Apple, owner of Gettysburg College, released a new iTouch and iPhone application today just in time for this year’s formal sorority recruitment. The app is iSister, a newly formulated method to recruit freshman girls into the Greek system. With this new app, rotationals are a thing of the past. Using iSister, the sorority sisters and the potential new members don’t even need to meet.

“iSister allows us to stalk the girls we want, friend them using a Facebook-like interface, then offer them bids electronically through the app. It’s so much easier than the old way of doing it,” said a sister in one of Gettysburg’s most recent sororities, Iota Pi Omicron Delta, colloquially referred to as iPod. “We just plug in the traits we want in one of our sisters and then it gives us a list of matches.”

For example, if a sorority types in “straight A’s,” “blonde hair,” or “drunken mess,” iSister will provide them with appropriate matches pulling information straight from their profiles as well as inferring characteristics from provided information. If a girl says in her profile, “likes to go on morning walks,” iSister conveniently reads between the lines and places her in the “likes to sleep around – or whore” category. The input, “enjoys acting as a liaison between freshman dorms and the various fraternal establishments,” is translated to “likes to get blackout on weeknights.”

iSister goes beyond the recruitment process as well, with the automatic electronic hazing feature. All new pledges will be rhetorically abused via text message and Facebook wall until initiation.

“It’s really convenient,” said a senior iPod sister. “It comments ‘fatty’ on every profile picture of the girl. It’s so handy because I don’t have to copy and paste every time.”

The iSister app is in its trial run with Gettysburg Greek life this year and hopefully will be instated nationwide within the next few years.



When a piece of literature is interpreted into film, there are always inevitable grumblings of dissatisfaction and accusations by the fans of misinterpretation by the filmmakers. Howl suffers from this dichotomy more so than a novel-turned-film because it is based on a poem, which is much more open to interpretation and lacks the architecture of narration and plot that a novel innately has.

The film Howl centers on a dramatized version of an interview with Allen Ginsberg, the obscenity trial surrounding his poem, Howl, a black and white rendering of an underground, seemingly hipster poetry reading, and finally an animated interpretation of the actual poem.

While on one hand I was completely surprised and disappointed by the animation of the poem itself, on the other hand I was captivated by the portrayal of Ginsberg and the obscenity trial surrounding the poem.

Simultaneously using four perspectives to tell a single story is an ambitious undertaking that ultimately leaves the audience feeling unfulfilled. The concept of four views is an interesting one, but each point of view is too brief. The audience does not have time to form attachments to the characters, namely James Franco’s portrayal of Ginsberg. It is especially disappointing because each frame is too interesting on its own to only have a tiny peek.

Although there was somewhat of an emotional gap between the audience and Ginsberg, the film depicted the relationship between Ginsberg and his life-partner, Peter Orlovsky, in a touching, albeit brief, way. At once, it was moving and completely heartbreaking. Their relationship in the film was the most notable and memorable storyline, which begs the question why a biopic of Ginsberg has not been made in the past. Franco convincingly and sincerely portrays Ginsberg, embodying not only his mannerisms and speech patterns, but the essence of what a person imagines Ginsberg to have had.

One of the greatest disappointments of the film was the portrayal of the poem itself – the namesake and very reason for this film to be made. The animation portions of the film do a disservice to viewers who never read the poem prior to the film. The amateur attempts at CGI came off too cartoon-like to be taken at all seriously. The images they paired with Ginsberg’s words, too, were fantastical making his poem seem theoretical instead of an earnest contemplation of the experience of a drifter or a rootless wanderer, and the hardships associated with that life.

It’s odd because while this portion of the film is so demeaning, the obscenity trial actually makes me value the poem more than I ever have. The lawyer representing Ginsberg’s publisher accused of producing obscene material, played by Mad Men’s Jon Hamm, says during the trial, “there are books that have the power to change men’s minds,” speaking of Howl. Likewise, there are also films that will change minds. In fact, even with the atrocious animations, this movie changed my mind. While I had always appreciated Howl, it was never a work of great importance in my personal literary cannon. This film, however, proved to me that Howl is not only a literary triumph, but also a political one, a social one. It made me appreciate it, not only as a poem, but it made me appreciate the man behind the poem.

