Students at Gettysburg College are pushing back against a proposed plan to send some students home to mitigate the spread of coronavirus. Prior to the decision, the college had implemented some of the nation’s strictest mitigation protocols. Students were required to stay in their dorm room when they weren’t at the cafeteria or in the restroom.
According to a report by Campus Reform, students at Gettysburg College are pushing back against a recent decision to send students home. Some students claim that they plan to defy a demand from administrators to leave campus.
In a statement, Gettysburg College President Bob Iuliano announced that sophomores, juniors, and seniors will be required to leave campus as a part of a comprehensive plan to “de-densify” the campus.
I am writing, therefore, to share the difficult news that, after consultation with our Board of Trustees and medical experts, we have determined it is necessary to reduce the number of students on campus. The first-year class and a cohort of other students will be able to continue to remain in residence; other students will return home and learn remotely for the remainder of the fall semester. Below, I outline our next steps in this process, as well as identify what student cohorts will remain on campus and those that will phase out of our residential model.
Some student leaders have expressed frustration over the decision. For example, some students claim that they need more time to arrange travel plans. Other students claim that they will refuse to leave campus until administrators devise an alternative plan.
“We are calling all students to protest this displacement by standing their ground, remaining within their closed quarters until Gettysburg College truly decides to communicate and negotiate with its students,” one group of student leaders said. “This is not an act of defiance. This is a demand for justice.”
Breitbart News reported in 2019 that a member of Gettysburg College’s Board of Trustees was forced to resign after a photo surfaced in which he was dressed as a Nazi.
Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more updates on this story.