President\u27s Message to the Campus Community, August 2010

Over the past year I have been giving a good deal of thought to diversity at Gettysburg College. I have talked with a number of you regarding the Diversity Commission\u27s work and current structure, our institutional goals with regard to diversity, and potential strategies to meet those goals. With this letter I\u27d like to share a few thoughts with you, none of which are brand new, but which I hope give you a sense of how important I think this topic is for Gettysburg College. [excerpt

Wolf, Lawmakers Shouldn\u27t Cut Grants to Private Colleges

Earlier this week, students from private colleges and universities across the Commonwealth gathered in Harrisburg to meet with legislators and make the case for the importance of the state\u27s commitment to higher education. More specifically, for state grant programs that help to make college affordable for low- and moderate-income students and their families. I have a keen interest in making sure that talented students of all income levels have the opportunity to attain a high quality education. [excerpt

Lincoln’s Legacy and a New Generation of Leadership

One hundred fifty-three years ago our nation was adrift, embroiled in a civil war and grappling with questions about our future. Many had lost hope. In November of 1863 here at Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln called upon our nation to rededicate itself to the unfinished work before us—the work of equality, the fulfillment of our democracy, a new birth of freedom. [excerpt

Florida’s Leaders Wrong About Liberal Arts

Once again, a prominent politician from Florida has provided an excellent opportunity to talk about the value of a liberal arts education. In 2011, Florida Gov. Rick Scott commented about not needing any more anthropology majors. Around the same time, Florida State Sen. Don Gaetz referred to psychology and political science majors as “degrees that don’t mean much.” [excerpt

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Thinking Beyond Access

Last spring I announced at a faculty meeting that a major theme for our campus this year would be diversity and inclusion. I’d like to add equity to that framework as well. This year I hope that we can develop a shared understanding of these topics and some goals to which we can aspire as a community. Five years ago Gettysburg College established a set of four strategic directions to guide our planning and decision-making: Engagement, Distinction, Access, and Connection. At that time we described Access as our aspiration to “increase the diversity of the student body and create a campus environment that is accessible and welcoming to a diverse student body.” Now is the time to ask the Gettysburg College community to engage in thinking and discussion about how we might update and expand our approach to this strategic direction. I understand that some members of our community might wonder why this is important. The answer is simple: to be a premier liberal arts college, to deliver a truly excellent educational experience to our students, we must increase our focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. This focus is essential to preparing our students for professional and civic lives of impact in this rapidly changing, multicultural, globally interconnected world. [excerpt

President\u27s Message on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Last spring I announced that we would take time this year to focus some of our thinking and conversation on the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion. There are many reasons for us to direct our efforts to this topic: the changing demographics in our society and the need to provide a welcoming environment to a diverse student body, faculty and staff; our responsibility to prepare students for living in diverse communities and working in diverse workplaces; and our desire to prepare citizens who will be sensitive to social injustices and motivated to right them. In addition, we cannot dismiss recent student survey results that indicate a general disappointment in the opportunities on campus to interact with diverse peers. [excerpt

The Overlooked Potential of Generalized Linear Models in Astronomy-III: Bayesian Negative Binomial Regression and Globular Cluster Populations

In this paper, the third in a series illustrating the power of generalized linear models (GLMs) for the astronomical community, we elucidate the potential of the class of GLMs which handles count data. The size of a galaxy's globular cluster population $N_{\rm GC}$ is a prolonged puzzle in the astronomical literature. It falls in the category of count data analysis, yet it is usually modelled as if it were a continuous response variable. We have developed a Bayesian negative binomial regression model to study the connection between $N_{\rm GC}$ and the following galaxy properties: central black hole mass, dynamical bulge mass, bulge velocity dispersion, and absolute visual magnitude. The methodology introduced herein naturally accounts for heteroscedasticity, intrinsic scatter, errors in measurements in both axes (either discrete or continuous), and allows modelling the population of globular clusters on their natural scale as a non-negative integer variable. Prediction intervals of 99% around the trend for expected $N_{\rm GC}$comfortably envelope the data, notably including the Milky Way, which has hitherto been considered a problematic outlier. Finally, we demonstrate how random intercept models can incorporate information of each particular galaxy morphological type. Bayesian variable selection methodology allows for automatically identifying galaxy types with different productions of GCs, suggesting that on average S0 galaxies have a GC population 35% smaller than other types with similar brightness.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA