The Imagining Ithaca co-chairs held an open forum on Thursday to present and gather feedback on the goals and objectives of the strategic plan, which were announced in a campus-wide email earlier this week. There were nine goals in all, each with multiple objectives.
Imagining Ithaca Goals Shared at Open Forum
By IC News staff, May 10, 2019
Strategic Planning co-chairs outline the plan and receive feedback from the campus community.
Roughly 50 people gathered to hear details about the draft of the strategic plan.
Roughly 50 people gathered to hear details about the draft of the strategic plan.
Attend the Next Strategic Plan Open Forum
The goals were the result of a nearly year-long strategic planning process, a collaborative effort which incorporated ideas and feedback from students, staff, faculty, alumni, trustees and local community members. The co-chairs of the steering committee, Provost La Jerne Terry Cornish and Jason Freitag, associate professor in the Department of History, walked the roughly 50 attendees through each of the goals and objectives and fielded comments and questions from the audience.
Some of the five-year goals included becoming a year-round campus for living and learning opportunities; becoming a model for student success, engagement, and well-being (which includes lowering the cost of attendance); structurally supporting collaboration, interdisciplinarity, curricular flexibility, and shared governance; and becoming a national model for colleges committed to the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
You can find the comprehensive list of goals and objectives on the Imagining Ithaca website.
Ashley Bohn, operations and external relations officer in the School of Humanities and Sciences, expressed enthusiasm for the idea of developing a family care center to support employees and serve as an experiential learning opportunity for students.
“As anyone who has children in this room knows, finding affordable daycare is very difficult in this area, particularly for infant care and young children,” she said. “And so it will be amazing to have something affiliated with the college that we could send our kids to.”
Samantha Stafford, assistant director of residential education and assessment, said she was encouraged to see that some of the work outlined in the plan is already being done on some level at the college and asked how we could acknowledge what’s already being done well. “I’m excited to see where we’re headed,” she added.
“We are trying to build on the good things that are already happening at Ithaca College, while also addressing some of the challenges that we must address,” said Cornish.
These goals and objectives will be shared with the Board of Trustees this week, for discussion during their May 17-18 meeting. Following that discussion, members of the steering committee and senior leadership team will polish the plan in preparation for formal endorsement at the Board’s June 2019 retreat.
During the summer and into the fall semester, implementation teams will continue to develop the details necessary for successful execution of the plan. That will include a full financial analysis, five-year timeline, metrics for accountability, and mechanisms for continued oversight.
Those with feedback are encouraged to email the steering committee at strategic-planning@ithaca.edu or visit the Ithaca.edu/imagining-ithaca website.