Updates Shared at All-College Gathering

By Dan Verderosa, February 6, 2019

Seed grant winners announced and outstanding staff honored at spring 2019 assembly.

Ithaca College President Shirley M. Collado speaks at the all-college gathering.

(Photo by Stetson Doggett/Ithaca College)

Ithaca College President Shirley M. Collado announced the recipients of the 2018-19 president’s seed grants at the all-college gathering on Tuesday, Feb. 5. More than $73,000 was awarded to 13 teams to fund their projects, including a medicinal herb garden, an LGBTQ film festival and a guest speaker on analytics and data science.

The semiannual meeting also included updates on a new food pantry, the strategic planning process and senior leadership searches.

The President's Seed Grant Initiative was created in fall 2017 to provide a launch pad for original, cross-disciplinary collaborations that develop innovative ideas. The president selects the winning proposals in consultation with a committee of faculty, students and staff.

“Our seed grant projects, once again, show the wonderful creativity that lies within our college community,” Collado said.

2018-19 President’s Seed Grant Recipients

Mara Baldwin, “Mural by Nanibah Chacon and formation of campus art commission”
Laura Campbell Carapella, “ICU Gratitude app”
Lis Chabot, “Advancing student employee leadership”
Te-Wen Lo, “How to succeed in college just by being you”
Candace Edwards, “Qinfolk festival”
Rebecca Evans, “Chestnut living lab”
John Fracchia, “MIND”
Derek Adams, “Intergroup dialogue — Train the trainer’”
Natalie Jenereski, “Instagram pop-up experience”
Bill Kerry, “Driver/cycle education program”
Yuko Mulugetta, “Connecting IC Data Day to student success”
Bonnie Prunty, “I didn’t know you could get paid to do that — Career opportunities in higher education”
Mary Taylor, “Traditional medicinal herb garden”

The grants are supported by the President’s Discretionary Fund.

Campus Food Pantry to Open

Collado also announced that an on-campus food pantry is scheduled to open soon. The pantry, which will be located in the DeMotte room in the Campus Center, is funded by a gift from IC Board of Trustees Chair David Lissy ’87 through the Lissy Family Foundation. Collado called on community members with means to donate to the on-campus pantry.

“This is a community effort,” Collado said. “Your generosity is absolutely, sincerely appreciated by any member of this community who can use the pantry.”

Collado credited students with drawing attention to food insecurity on campus, and thanked those who have worked to help food insecure community members through efforts like Swipe Out Hunger and the mobile pantry of The Food Bank of the Southern Tier.

Imagining Ithaca

La Jerne Terry Cornish, co-chair of the strategic planning steering committee and provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, gave an update on the Imagining Ithaca strategic planning process.

Cornish presented a draft vision, mission and values for the planning process, as well as draft working group themes that will serve as guides for the next phase of the process:

Draft vision: “Inspiring bold thinking to create thriving communities”
Draft mission: “Engage, explore, empower through theory, practice, performance”
Draft values: “Diversity, equity, inclusion, respect, accessibility, sustainability, innovation, the public good”
Draft themes: “Interconnections among disciplines, schools, partners”; “Investment in people, place, planet”; and “Evolution of students, curriculum, college”

Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs La Jerne Terry Cornish provides an update on the strategic planning process. Cornish is the co-chair of the strategic planning steering committee.

(Photo by Stetson Doggett/Ithaca College)

Cornish emphasized that the vision, mission, values and themes are still in draft form and that feedback from the campus community is a welcome and necessary part of the strategic planning process.

“This is an iterative process,” Cornish said. “We have been meeting with various constituencies around the college and, as we get feedback, we respond and make changes based upon what the constituencies around the institution are telling us.”

The IC Board of Trustees will meet with the strategic planning steering committee during their visit to campus on February 14-15.

Collado invited members of the campus community to attend an open forum with Board of Trustees Chair David Lissy ’87 and Vice Chair James W. Nolan Jr. ’77, Parent ’01, scheduled for Friday, Feb. 15, at 2:15 p.m. in Clark Lounge.

Leadership Updates

Collado provided updates on several searches for open positions in campus leadership, including dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, vice president for enrollment management, and vice president for human and organizational development, innovation and planning.

Finalists for the dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences will visit campus and hold open sessions with the campus community later this month. Collado said that the position is expected to be filled this summer.

Collado also said that the search for the next vice president of enrollment management will be expedited due to the time of year relative to the admissions process and the strategic importance of the role at the college. “This search will identify a strong pool of talented enrollment strategists from around the country who can address the challenges and opportunities that we face as a college,” she said.

The semiannual all-college gathering was attended by faculty, students and staff.

(Photo by Stetson Doggett/Ithaca College)

Recent changes to the Division of College Relations and Advancement were also discussed. The Office of College Relations and Communications is splitting off from the division, and will now be called the Division of College Communications. Collado said the move emphasized the strategic importance of both advancement and communications at IC.

“This will allow us to do laser-focused work with the great team in institutional advancement and the great team in communications, enabling us to take these strategic pieces of the college and leverage their capacity centrally, especially as we get ready to go full force with the strategic planning process,” Collado said.

Outstanding Staff Honored

A woman standing at a podium and two people standing with gift baskets

Terry Taney presents Luca Maurer and Jennifer Pawlewicz with the Staff Council Staff Recognition Award. (Photo by Stetson Doggett/Ithaca College)

Staff Council members Terry Taney and Colleen Barnes presented Jennifer Pawlewicz and Luca Maurer with the fall 2018 Staff Council Staff Recognition Award. The award was created to honor staff members who are actively involved with the IC community and who have gone above and beyond their regular work duties, demonstrating initiative, support, commitment and accomplishment.

A career engagement and marketing specialist in the Office of Career Services, Pawlewicz was honored for her involvement in the Life after IC Series and First Generation Working Group, as well as for independently planning the college’s graduate school expo and sundae social. Pawlewicz also represents Career Services at admissions and orientation events throughout the year.

The director of the Center for LGBT Education, Outreach and Services, Maurer was honored for his work toward creating an inclusive, supportive and equitable community. Maurer worked with Human Resources to advocate for LGBT community members to gain equity in benefits, assisted with the process of amending records for preferred names, and developed a clinic to help transgender IC and local community members who are transitioning.

College-Wide Updates

Collado shared other news from around the college, including an update on 2019 enrollment. She noted that the college has received nearly 13,000 undergraduate applications and that the estimated total enrollment for spring 2019 is around 5,800 students.

Updates on several initiatives to strengthen leadership on campus were also provided. The Chair’s Academy, designed to provide department chairs with professional development, mentoring and support networks, kicked off in early January. The first cohort in the ILead Ithaca Academy, which helps supervisors bolster their leadership skills, also began the program last month.

“I had an opportunity to welcome [the ILead Ithaca Academy cohort] during their first orientation late last month, and I’m really excited about what this program will do to not only engage leaders across campus, but cultivate leadership where people want to grow, especially among our incredibly talented staff,” Collado said.

Collado also announced that finalists for the executive director of student wellness position are expected to visit campus later in February. The position is part of a reorganization of the Division of Student Affairs and Campus Life aimed at supporting the health and wellness of students.

Finally, Bill Guerrero, vice president for finance and administration, delivered a presentation on the college’s finances and budgetary process. He emphasized the importance of collaboration within the campus community, particularly as the college looks ahead to investing in priorities that arise from the forthcoming strategic plan.