Forget your grandma’s tea parties. The “tea parties” held by the new club on campus, the Tea Party Club, are large protests against the school and the government. The club is an official branch of the national Tea Party Movement, known for its fiscal conservatism and libertarian ideals. The club was established in reaction to Gettysburg College’s “socialist and over the top” spending habits as well as its overtly liberal policies, said the president of the club, Earl Gray.

“I think people are finally realizing that in this recession, we can’t just sit back and let the school steal money straight out of our pockets. Our club is really gaining momentum because more and more people like the idea of not paying for things,” he said.

Their protests, held on Stein Lake, are big ordeals with dozens of people gathering and waving tea bags and protest signs, while chanting “tea bag them before they tea bag you.” With a threat like that, it’s hard to believe the club isn’t larger than it is. “I’m not worried about size,” said Gray. “Do you think Thomas Jefferson or George Washington were popular?” he said.

“What’s great about the protests is that we all share a sense of peace and unity within the group. When we protest there’s an open invitation for anyone to join us. We’ve got loads of extra signs with us, just in case,” said club member Chami Mile, motioning to a pile of signs saying things like “Hear My Voice or Hear My Gun,” and “Throw Morgan Riggs Under the Bus.” “I think the signs are really effective,” she said. “They get our message across, while still remaining non-partisan.”

Among other concerns the club raises against the administration, the concern over the school’s “obvious and unfair” liberal bias. For example, many of the club members cited the newly acquired ESPN channels as “just more liberal television stations” by which students can be “brainwashed into the mainstream culture that abandons everything this country is founded upon,” said club member and fierce defender of his American nationality, Darjeeling Oolong. “If you look at which stations the college provides, it’s apparent that the majority are liberal television stations,” he said. In fact, the only “media stations of quality and non-partisanship” are FOX News, FOX, The Weather Channel, CSPAN (only if there is a Republican majority in the House/Senate), and The Game Show Network. Other mainstream stations such as French TV-5, the History Channel, and all other network television is inherently biased. “The school isn’t even hiding their bias. It’s no accident,” said Gray. “Television here is only the first step in the school’s mission to turn us all into socialists.”

Not only is the club working on a petition to ban many television stations on campus, it is also working towards the disbandment of Center for Public Service and Alpha Phi Omega, the service fraternity. “Both of those organizations are inherently socialist because they want to distribute the wealth, as the democrats say,” said Mile. “What distribute the wealth really means is to take my hard-earned money and dole it out to a bunch of lazy poor people and immigrants,” said a club member as he adjusted his white Vineyard Vines hat as he simultaneously texted someone on his iPhone.

Another mission of the club is to change the Environmental Science department curriculum, as well as rework the Gettysburg Environmental Concerns Organization (GECO) because they endorse global warming. Protestors attend meetings with signs saying “Cap n’ trade? Lock n’ Load!”

Additionally, the Tea Partiers are trying to fundraise for specialists to come survey the land surrounding Gettysburg to see if it would be possible for oil drilling. “I want the government to drill here and drill now. What use is the surrounding land? It’s just a bunch of farmland. Seriously, the Civil War ended like 100 years ago, can we move on? No one cares about the battlefields,” said Oolong.

Future plans for the club include an invitation to Sarah Palin to give the commencement speech for the outgoing class of 2010, as well as an ad campaign to attract new members. While the ever popular “tea bag them before they tea bag you” slogan is the current front-runner for their upcoming campaign, club members are looking to branch out to such slogans as “Communists are Democrats in a hurry,” and “Mainstream Media, Hollywood – Guilty of Treason? Yes, They Are!”

