & meal cards no later than 8 pm on Sunday, June 11th.
**IF YOU NEED TO LEAVE CAMPUS EARLIER THAN PROJECTED AS EITHER A PART TIME OR FULL-TIME PARTICIPANT, PLEASE BE SURE TO SEEK OUT A CWI STAFF MEMBER AND RETURN YOUR MEAL CARD AND KEYS!**
**PLEASE REMEMBER TO TURN IN YOUR RED LANYARD/NAME TAG POUCH! WE RE-USE THESE EACH YEAR!!**
What to bring
Many attendees like to take notes during lectures and on battlefield tours, so you may want to consider bringing a notebook and pen along with you. If you are staying on-campus, please know that the college dorms will NOT be stocked with any soaps or other toiletries. You will receive a set of sheets, blanket, two towels, and a pillow in your dorm room. Please bring any other necessary toiletries, etc. with you.
Coin-fed washers and dryers are available in each dorm, so you may wish to bring along some change if you think you might need to do laundry during your stay.
Each suite contains a mini-fridge. You are welcome to bring your own snacks and beverages, but please be mindful that you will be sharing these fridges with other conference attendees.
If you are participating in a dine-in, please try to read through the pertinent documents I sent out a couple of weeks ago before you arrive on campus. This will help to ensure that the discussions in these sessions go as smoothly and as engagingly as possible. If for some reason you did not receive readings and you should have, please contact me and I will re-send you a copy. You are welcome to bring your own copies of these documents to the sessions with any notes/highlights/questions that you may have come up with ahead of time.
In the past, some attendees have found the dorm rooms too cold for their liking, due to college AC levels. We don’t have much control over the temperature in the dorms themselves, so if you are prone to feeling chilly, you may want to bring an extra blanket or warmer sleeping clothes.
Many attendees have also found the CUB ballroom, where we hold many of our lectures, to be too cold; PLEASE STRONGLY CONSIDER BRINGING A SWEATSHIRT!
Many attendees have also chosen to bring a pair of flip flops to wear in the suite showers if they are sharing with other individuals. This is an entirely personal choice, but we have found that it does not hurt to pass along this idea to those of you staying on campus!
Many of our attendees bring along foldable camp chairs on their battlefield tours so that they can give their feet a rest during extended-standing portions of the tour. If you would like to bring a foldable chair, please feel free to do so!
As the chairs in the CUB Ballroom are not super-cushioned, many attendees have found that bringing along a small chair cushion has been helpful to make the seating more comfortable! Please consider bringing one with you if you have concerns!
What to wear
Dress at the CWI summer conference is generally casual to business casual. The forecast for conference week is generally in the 80s-90s during the day and in the mid-60s at night, though this obviously can change! We may also get some rain and storms during the conference, so be sure to bring appropriate rain gear. We run our battlefield tours rain or shine! Gettysburg tends to be fairly hot and humid this time of year, so please plan to dress accordingly. For those individuals who are participating in battlefield tours, we would strongly encourage wearing jeans/long pants on tour days, as many of you may be walking through tall grasses where our resident ticks and chiggers have been known to hang out. Please also bring comfortable walking shoes for tour days, as well as sunscreen, bug spray, and perhaps a hat. Water will be provided on every tour bus; however, it doesn’t hurt to bring along an extra bottle of your own! Please be sure to keep hydrated! Although it will likely be very warm outside during conference week, you may wish to bring a sweatshirt or light jacket to wear inside campus buildings, as the high-powered AC can frequently make the rooms quite chilly!
Meals
With the exception of our Dine-In discussions (and tour-day meals), all meals will take place in the College’s dining hall, located on West Lincoln Ave., next to the Jaeger Center. Dining Services would appreciate it if we stick to a close schedule regarding dining times, so please plan to arrive at the dining hall promptly at meal time. The dining hall will NOT be open for meals at any other time aside from the dining times indicated on the conference program.
If you did not purchase a meal plan in advance and would like to dine in the campus dining hall, you may purchase individual meal tickets from CWI staff at the check-in desk in the CUB lobby. All dine-in participants must have purchased either a meal plan OR an individual dinner ticket for their dine-in night.
The Commons coffee shop and Bullet Hole café (both located in the CUB) will also be open, with limited hours, throughout the conference. Please check your conference program upon arrival for hours.
Dietary restrictions
Several of you have indicated, through tour selection forms or other correspondence, that you have specific dietary restrictions. I have made a note of these and passed them along to Dining Services and to our catering service for boxed lunches and dine-ins/lunch-ins. We are fortunate to have an incredibly helpful Dining Services staff and head chef who is happy and able to accommodate most dietary needs, including vegetarians, vegans, gluten-free individuals, nut/shellfish/mammal meat allergies, low-sodium and low-starch/sugar diets, etc etc. The only special diets we cannot guarantee accommodating are Kosher diets or all-organic diets. Meals in the dining hall are buffet style and always feature a wide variety of foods that satisfies nearly everyone. If for some reason you cannot find a meal that you can eat due to dietary needs, please let a dining services staff member know and they will be happy to assist you. Boxed lunches for tour days are a bit harder to accommodate, so we do need to know ahead of time if you need a special meal prepared for you. **IF YOU HAVE ALREADY INDICATED THIS ON YOUR REGISTRATION FORM OR EMAILED ME YOUR NEEDS, YOU ARE ALL SET**
Book sales & signings
Copies of many of our CWI faculty’s publications will be available for purchase in the college bookstore, adjacent to the CUB Ballroom. Many of our faculty will also be participating in our group book signing on Sunday, June 11 from 12:15 pm-1:00 p.m. in the CUB Ballroom. Attendees are welcome to bring their own book copies for signing, or purchase copies through the College bookstore.
