Ithaca College Board of Trustees Approves Five-Year Strategic Plan

By IC News staff, June 25, 2019

Visionary plan adopted as IC’s framework for exceptional educational experience.

(Photo by Adam Baker/Ithaca College)

The Ithaca College Board of Trustees has unanimously approved the college’s five-year strategic plan. Titled “Imagining Ithaca,” the strategic plan is a blueprint and framework for how the college will provide an exceptional educational experience that is accessible, affordable, and responsive to the needs of the next generation of Ithaca College students. The implementation of this comprehensive strategic plan will guide the college’s efforts in the coming years, ensuring the long-term vitality and sustainability of the institution.

Download the plan.

“We are delighted to endorse and support the strategic plan, and we applaud the collaborative process within our community that produced it, specifically, the terrific leadership provided by Provost La Jerne Terry Cornish and Professor Jason Freitag, steering committee co-chairs,” said David H. Lissy ’87, chair of the Ithaca College Board of Trustees. “We acknowledge that while this plan provides the strategic framework for the college over the next five years, it will require additional collaborative work to analyze and make challenging choices and decisions.”

Shirley M. Collado, president of Ithaca College, said, “I am so proud of the intentional, inclusive approach that guided and sustained our strategic planning process. ‘Imagining Ithaca’ is the result of the hard work and thoughtful participation of hundreds of people from our college community and from the Ithaca area, and I look forward to seeing how this tremendous effort will shape our institution in the years to come.”

“We want to extend our thanks to the steering committee and working groups for all they’ve done to synthesize and organize a set of bold and exciting goals and objectives into a roadmap for the college’s future,” said La Jerne Terry Cornish, co-chair of Imagining Ithaca and provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.

(Photo by Allison Usavage/Ithaca College)

The plan is rooted in a strategic framework comprising the college’s vision, mission, and values. The document details three interconnected themes and how IC envisions them working in concert to help shape its future. It presents a series of nine goals and corresponding objectives — the primary substance of the document — including some of the initiatives expected to be part of future efforts. Lastly, it outlines the ways in which the college will implement Imagining Ithaca, and move toward a plan for “Ithaca Forever” — a phrase that captures the spirit of the next phase of strategic planning work.

Moving from ‘Imagining Ithaca’ to ‘Ithaca Forever’

Jason Freitag, co-chair of Imagining Ithaca and associate professor of history, said the work now shifts to determining how to put these ideas into action. “Over the summer, we will design the implementation process that will guide our execution of this strategic framework and will include the timeline, benchmarks and responsible individuals going forward.”

(Photo by Dave Burbank)

A detailed implementation plan will be shared with the campus community following the fall 2019 board of trustees meeting in October. At that time the college will officially launch Ithaca Forever, making a powerful statement about its commitment to its students — those whose futures it has been entrusted to help create.

“Trustees stand ready to support President Collado, the senior leadership team and the campus community as we move into the implementation process. This is an exciting time to be a part of the Ithaca College family, and we look forward to working with all of you to create an impactful and sustainable legacy,” Lissy said.

Review Imagining Ithaca

To read the board-approved strategic plan, visit the Imagining Ithaca website.