“We just want people to know that there are other options besides socialism. We are patriots for the true America,” said Gray. “It’s a really great, non-partisan organization that welcomes anyone that’s willing to conform to our ideals.”

Sitting around a table talking about Plato and The Republic, student Abraham Apfel never felt more like the stereotypical college student. “We didn’t have any iced mochas though,” said Apfel. “We didn’t have berets either,” replied Professor Brett Rogers. Although discussing Plato may seem like the pinnacle of the classic college experience, the class Democratic Labors in Athens and America is not the usual college class because it combines role-playing games and history.

The class just finished playing their first game, which was a simulation of 403 BCE Athens. The way the game is set up is that there are two factions of generally opposing characters, as well as six Indeterminates who are characters with specific or specialized agendas. The main goal of the game is to pass legislation that fulfills the characters’ goals. In order to get the highest score possible within the game, plotting, politics, and alliances are methods often used by the players. “By the fifth session everyone’s a mastermind,” said Rogers, the professor who brought this historical role-playing class to Gettysburg.

Even though the students in the class “were unsure how the game was supposed to run,” said student Ryan Tunkel, “most people were willing to dive right in.” The gung-ho attitude of the class materialized with a student storming the podium in rage, a coup, and an attempt to strip someone of their right to vote.

There was even a student who stayed so well in character that Tunkel “spent until a couple of days ago thinking he was playing the game making very poor decisions and putting a lot of people off until I realized he had been in character the entire time,” he said.

While staying in character is an important aspect of the game, “the person’s personality definitely comes out in their role,” said Apfel. Even though the player does have control over which actions they will take, Tunkel said, as a democrat, his “votes are often pre-scripted and to deviate from them would cause me to lose the game and act out of character.”

Another aspect of character is wardrobe. “We all had some very nice dresses on,” said Apfel, referencing the period dress that most students wore to class. “One person that is playing a war hero has come in every day with a sling and battle wounds created from make up,” said Tunkel.

Political strategy also proved to be a very central aspect to the game. One student brought cupcakes into class in order to bribe the other players. The near necessity of making alliances with other students causes the students in the class to know one another better. “Enough wheeling and dealing is necessary in the game that you need to know everyone and there was a lot of meeting outside of class,” said Tunkel. Apfel agrees that the very nature of the class causes everyone to get to know one another better.

Although the format and concept of the class are outlined in the “Reacting to the Past” series, Rogers incorporated many adjustments for his class. For example, he didn’t want his students to come away with the idea that there were cookie-cutter characters, or to categorize them like “we’re the red team, we’re the blue team,” said Rogers. People don’t always so cleanly fall into factions, he said, “it’s supposed to be messier.” Especially with this class, more people were pursuing individual legislation, as opposed to just dealing with the main issues, said Rogers.

This game also pushes both the students and the teacher to expand their knowledge of the time period. One student in the class “knows a shocking amount about Athenian real estate,” said Rogers. Also because of the active online community for classes like these, there is a sharing of knowledge about subjects scholars had never thought about before.

Because this class is unique in structure, there is difficulty for the teacher in planning out the course of the game. “You need a very active teacher to do this well,” said Apfel. There is a bigger sacrifice of time on the teacher’s part because they will need to spend more time talking to students or emailing with them. As a teacher, “you tend to overplan things, so it’s a really risky thing because you don’t know how the day’s going to go,” said Rogers.

Bush-era politics, government invasion of privacy, and the destruction of civil liberties are the foremost images when the Patriot Act comes to mind. The Patriot Act is so mired with these negative images that any mention of the act will immediately repel most Americans. Beyond these off-putting associations, the Patriot Act is not all it’s accused to be. The reauthorization of the Patriot Act is an effective and unobtrusive way to protect national security.

President Obama extended for one year three provisions of the Patriot Act into law on February 27, 2010. The provisions extended are the use of court approved roving wiretaps on multiple technologies, seizure of property and records in anti-terrorism operations, and surveillance of ‘lone wolf’ suspects or non-US citizens who engage in terrorism without being affiliated with a particular organization.

