About the IC School of Business

The School of Business is the product of a merger. In 1945, the College, which started as a music conservatory, bought The Practical School of Business, founded in Ithaca by Louise Williams in 1876. Since then, our School’s cultural DNA has combined a musician’s intense discipline and a female entrepreneur’s creative vision. We’re redefining what a four-year immersive business education means. Roll up your sleeves and help.

Our Mission

a student in a classroom

We provide business education for students who care about the experience as much as the outcome. We offer them real world learning, mentorship, and new ways of thinking – because sustainable enterprises need creative leaders.

Business skills for the journey.

Our Values

Real Education. Education is about facilitating our students’ growth and development – in class and out, theory and practice, experiences and ideas. We meet students where they are and help them grow from there. 

A Community that Learns Together. We want every student to feel seen, heard, respected, and challenged. We make an intellectual and an emotional investment in our work. Our collegiality, friendships, and mutual respect are the basis for authentic community. 

A Sense of Purpose. We have an obligation to make business a catalyst for positive social change. Our students’ curiosity energizes our research, and our insights inspire their curiosity. We succeed when we help them envision a more sustainable future and build careers that get them there.

What Makes Us Great?

Student-Faculty Collaboration

two women looking at a computer screen

If you want a university where no one knows your name, IC might not be the place for you. Here, faculty want to get to know you, to engage you in a conversation about business that lasts for four years and beyond. It starts in classes or in passing in the hallway. It continues at events and on trips. It means the difference between earning a degree and finding a mentor – between consuming information and building a lifelong collaboration. 

MEET THE FACULTY >>

Alumni Engagement

Stew Leonard meets with students

One of the distinctive features of an IC School of Business education is alumni involvement– from visiting classrooms to judging student business pitches, from supporting our Professions Program to evaluating the investment decisions of our student-run South Hill Fund. Helping us to orchestrate all of this are advisory boards that connect the School to alumni, industry partners and the local business community.

LEARN ABOUT OUR ADVISORY BOARDS >>

Immersive Experiences

students at the senior splash in Dillingham Fountains

Whether you want to do digital marketing for a retail chain, run game operations for a pro soccer team, start your own film production company, do the analytics to help a company make better marketing decisions, bring a long-term mindset to investing on Wall Street, or help your family business bring jobs to your hometown – IC’s School of Business is the place to start. In fact, many of our students do those things before they even graduate.

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY BUSINESS IMMERSION  >>

Commitment to Social Impact

two students walk in the IC Natural Lands

For a business school, we think about sustainability a lot! Our faculty are recognized thought leaders in the area. Our entrepreneurs win awards for sustainable business pitches. Our building is LEED platinum certified. And Ithaca is a hub for commercializing green tech and national model for building a healthy local economy. (It doesn’t hurt that our surroundings look like a Patagonia catalog.) But what comes next? We’re looking to redefine business’s role in society, and we want your help.

AACSB Accredited logo

Accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) is the hallmark of excellence in business education and has been earned by less than five percent of the world's business programs. Founded in 1916, AACSB International is the longest serving global accrediting body for business schools. Ithaca College School of Business has maintained accreditation for its business degree programs at the undergraduate and masters levels since 2005.

Learn More

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS DEAN'S OFFICE
3rd Floor, Park Center for Sustainable Enterprise
953 Danby Road • Ithaca, NY 14850

OFFICE HOURS
Monday - Friday • 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.