Additional things to know for tour days
If you are participating in battlefield tours on Saturday, June 10, June 11 (for Active Track participants only), Monday, June 12 and/or Tuesday June 13, please be sure to meet the buses for loading in front of the Musselman Stadium NO LATER than 15 minutes prior to departure. The buses will first pull up to the dining hall to load food and water. PLEASE DO NOT BOARD THE BUS AT THIS TIME. Each bus will be marked with a sign in its front window indicating its tour assignment. Please gather on the side of your tour bus and wait to board until a CWI staff member checks you in. Buses will depart promptly at their stated departure time. We cannot allow tardy participants to follow buses in their own cars.
Active Track package participants:
If you have signed up to participate in the Active Track package, please see the conference program for when to split off for the Active Track components. You are able to attend all lectures and group meals on Friday as well as Saturday morning through lunch. Please meet your bus in Musselman Stadium Loop by 1:45 pm on Saturday to depart for the first part of the Active Track tour; you will be out on the battlefield until dinner, when you will return to campus for supper at the Dining Center before heading back out to the battlefield to conclude your tour for that day. On Sunday morning, please meet the bus again at the Stadium loop for a 9 am departure; you will be out on the battlefield all day until 5 pm, with a picnic lunch catered by Panera.
Transportation
For those who have registered with Transportation Services to use the College shuttle, the shuttle will drop you off and pick you up outside the CUB.
Connecting to Campus WiFi
Gettysburg College is happy to provide free campus wide Wifi to our summer guests. Follow the steps below to connect. Unfortunately, each year, many participants experience difficulties signing onto the college Wifi, despite following the below steps. Many of the difficulties stem from outdated virus protection. Before coming to campus, please make sure to do the following: Laptops need antivirus in order to get on our network. If you don’t have antivirus software installed on you laptop, visit www.avg.com and download the free antivirus. That website has been approved on our network without your device being registered. The IT Helpdesk recommends going to a website they don’t normally visit to bring up the registration page. Their go-to is www.barbie.com. If you are still experiencing difficulties signing on, one of our CWI Staff members will do their best to assist you; however, due to scheduling conflicts within the IT office, we will NOT have any IT specialists available to trouble-shoot these issues with you on campus!
- Connect to GBC WiFi network.
- Open a browser window. If you are not automatically directed, go to www.gettysburg.edu.
- Click “I am a Guest requesting temporary internet access,” and enter your First Name, Last Name and email address.
- If greeted with a certificate security warning box, please click “Continue.”
- A download prompt will appear to download a Bradford Dissolvable Agent. Run the program. If a security warning appears, click “allow” or “run.”
- After the Bradford Dissolvable Agent is downloaded, a scan of your antivirus software will automatically begin. If your antivirus protection is out of date or you do not have one, you will be redirected to a page to download an antivirus application.
- When your system meets the requirements, you will be redirected to a success page. Your computer will be configured to the wireless network when the countdown ends.
Late arrivals
Should you arrive after 8:30 pm on Friday evening, June 9, you may pick up your keys and meal cards from the Public Safety Office, located on Stevens Street. Their phone number is: 717-337-6912.
Fitness center use
All attendees who are staying on-campus are allowed to use the Gettysburg College fitness center (in Jaeger Center) and pool free of charge. Simply swipe your card for access into the workout area. Fitness Center will be listed in your conference program. PLEASE NOTE: Due to staffing shortages, the college pool will NOT be open during the conference.
Pertinent “around-town” and “around-the-battlefield” updates:
Little Round Top and Devils Den closures
As many of you may already know, Gettysburg National Military Park is in the process of a significant anti-erosion project at Little Round Top. The work on Little Round Top began last summer; this project will restrict all access, pedestrian and vehicular, to Little Round Top until the summer of 2024 Several of the roads around the area will also be either closed or restricted to pedestrian traffic only. Please check the GNMP website for the most up-to-date information! https://www.nps.gov/gett/index.htm
One Hundred Nights of Taps, Gettysburg
For the fifth year, the notes of “Taps” will be sounded in Gettysburg every evening this summer to honor of those who have served our nation. The program will take place every evening from Memorial Day through Labor Day at 7:00 PM at Soldiers National Monument in Gettysburg National Cemetery, surrounded by the graves of those who "gave the last full measure of devotion." Many of our participants have enjoyed taking in this moving program during one (or more) of their nights at the conference. This year, the program will also incorporate a short educational component every evening. Please feel free to make your way up to the Cemetery to take part in this free program, which is co-sponsored by the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania and Gettysburg National Military Park, in partnership with Taps for Veterans.
2024 Conference Registration
Due to a variety of reasons, registration for CWI 2024 will not be open until mid-summer. Keep your eyes on the CWI website and social media for updates!
If you have any other questions, please feel free to email or call at any time. We are very much looking forward to seeing you in Gettysburg in a few weeks, and wish you safe travels into town!
Best,
Ashley