The first extension on roving wiretaps allows investigators to tap multiple technologies for one person, such as more than one phone or a computer. This provision allows for a warrant on a specific person instead of on a specific piece of technology, which allows investigators to more effectively track a suspect. The ability of the government to use wiretaps is not a new practice. They were in use as of 1986, almost two decades before the Patriot Act was passed. The Patriot Act only extends their use to gathering information specifically on terrorists. This does not mean that the government can tap anyone’s phone or computer for no reason or even on minor suspicion. A court approved warrant is a necessary component for using a wiretap. The Patriot Act forbids investigation solely based on First Amendment activities.

During a normal investigation, investigators are only allowed to take information and photographs from the scene of a crime or from a warranted search. With the second extended provision of the Patriot Act, physical evidence can now be removed from the scene in a terrorist investigation. This provision goes further and allows investigators to obtain information from third parties about financial and other information of the suspected person. Again, the government cannot just obtain this kind of information on some random person. This type of investigative tool was used to track down the Unabomber in the 1990s.  There must to be some court approved reasonable cause in order to use this provision. Keep in mind; in over half of the cases tried with evidence used from the Patriot Act have resulted in either a conviction or a guilty plea.

The last provision that was extended is the ‘lone wolf’ provision. This clause allows investigators to track non-US citizens who are not affiliated with a known terrorist organization. Because terrorist groups are often only loosely organized, members may be hard to define. A person who knowingly participates in an act of terrorism, then, is suspect under this clause.

The Patriot Act isn’t an evil entity out to destroy innocent people, nor is it an invention of a Big Brother type government. The Patriot Act aims to target people that are trying to cause destruction and death. The Patriot Act is simply a modernization of old laws so that the federal government can keep up with the advances in technology, while protecting our country from future terrorist attacks.

While some people can’t even remember what they ate for lunch, freshman Mike Schneider can remember up to 600 digits of the natural log e. In order to facilitate Schneider’s hobby of memorizing, he began the Gettysburg Memory Club, which is headed to the national competition in March.

Memorization is not nearly as simple as most people believe it to be. There are many techniques and devices used in order to maximize memorization. “I knew we would be memorizing things, but I wasn’t aware of the techniques until I joined the club,” said freshman Vaughn Rennie.

One such technique is used in the game Numbers. Each competitor gets a sheet with 20 rows with 20 numbers in each row, making 400 total numbers. The object is to memorize the most numbers in order within 15 minutes. The device for this game is to “turn the digits into images,” said Schneider. For example, if the number 71 appeared on the sheet, the digits 7 and 1 both correspond to a letter, in this case 7 is K and 1 is either T or D. When Schneider plays this game, the number 71 always corresponds to the image of a cat because the sound K with T can sound like cat. This kind of technique is “the rookie system,” said Schneider. This is the technique Schneider teaches to the other club members. To accompany this method, there is a memory dictionary where each number is listed and is attached to images.

The more advanced version of this technique is to take three numbers at a time and make the first a character, the second an action, and the third an object. For example, if the numbers 71, 02, and 167 all appeared in a row, Schneider would make the 71 into his cousin, again, derived from the K sound. The second number he would turn into the verb “preaches,” and the third number would be the object, stagecoach. The string of numbers becomes an image of his cousin preaching on top of a stagecoach. “The key to memory is to take things and make them into silly and ridiculous things,” said Schneider.

The same type of technique is used for the game Cards. Again, the cards all have meanings or an individual can assign meaning to them. The King of Spades, for example, could be Obama, the seven of spades could be running, and the four of clubs could be a car. So the image associated with those three cards would be Obama running into a car. “At first [these techniques] seem really odd and strange, but they actually work,” said Rennie.

While the club officially has eleven members, only 3 students are participating in the national competition, including Schneider, Rennie, and sophomore Karl Utermohlen. Schneider, having participated in memory club in high school, has already attended nationals. Last year, 52 people competed and Schneider got 9^th place.

