President Cornish and Cabinet Members Discuss Stabilizing Enrollment, Meeting Budget Challenges

By Sloan MacRae, September 4, 2024
No layoffs anticipated at this time
A woman speaks at a podium.

President La Jerne Terry Cornish addresses faculty, staff, and students. (Photo by Alexis Liberatore-Herrick)

President La Jerne Terry Cornish addresses faculty, staff, and students. (Photo by Alexis Liberatore-Herrick)

At the annual All-College Welcome Meeting on Aug. 27, President La Jerne Terry Cornish and college administrators introduced plans to stabilize enrollment and manage a budget deficit resulting from a first-year enrollment that is about 200 students below target.

IC does not anticipate layoffs at this time. Administrators will share more information at the State of the College Meeting on Oct. 22 and will provide the Board of Trustees with an updated plan and timeline in February to eventually reach a balanced budget.

“There is hard work ahead,” said Cornish. “But as you have seen and heard before, we do hard things.”

Rock Hall, Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Success, presented strategies to identify and engage with high school students specifically demonstrating affinities for Ithaca College’s mission, values, and educational experience. These include an earlier launch of the campaign this fall, enabling a longer, sustained “conversation” with students and parents. In addition to the 200,000 names of high school juniors and seniors IC traditionally purchases, the college will secure an additional 100,000 names that include first-year students and sophomores, building familiarity with IC earlier in the high school journey. IC will also create a content-driven parent engagement portal to cultivate families and caregivers.

“We’ve gone through tough times, and we’ve come through them together. We can do this again. The best is yet to come, and we’re going to do it together.”

President La Jerne Terry Cornish

“We’re going to have longer conversations,” said Hall. “The idea of curating a class is very important, but we also have to curate a class that has an affinity for Ithaca College.”

Tim Downs, Vice President for Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer, reminded the community that IC has successfully navigated similar waters in recent years. While forecasting deficits as it emerged from pandemic disruptions in 2023 and 2024, IC dramatically outperformed those projections, breaking even in fiscal year 2023 and posting a $4 million deficit in 2024, well below the initial $13.6 million deficit projection. Fiscal year 2025 will pose comparable challenges and departmental budget adjustments.

“What we’re asking for is what we’ve already done,” said Downs. “As a campus, we’ve really held tight to what we needed to do, which is why we’ve been able to overachieve these deficits during these years. And ’25’s no different.”

“What we’re asking for is what we’ve already done. As a campus, we’ve really held tight to what we needed to do, which is why we’ve been able to overachieve these deficits during these years. And ’25’s no different.”

Tim Downs, Vice President for Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer

Despite the budget and enrollment challenges, IC closed fiscal year 2024 with a 10% increase in giving over the previous fiscal year and received more than 3600 individual gifts on the April 18 Giving Day. Exemplifying that momentum, the Division of Philanthropy and Engagement will be renamed the Division of Advancement. “Because that’s what we do,” said Laine Norton, Vice President of the newly christened division. “It’s our mission, and it’s our responsibility … Momentum is a powerful thing.”

With these enrollment and fiscal strategies in place, President Cornish assured faculty, staff, and students that IC is positioned to meet the challenges ahead. “We’ve gone through tough times, and we’ve come through them together,” said Cornish to close the meeting. “We can do this again. The best is yet to come, and we’re going to do it together.”

The president shared four institutional priorities for this year, which are aligned with the priorities identified in the Middle States Self-Study:

  • Student success: We support student success by educating them with high impact curricular and co-curricular academic programs, engaging them with collaborative opportunities, and empowering them through attention to wellness and belonging as measured by student persistence and retention.
     
  • Integration: We educate students across academic disciplines in ways that integrate theory, practice, and performance; that engage faculty and students in collaborations and explorations across the institution; and empower the whole campus community to work together with an institutional mind-set to support integration.
     
  • Sustainable and appropriate size to support future success: We advance our mission through responsible stewardship and strategic leveraging of institutional resources.
     
  • Equity, inclusion, and belonging: We cultivate an inclusive and supportive environment for all members of our community by educating and engaging through an equity framework.