Provost Communications

Dear Ithaca College Community,

On behalf of the Academic Calendar Committee, we are pleased to announce the academic calendars for the 2025-2026 academic year. The committee has thoroughly reviewed multiple versions of the calendar and has unanimously recommended the following versions for the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 semesters to the provost who has accepted the recommendation.

Based on the recommendation of the task force on antisemitism and hate symbols, which considered feedback from students and explored various academic calendars in the area, the academic calendar has been adjusted to ensure that no classes will be held for the two religious holidays: Yom Kippur and Eid al Fitr.

Fall 2025 Calendar Highlights:

Thursday classes will be held, Tuesday, September 30

Friday classes will be held, Wednesday, October 1

Fall Break and Yom Kippur will be observed Thursday, October 2 and Friday, October 3, no classes.

No reading day will be held as there is a weekend between final exams beginning and ending.

Spring 2026 Calendar:

Spring Break and Eid al Fitr will be observed Monday, March 16 through Friday, March 20, no classes.

Term begins on a Tuesday, no April Break will be held.

Tuesday, April 7, no classes for attendance and participation in the Whalen Symposium.

No reading day will be held as there is a weekend between final exams beginning and ending.

We have also adopted the recommendation from the task force to include a set of important religious holidays that will be listed on the academic calendar to raise awareness for everyone using the calendar. (As an example of this practice, please refer to the Ithaca School District Calendar).

1. Easter, Christmas, Good Friday 
2. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover 
3. Eid al Fitr, Eid al Adha 
4. Diwali, Holi 
5. Lunar New Year 
6. Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox 
7. Kwanzaa 

The calendar can be found at https://www.ithaca.edu/academics/registrar/academic-calendars-0

Best regards,
Melanie I. Stein, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Vikki Levine, Registrar

Dear Colleagues,

We are excited to be beginning another academic year together on campus!

We have a few quick academic-related updates for you in advance of the all-college welcome on Tuesday, August 27th (during the noon hour in Emerson Suites):

Academic Catalog Update: The AY24-25 catalog has a new organization, with three sections: 

I: College Wide Academic Policies and Procedures (new!) 
II: Undergraduate 
III: Graduate 

The new first section consolidates redundant policies that were repeated in the undergraduate and graduate sections of the catalog and also duplicated in the college Policy Manual. This revision creates one section for academic policies impacting all students at the college. Academic policies listed in the academic catalog are no longer included in the Policy Manual, in order to prevent misalignment of approved policies. Significantly for faculty, the college Attendance Policy now is on a dedicated page in the catalog, as is a condensed version of the updated credit hour policy (the full policy is available on the Provost’s Faculty Resources page). As part of this revision, we have renamed and reorganized some subsections. These are also now listed in alphabetical order, to simplify searching within a section of the catalog. 

Implementation of updated credit hour policy. The office of the registrar collaborated with the office of the provost during the summer to implement the new credit hour policy in Banner and the semester schedule. Guidance about how to implement the new Instructional Methods and Meeting Types has been shared with dean’s offices as they organize the spring 2025 schedule. Faculty can find definitions and other information on the Faculty Resources page provided by the Office of the Registrar. 
https://www.ithaca.edu/academics/registrar/registrar-services/faculty-resources

Syllabus Guidelines: As always, on the Provost’s Faculty Resources page, you can find updated syllabus guidelines. This includes links to: college policy about required elements on a syllabus; a syllabus template in Word to support development of complete syllabi; guidelines for how to incorporate Credit Hour Expectations and Time Spent into the syllabus (a required element since 2023); current health and safety statement; a Title IX insert refreshed on August 14th; and optional statements on Generative AI Usage. Please take a moment to review these materials and to make sure your current syllabi incorporate updated information (links and contact information have changed in the refreshed template!). In this way, you can help ensure that our students receive consistent information across all coursework they complete at the college.   

Attendance Policy: The Ithaca College attendance policy can be found on this dedicated catalog page. It is also available in its entirety within the syllabus template. We would like to highlight that students must be excused from class or examinations: 

1. on days that conflict with religious beliefs, in which case the faculty member is responsible for providing the student with an opportunity to make up the work missed, and the absence does not count towards any instructor-established maximum absence policy for the class 
2. for family or individual health emergencies, and to appear in a court of law 
3. to participate in local, state, or federal elections. 

Emergent Collaborative Inquiry series. The Center for Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (CEIB) and the Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) are continuing a series designed to create a place for faculty conversations about emergent topics that affect us as educators. The next Emergent Collaborative Inquiry will focus on how to facilitate difficult conversations/moments in class. Keep an eye out for events in this series.

Canvas advising sites.Beginning with the Fall 2024 semester all advisors have an Academic Advising site in Canvas. The course site provides a space for advisors to share resources, post Announcements or send messages with Inbox, and invite students to set an appointment using Scheduler. The Academic Advising site builds consistency for students across the college, meeting the request of both students and faculty to have academic advising resources in one space and on a familiar platform.

As a reminder, the Academic Advising site is not a replacement for Degreeworks and the Student Success Dashboard. Please continue to put all advising, student contact notes, and information in Degreeworks. 

If you have any questions, feedback, or need support with the Academic Advising site in Canvas, please contact Matthew Clauhs, Co-Director, Center for Faculty Excellence (mclauhs@ithaca.edu) or Jenna Linskens, Director, Center for Instructional Design & Educational Technology (jlinskens@ithaca.edu).


Deadlines
 

Upcoming Events
 

We are looking forward to seeing you at the first all-college faculty meeting and best wishes for the start of a new semester!

Melanie Stein, Provost
Chris McNamara, Associate Provost
Brendan Murday, Associate Provost
Stacia Zabusky, Associate Provost