Schneider concedes that aspects of this hobby don’t “have much use in life,” an improved memory plus the techniques can help with school, especially when memorizing mathematical formulas, said Schneider. The game Names and Faces also helps in real life situations when meeting new people. The object of Names and Faces is to memorize 99 names and faces in 15 minutes. Now, when Schneider meets a new person, their name “just sticks” in his head. Schneider said that although it “may seem a little creepy” his goal is to memorize everyone’s’ phone numbers on his floor.

Floating beer cans in the sink, a slippery film of brown sludge coating the floor, and questionable looking stains on the walls. No, it’s not a truck stop bathroom. That is a description of Gettysburg’s fraternity bathrooms. Girls need to know what to expect from each frat bathroom because, as we all know, going to the bathroom isn’t about actually going to the bathroom. With these ratings you will know what you’re in for when you need to make a quick escape from the dance floor.

1. Lambda Chi – By far my favorite bathroom. Not only is it relatively clean, it serves many social purposes as well. Every time I have been in that bathroom, myself or some other group of girls has congregated sitting atop those washing machines discussing the latest creepy drunk guy that has tried to get with every girl in the frat. When that same creep comes and starts dancing with you, grab some friends and take cover on the washing machines in the girl’s bathroom.

2. Sigma Chi – Once you finally trek through the snow on a Saturday night, you’re wet, cold, and pretty sure you’re makeup is smeared all over your face. The best place to go in this situation is Sigma Chi’s bathroom. Comparatively clean, this bathroom also has good lightening and big mirrors, so no matter how rough you look going in, you can come out looking as clean and new as though you just got out of the shower. For all anyone knows you could have, because there are two showers just waiting by the entrance.

3. Fiji – Aside from the use of this bathroom as a recycling bin for cans, Fiji keeps it pretty clean. I appreciate this fact when my friends insist on collecting all of the tabs off of the piles of half empty beer cans haphazardly stacked in the corners of the bathroom. If you need to cap off your tab collection or just don’t know what to do with an empty (or not so empty) can or cup, try the bathroom. You’ll be in good company.

4. ATO – Your dancing in ATO and across the floor you see that guy that you hooked up with last weekend.. The first thing that comes to mind is TOO MUCH TONGUE! You need an escape. Quickly you grab a friend and bolt to the bathroom, but alas, the line is too long! ATO’s bathroom is not one for a quick escape, but in non-emergency situations, it’s definitely worth the wait.

5. CROW – Slipping from the constant stream of beer flooding the dance floor is easy in Crow. Conversely, the bathroom floor is bone dry. This is probably due to the entire roll of toilet paper soaking up the pond “fratti light” in the bathroom. While it’s preferable not to have to wade through a swamp of beer to wash your hands, the soaking roll of toilet paper is of no help at certain critical moments.

6. Sigma Nu – Whenever I am in Sigma Nu’s bathroom, I feel like I’ve walked into one of Willy Wonka’s secret shrinking rooms. Everything in that bathroom seems miniaturized. I guess it’s a lazy person’s dream because you can reach anything by standing in one place. Above the paper towel-clogged sink is not quite a mirror, but rather some other metallic surface that distorts your face. The lines for the bathroom are probably so long because everyone needs to stall in confusion over the mini-fixtures and funhouse mirror.

7. Phi Delta Theta –Phi Del’s bathroom caters to both sexes as well as the gender confused having both a urinal and a toilet in the same room. One other warning: don’t be surprised if some small animal shoots out across the floor. It’s been known to happen.

8. Phi Sigma – Watch your feet at Phi Sigma because the toilets will overflow. Chances are, you are not the first person who has flushed that toilet tonight, so just imagine what you’re standing on right now. Don’t flush the toilets.

