September 23, 2024
Dear Campus Community,
As noted in recent messages from Vice President Ehrlich and me, the past few weeks have been challenging for our community. Most important, unacceptable, and distressing was the act by one student to scratch a racial slur onto the body of another student. As I said in my September 19 note to the campus, “[n]o matter the relationship, and no matter the motivation, there is no place on this campus for words or actions that demean, degrade, or marginalize based on one’s identity and history.”
Since then, the national media has focused attention on the incident and the College.
We are upset. We need to acknowledge the harm the incident has imposed on members of our community who by virtue of their identity, race, culture, and history have long been marginalized in our society through language and actions precisely like those that took place. We need to ask what it says about our campus’s culture and our work to create an environment where every student feels a sense of belonging and authentic membership. We are struggling to find the right words when family and friends, seeing the national news, ask us about what happened and what it says about our school.
It will take time for us to see this moment clearly, to work through its impact, and to understand the lessons it offers us as a community. But I know this: the character of a community is defined by how it responds to situations that challenge its most basic commitments. And it is in part for that reason that I’m writing.
The student conduct investigation affirmed that the incident is not a byproduct of an unhealthy athletic team culture or a reflection on the team itself; rather, we see in the captains the measure of what it means to be a Gettysburgian by their notification to their coaches. We see it in the actions taken by faculty, staff, and other members of the community when they heard concerning reports of what happened that evening. We see it in the calls for justice from all corners of our community, underscoring our unwavering values as a community and our collective commitment to confronting and addressing racism. We see it in the family of the student on whom the racial slur was scratched, and their continued belief in the College.
We know there are lessons to be learned—lessons that must take into account our collective history. We know that those lessons won’t reveal themselves on their own—it takes a focused effort to study, reflect, understand, and then take concrete actions. To that end, I have asked Eloísa Gordon-Mora, the College’s Chief Diversity Officer, to lead a process through which we undertake that important work.
In the meantime, let’s continue to look out for one another, to support one another, and to use our response to this incident to strengthen the community we are and want to be. For generations, our campus has occupied a special place in American history, connected to ground that has so long served as a reminder of the dire consequences of bigotry and racial animus. Let us be clear that racism has no place at Gettysburg.
Best,
Bob Iuliano
President