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Social Media
Memories flooded social media when both the Class of 2024 and Class of 2025 embarked on the First-Year Walk in the fall. The nostalgia continued, as members of our community responded to “Flashback Friday” and “A Gettysburgian’s Best Friend,” and also paid it forward in the Orange and Blue Club’s annual Bullets Challenge.
Class of 2024 First-Year Walk
“Wonderful college as my Andy graduated from Gettysburg in 1995, as well as his fiancé, now wife. It’s a great small liberal arts college! Good luck to the Class [of] 2024!”
– Joan Newman P’95 | Facebook
“I absolutely loved being there in late August to cheer on my daughter and her fellow students from the Class of 2025. What an amazing tradition.❤️”
– Annie Switzer P’25 | Facebook
“Thank you for delivering on this promise to the Class of 2024.”
– Kathryn Belliveau Allen P’24 | Facebook
Class of 2025 First-Year Walk
“I think this is my favorite Gettysburg tradition. Gettysburg is such [a] historic place. This event helps these new community members feel like they are now, in a tiny way perhaps, part of that history. Gives me chills.”
– Anne Marie Humphries P’21 | Facebook
“Best wishes to these talented and promising young people. May their journey begin with health, great learning, friendships, and joy.”
– Ron Szudy, friend of the College | Facebook
Flashback Friday
Prior to Homecoming Weekend, Gettysburg College students and alumni shared their favorite memories as part of an interactive Instagram Story on “Flashback Friday.” Here were some of their responses:
“Falling in love with my best friend.”
“The first feeling of spring when all the orange tulips are in bloom across campus.”
“First-Year Walk! 🔶🔷”
“Breakfast at Servo with roommates…miss those omelets and chocolate chip muffins.”
“When a professor gave a Greek rendition of a poem in our class.”
“Sitting in an Adirondack chair on Stine Lake! :)”
“The Gettysburg invitational track meet each spring. 🧡 💙”
36-hour Bullets Teams Challenge
“I remember when women’s lacrosse won their first national championship. A bunch of us waited for their return to campus at 1 a.m. Student and lacrosse star Lindsey Robinson ’13 was holding the NCAA trophy. I’m a huge NCAA fan and have watched athletes celebrate with such a trophy since childhood. I had to get a photo of me holding the trophy surrounded by lacrosse students from my class. It’s one of my favorite Gettysburg moments. My donation is a multiple of 18. In Jewish tradition, the number 18 symbolizes ‘chai,’ Hebrew for ‘life.’ Giving an amount that’s a multiple of 18 is a way of symbolically gifting a long and happy life. #HappyChanukah”
– Jewish Studies and Interdisciplinary Studies Prof. Stephen Stern | Facebook
A Gettysburgian’s Best Friend
“A win/win: a person rescues an animal from a hard (lonely shelter) environment and in turn that animal (any kind…originally I only thought of dogs) rescues that human from an equally rough situation. Beautifully written piece that will impact readers. Share this project with other communities around the globe.”
– Mary Folkemer ’68 | Facebook
“And then there was Weezie, the Golden Retriever across the street from Stine, who greeted all who walked by every day!”
– Lynda Ellen Taylor, friend of the College | Facebook
“The first emotional support cat *might* have been living at the Ice House [apartments] ’95-’96 ... Alyson Reichgott Jones ’96, Anna Gulick ’96, Leigh Greacen Gygax ’96.”
– Heather Manley ’96 | Facebook
In the media
'Don’t evict the homeless from my backyard’
In an opinion piece for Penn Live and the Patriot-News, English Prof. Christopher Fee P’21 spoke out against the criminalization of homelessness. “Let’s treat everyone with the dignity that we all deserve, and perhaps there won’t be a problem to move,” wrote Fee, who has taught Literature of Homelessness at the College for more than two decades.
Prof. Megan Benka-Coker ’09
Health Sciences Prof. Megan Benka-Coker ’09 was featured in a Gettysburg Times article for her measurement of pollutant levels in the past year on the College’s campus. As part of her work, the article noted that air quality measurements in Gettysburg are freely available online and updated every 10 minutes.
'What is Critical Race Theory?'
Africana Studies and History Prof. Scott Hancock was a guest on WITF’s “Smart Talk” to discuss critical race theory. “I’d define it as a body of thought that tries to define the extent to which race and racism has shaped the United States, particularly its institutions, like legal, economic governmental systems,” Hancock said.
Prof. William O’Hara
Sunderman Conservatory of Music Prof. William O’Hara was quoted in a Polygon article about the ancient history of the first note played in the “Lord of the Rings” score. “The monochord represents a kind of origin story for Western music,” O’Hara said.
Adrian MacDonald ’10
Adrian MacDonald ’10, who was on the men’s track and field and cross country teams at Gettysburg, won a 100-mile trail race in Boston in August 2021. He finished with a time of 16 hours, 18 minutes, 19 seconds, and his victory was covered by The Boston Globe.
Stargirl
Time magazine named “Stargirl,” written by Jerry Spinelli ’63, one of the “100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time,” joining highly-acclaimed titles such as “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Catcher in the Rye,” and “Little Women.”
Prof. Alecea Standlee
Sociology Prof. Alecea Standlee wrote an article for the Democrat & Chronicle about love on college campuses. In the piece, she discusses the findings of her ethnographic study, which included interviews with 68 young people between the ages of 18 to 22 about their experiences with online dating.