9. TKE – Who needs privacy when you’re at TKE? Their bathroom is not one that fosters much girl talk; it’s more of a get in, get out situation (that’s what she said). With no stall doors to the bathrooms, you will become very well acquainted with friends and …not friends. Not to mention the complete lack of toilet paper, the clogged sink, and the beer littered floor.

10. SAE - The most important thing you will need to know about SAE’s bathroom is that more people would rather go outside, than to use their actual toilets. If, however, you do choose to take on this bathroom, you will need reinforcements. Aside from the overall griminess, the doors to the graffiti smattered stalls do not lock and toilet paper in one or the other of the stalls will likely be out. In order to avoid the whole “can you spare a square” situation, make sure the person holding your door has some extra toilet paper.

A toga is not the usual classroom attire. In Professor Brett Rogers’s new class, however, dressing in costume is not only encouraged, but required.

The class, Democratic Labors in Athens and America, “combin[es] role playing and history,” said Rogers. Over the course of the semester, the students will participate in two simulations or “games” that correlate to their readings in the class.

The class will study “two democracies at arguably fairly turbulent times,” Rogers said. The two democracies studied are 403 BCE Athens and 1913 Greenwich Village, both of which were time periods that faced many challenges to democracy.

The class is structured that there is about three weeks of reading historical texts and then three weeks of playing the game.

A game is based on both of these time periods where students are assigned roles and then must portray that role through costume, drama, and historical accuracy. Each role has a series of objectives the student must try to meet throughout the course of the game. Depending on how the game goes, history can change within the simulation.

“People read stuff but don’t really get what’s going on,” said Rogers. If a student is able to “play through a position,” it might change the way he or she thinks about the text, he said.

A central element to the class is student involvement and direction. “The class is completely and totally student driven,” said student Alex Skufca.

Only three weeks into the course, said Rogers, the students “don’t talk to me, they talk to each other.”

” Professor Rogers only interjects to clarify historical points or add something to our understanding of the text. For example when class discussion brought up the classic nature versus nurture, Rogers explained the Greek origins of that agreement,” Skufca said.

The fact that the class is able to run things on their own already may be credit to the “shockingly unique group of people” in the class, said Rogers.

He said this group is the most excited and motivated group of students that he has seen in a while.

The students also seem to enjoy the atmosphere in the classroom.

“I realized that everyone in the class cared just as much as I did [about] what Socrates was saying,” said Skufca.

This camaraderie among the students in the class will hopefully transfer over to the games. Although the game will not start for another one or two weeks, students are already excited about participating in the simulation.

“I am planning on going as far as I reasonably can [in the simulation]. The major obstacle is simply finding the costumes and props, not working up any desire to wear them. I have that in spades,” said student Ryan Tunkel.

Because the game operates on a points system, people who do not dress up will not do as well in the class. Likewise, if a player does not meet his or her objectives, their score will be markedly lower than other players.

The class model is based on the book series, “Reacting to the Past,” which was created at Barnard College. A professor at Barnard discovered that his students could understand and interpret the text better if they acted it out and so he decided to pursue the idea.

In order to start this class at Gettysburg, Rogers received a grant from the Johnson Center for Creative Teaching. The Johnson Center grants loans in order for students and teachers to pursue experiential and collaborative education. The hope of the Johnson Center, Rogers said, is to discover methods of teaching or learning that can be continued. Rogers hopes that if this semester works out, the class will be offered again, although “no two classes turn out the same.”

In addition to getting the grant, Rogers has gone to different lengths to make the class the best it can be. Because he specializes in classics, he felt comfortable teaching the section of the course on Athens, but needed to learn more about Greenwich Village in the early twentieth century. Therefore Rogers spent part of his summer in Greenwich Village getting the feel and historical basis for that section of the class.

Even though the class is designed to be student run, there is still a lot of preparation to be done on his part, Rogers said.

“You can tell that Brett has put a lot of work into making this course and it is going to be very exciting and something truly different to a normal learning experience,” said student Amy Shinko.

“This is your education to take charge of,” said Rogers.

