Sororities at Gettysburg College During the Haaland Era, 1990-2004

From 1990 to 2004, Gettysburg College’s Greek system dominated student social life and, due to its prominence (and notoriety), attracted the attention of not only students but also faculty and administration during the era of President Gordon A. Haaland. Although fraternities were often the more influential and problematic Greek organizations on campus, Gettysburg’s sororities played a major role in the lives of female students -- offering women a chance to join a community of other women, participate in philanthropy events, and engage in Greek social life. Throughout the Haaland era, Gettysburg’s sororities consisted of a combination of Sigma Kappa, Alpha Xi Delta, Alpha Delta Pi, Chi Omega, Delta Gamma, Gamma Phi Beta, and Sigma Sigma Sigma. During the 14 years, some of these sororities were added, some disappeared, and all witnessed a reduction in membership by the end of Haaland’s presidency. Some sororities had more problematic reputations than others or hazed new members, but sororities were not often perceived as negatively as fraternities were by college faculty and administration -- primarily due to sororities’ lack of chapter houses. Nevertheless, sororities experienced the same administrative changes to Greek life that their male counterparts did, including three shifts in rush/pledge program timing. Beyond these broad changes, other transformations during the Haaland era were more specific to sororities, including the creation of new chapter rooms and the adoption of No Frills Rush

An Education in Hate: The “Granite Foundation” of Adolf Hitler’s Antisemitism in Vienna

Adolf Hitler’s formative years in Vienna, from roughly 1907 to 1913, fundamentally shaped his antisemitism and provided the foundation of a worldview that later caused immense tragedy for European Jews. Combined with a study of Viennese culture and society, the first-hand accounts of Adolf Hitler and his former friends, August Kubizek and Reinhold Hanisch, reveal how Hitler’s vicious antisemitic convictions developed through his devotion to Richard Wagner and his rejection of Viennese “Jewish” Modernism; his admiration of political role models, Georg Ritter von Schönerer and Dr. Karl Lueger; his adoption of the rhetoric and dogma disseminated by antisemitic newspapers and pamphlets; and his perception of the “otherness” of Ostjuden on the streets of Vienna. Altogether, Hitler’s interest in and pursuit of these major influences on his extreme and deadly prejudice against Jews have illuminated how such a figure became a historical possibility