August 25, 2025
Dear Students,
Happy first day of classes! As we begin a new academic year together, I’d like to offer a warm welcome to our returning students and our newest Gettysburgians, the Class of 2029.
This year promises to be an exciting one. You’ll have expanded opportunities to pursue your passions through three new majors—Finance, Public Health Policy, and Communication Studies—all of which are already generating tremendous interest.
We’ve also launched new graduate partnerships with Loyola University Maryland, Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Policy, and Towson University. Alongside our own online Master of Education, with its special focus on inclusive education, design thinking, and teaching inquiry, these programs open even more pathways after Gettysburg.
On the playing fields, we’re likewise raising the bar, building on our best-ever finish in athletics—a No. 29 ranking in the annual Division III Learfield Directors’ Cup standings. We’ll gather together for a special Under the Lights game and campus-wide tailgate on Friday, September 5. It’s sure to be an unforgettable night!
We’re also investing in the spaces where our students live and learn. Renovations to our West Quad residence halls, the College Union Building Ballroom, and Plank’s lower level are underway, with other spaces like Plank’s outdoor patio and our new Bloomberg Terminal Lab ready for use this semester.
All said, we’re pursuing these and countless other initiatives—all in support of your Gettysburg experience. I am deeply proud of how our global community of Gettysburgians—33,000 strong—is rallying around you in this moment of profound change for our campus, higher education, and our nation more broadly.
At our annual First-Year Walk, History Prof. Michael Birkner ’72, P’10, offered this poignant advice: “…recognize what your decision to attend Gettysburg College offers: the chance to explore subjects you’re curious about; to give your best effort in all you do, whether it is for your course work, on the athletic field, or for the different organizations you will join. Recognize that we learn by doing, learn by trial and error, that failing at one endeavor or another along the way is not some final defeat, but an incentive to work ever harder.”
Each of you is here because we believe in you—and because we see something truly extraordinary in you. Lean into every opportunity before you at Gettysburg: in your courses, on the performance stages and playing fields, and in the wider community. Know that you are part of a College that will challenge you, support you, and celebrate you every step of the way—and with persistence and hard work, you will discover just how much you’re capable of achieving.
I wish you the very best in the year ahead!
Sincerely,
Bob Iuliano
President