As freshman Teddy Moses feels the top of his head, instead of pulling his fingers through his typical curly hair, he now skims over his freshly buzzed head. “It still surprises me when I look in the mirror,” said Moses. As a new recruit into the Reserve Office Training Corp., Moses is already adapting to a more military lifestyle by cutting his hair to regulation length.

In addition to the shaved heads, cadets dedicate their time and energy to the ROTC, a program that “takes civilians and makes them officers in the US army,” said freshman Ben Flanders. ROTC prepares college students for officer positions in the US military after graduation.

There are currently two cadets already enrolled in the program and three newly joined members. The two cadets currently enrolled are contracted, which means their college education is paid for and they get a monthly stipend from the army. Being contracted also means that after graduation, that student must serve for an allotted amount of time, usually four years.

Physically and mentally, people in the ROTC need to be up to military standards. Military science classes, leadership labs, and physical training are all components of the ROTC experience. Two or three times a week, cadets have physical training from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. “You got to learn to love getting up early to go for a run,” said Flanders.

While Gettysburg has not had an ROTC program since 1990, the five Gettysburg students go to Dickinson College to participate in the program. Three to four times a week the cadets must take the 39-minute commute to Dickinson for classes and physical training. “The commute sucks, I’d like to have [a battalion] here [but] as much as I don’t like it, I deal with it,” said Flanders. “Sacrifice is what I’ve been about for a long time,” he said. Freshman Brett Clark, who plays on the baseball team, also finds the commute to be an inconvenience. “It’s like having another practice during the day,” he said.

Another inconvenience for Gettysburg students is the policy of the school to refuse class credit for military science classes taken through the ROTC. “It is an imposition on them,” said former Registrar Ron Couchman. Couchman was Registrar when the decision was made to cut class credit. “They have to do Dickinson coursework without getting Gettysburg credit,” he said. The cadets at Gettysburg seem to all agree that taking a class without getting any credit is the most annoying part of being in the program.

The school refuses to take credit from ROTC classes because at the time the decision was made to stop taking the credits, a majority of the faculty believed that “military science [was] not an appropriate type of credit for a liberal arts college,” said Couchman. The issue of the army’s discriminatory practices was also raised.

“The one frustrating thing is that Gettysburg acknowledges we take the class but they don’t give us credit because of ‘don’t ask don’t tell,’” said Clark. There have been some attempts over the years to change the policy by students, but the faculty’s decision remains the same.

While going to a liberal arts college can have its drawbacks with respect to ROTC, it’s also a great alternative for students as opposed to attending a military academy. Life at a military academy is much different than that of a liberal arts college. At the academy, he would only get a military experience, but by coming to Gettysburg Flanders said he “get[s] a college experience in addition to a military experience.”

While only five students are currently cadets, back in the ROTC’s heyday, around the 1940′s, “it used to be huge,” said Couchman. ROTC was “an integral part of the campus,” he said. In fact, the battalion at Gettysburg was the seventh battalion in the country to receive a charter.

One reason the enrollment numbers have changed over the years is because participation in ROTC exempted students from the Gettysburg physical education requirement. When Gettysburg did away with that requirement, the numbers began to dwindle and finally shut down in 1990. A small battalion was not the only reason Gettysburg ROTC was shut down. In the late 1980′s, the army was streamlining itself, which meant closing certain ROTC battalions across the country, particularly the smaller ones.

1984 Gettysburg graduate and former member in ROTC, Robert Weaver is sad to see Gettysburg without an ROTC battalion. The army’s streamlining “put to death one of the earliest ROTC formations, in the town whose very name is synonymous with saving government ‘of the people, by the people, for the people.’”

Even with the inconveniences of commuting and receiving no college credit, the cadets agree that the experience is worth it. Being a part of the United States military “is not a job, it’s a lifestyle, it’s a part of who you are. I couldn’t go back to being just Joe Schmo on the street,” said Flanders.