IC News

A lot can change in 25 years. When Nancy Pringle started her tenure at Ithaca College as college attorney during the 1993-94 academic year, the internet was in its infancy and the Senior Splash was an unsanctioned event. Nearing the end of a decades-long career, the executive vice president and senior advisor to the president sat down with IC News to reflect on what’s changed during her time at IC, and what comes next.

IC NEWS: How has IC changed over the course of your time here? How does that reflect broader changes in higher education?

PRINGLE: I’ve seen a real evolution in terms of higher education needing to be much more attentive to strategic decision-making. For example, during the period from around 1996 to until around 2008 or 2009, we experienced the golden years of higher education. Every institution in the country was raising its tuition by 5, 6, 7% and campuses were expanding their physical plants in directions that were responsive to record enrollments and new student demands. Then the financial markets crashed, and families became much more financially aware of affordability. Suddenly, we had families who were not able to afford an Ithaca College education, and to meet this need our discount rate began to rise. Coming off 2008-09, we realized that families were not in a position to keep pace with the rising cost of attendance that had developed during those golden years. As a tuition-driven institution, we didn’t have the large financial aid budget or the endowment that could sustain the necessary increases in financial aid. I think that was a pretty pivotal moment. We realized that, moving forward, things were going to have to change at the institution, including a greater emphasis on philanthropy and the raising of money for scholarship support of students.

I’ve staffed the board for three presidential search committees, and I’ve worked for four presidents. I feel really good about the work I did in that space. Although I was not a member of the committees, I was very attentive to what the needs were on campus and made sure that we were being attentive to those needs, and that the board had what it needed to make the right decisions at those particular points in time.

IC NEWS: Can you tell us about the changes to the fountain jump tradition that you helped oversee, taking it from an unofficial student-led act to a fully sanctioned college event?

PRINGLE: That informal tradition was already in place when I got here. And I’ll never forget my first time witnessing that event. Now remember, I’m the attorney. I remember watching this crowd of students coming down with the floats, and the beer, and the jugs of alcohol, and I was like “What on earth is happening here?” I remember being so concerned that someone would be injured, and that we would have to deliver a heartbreaking call to a parent in the final days of a student's time with us.

It went on for another five or six years, and the last year I remember vividly. We had a lot of planning going up to the event and trying to mitigate some behaviors to make it a safe event. And that year was just horrible. The event started early in the morning, so everywhere you went on campus there were students who’d had too much to drink, students hanging off balconies. We had damage to the buildings and we had classes interrupted. We had a debrief with the same people who were meeting beforehand. It was a cross section of the campus. Every person from each area of the institution shared what their experience was like. The students were the last ones to speak, and what I remember was them collectively saying, “We had no idea this is what was happening. We had a great time, but we had no idea that while we’re having a great time, this is what’s happening all over campus.” And the students said something needs to be done about this.

The following year, the student government president and President Peggy Ryan Williams put their heads together to do something different with the event. It was really challenging when it was decided that “fountain jump day” would no longer happen. I recall the decision required skillful collaboration between President Williams and Nick Tarant, the Student Government president. Today, the event is known as Senior Splash, and it has an entirely different feel and one that everyone on the campus enjoys watching as we celebrate our graduating seniors during senior week.

IC NEWS: You arrived at IC just as the internet was becoming more and more a part of daily life. How did that affect the college and your work?

PRINGLE: I think it has drastically changed how we work. Some of that is for the better, and some of that is not. I feel like we’ve lost our capacity for personal interactions, sitting down and talking. You have to really work to find the time. You would think that the internet gave us more time, but it hasn’t at all. It’s just made us work at a much quicker pace. We don’t have time to think and we don’t have time to reflect, to process all that we’ve put into our brains. There’s probably a balance, and I don’t think we have found that balance yet.

IC NEWS: What do you see for IC in the future — say in the next five years?

PRINGLE: I’ve seen probably more than most — outside of the strategic planning committee and the working groups — about where the strategic planning thinking is taking us, and I think it’s very exciting for the institution. There are some ideas in the draft strategic plan that are in fact transformational for Ithaca College. I think elements of the plan will challenge some members of our community, but if we can weather through it, I think it’ll be amazing for the college and all who will come to study here. It feels to me we can’t afford to do anything but enter into this moment of transformational change, because of what’s happening outside around us. One of the things I’ve always noted about living in this community is that it is a great place to live and the quality of life is really high, but I do think that sometimes it’s too isolated, and we don’t really see what’s happening out in the country and in the world. That’s something that I hope the strategic plan will bring into the forefront.

IC NEWS: And what about you? How will you spend the next few years of retired life?

PRINGLE: I’m looking forward to just a bit of downtime, thinking, reflecting, planning the next step of the journey. I know this is not going to be a retirement where I just sit around and put my feet up. I know that about myself. The real question is, “What am I being called to do next?” And the way I get that is by finding time to be quiet and listening to that voice from somewhere beyond me that has always guided me in the stillness to take risks and try new things. So I’m looking forward to doing that, and I don’t know where it’ll take me. I have a few hints — it may take me back to who I was in my twenties, only with a lot more wisdom and life experience — so stay tuned.

IC NEWS: Who were you in your twenties?

PRINGLE: I was passionate about activism and justice issues. I think we have plenty of issues needing that type of energy right now. The question for me is, “Where will my energies best be spent?” I don’t want to do a job like I’ve been doing. I have loved my job. I think I’ve had the best job in the world as an attorney. But I also know that there’s more to be done in service to creating a more kind, compassionate and just world. You may be seeing me at protests on TV. Who knows? I’m looking forward to being able to step into a different space in a different way.