A task force chaired by Dean Art Ostrander and containing broad representation from knowledgeable faculty and staff across campus recommended earlier this year the creation of a Department of Education in the School of Humanities and Sciences to replace the current Center for Teacher Education.
This is to inform you that the transition to a Department of Education in Humanities and Sciences has begun, prompted by staffing and space issues which have led us to accelerate the timetable.
For 2005-2006, the Center for Teacher Education will reside formally in the School of Humanities and Sciences, and Dean Howard Erlich has asked Pat Tempesta to assume an interim appointment as director of the Center for Teacher Education. During academic year 05-06 we anticipate a search for a chair of the Department of Education as well as the many other transitional moves associated with this significant organizational change.
As the task force recommended, we believe that this transition will strengthen teacher education at Ithaca College by clarifying both internal and external lines of authority and responsibility, and perhaps most important. by facilitating conversation and interaction among the various schools with teacher dducation programs so that we can continue and extend the rich tradition of successful high quality teacher education programs at Ithaca College.
Thanks to Dean Ostrander and the task force for their excellent work, to Pat Tempesta for agreeing to step in as interim director of the Center for Teacher Education, and to Dean Tanya Saunders for her stewardship of the Center for Teacher Education during the past two years.
