At its February meeting, the Ithaca College Board of Trustees awarded emeritus status to five retired faculty members and granted promotions and/or tenure to 12 current faculty members.
Emeritus
The five retired faculty members named professor emeritus collectively represent 181 years of teaching and service to Ithaca College. They are Andrew Ezergailis, Department of History; Paulen Smith, Department of Physics; Stephen Schwartz, Department of Philosophy and Religion; Heinz Koch, Department of Chemistry; and Joel Savishinsky, Department of Anthropology.
Andrew Ezergailis joined the Department of History in 1964 and retired in 2000. He left a remarkable impact through his courses on Russian and Soviet history, modern intellectual history, the Holocaust and the history of Marxism. The author of eight books in English and two in Latvian, he has been recognized for his expertise on the Holocaust through numerous requests to serve as a war-crimes prosecution witness for the governments of the United States, Canada, Australia and Great Britain and as a consultant to the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. The president of Latvia awarded him one of that nation’s highest honors, the Three Star Order Cross.
Paulen Smith began teaching in the Department of Physics in 1967 and retired in 2001. As the second faculty member hired in the newly established department, he was instrumental in creating courses and in later developing the physics computing major and 3-2 engineering program in physics. He also designed the machine shop to support physics research activities. He received a Dana award for excellence in teaching in 1982 and 1985, and was a moving force behind the establishment of the Ithaca College chapter of Sigma Xi, the scientific honor society. It was recently named the Paulen A. Smith Chapter in his honor.
Stephen Schwartz joined the Department of Philosophy and Religion in 1971 and retired in 2005. He taught primarily in the areas of logic, metaphysics and the history of philosophy. His book “Naming, Necessity, and Natural Kinds” established his reputation as a world expert on the causal theory of reference, which deals with how terms in language acquire specific referents. He is routinely asked by editors at prominent journals and university presses to review books, articles and manuscripts. He was the first faculty exchange visitor in residence at the Ithaca College London Center and served on numerous school and college-wide committees.
Heinz Koch joined the Department of Chemistry in 1965 and retired in 2007. Except for the first two chemistry majors who graduated in the spring of 1965, he has known every chemistry student. He established an international collaboration with Leiden University in the Netherlands, setting up a student exchange program that is still active. Closer to home, he developed a program with a high school in Sidney, New York, where students work alongside undergraduates on summer research projects. He obtained a number of grants for the department and continues to work on independent research and publish papers with undergraduate coauthors.
Joel Savishinsky began teaching in the Department of Anthropology in 1973 and retired in 2008. He actively sent students out into the community to conduct research and encouraged them to expand their horizons, especially by participating in overseas programs. He was a two-time winner of the Richard Kalish Innovative Publication Award from the Gerontological Society of America, for his books “Breaking the Watch: The Meanings of Retirement in America” and “The Ends of Time: Life and Work in a Nursing Home.” In 1997 he was named the Charles A. Dana Professor in the Social Sciences.
Tenure
Linda Hanrahan was granted tenure. An associate professor, Hanrahan joined the Department of Education in 2005. She holds a B.A. from Boston College, M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania and Ed.D. from Rutgers University.
Tenure and Promotion
Changhee Chun, Cathy Crane, Maria DiFrancesco, Akiko Fillinger, Jennifer Hayghe, Jennifer Haywood, Jennifer Jolly, Luke Keller, Michael Rogers, Stephen Sweet and David Turkon were granted tenure and promoted from assistant to associate professor.
Changhee Chun joined the Department of Cinema, Photography, and Media Arts in 2003. He holds a B.A. from Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea; and an M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
Cathy Crane joined the Department of Cinema, Photography, and Media Arts in 2002. She holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.F.A. from San Francisco State University.
Maria DiFrancesco joined the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures in 2003. She holds a B.A. from Canisius College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the State University of New York, Buffalo.
Akiko Fillinger joined the Department of Chemistry in 2003. She holds a B.S. from Portland State University and Ph.D. from Colorado State University.
Jennifer Hayghe joined the Department of Music Performance in 2005. She earned her B.M., M.M. and Ph.D. from the Juilliard School.
Jennifer Haywood joined the Department of Music Education in 2000. She holds a B.M. and M.M. from Ithaca College and a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto.
Jennifer Jolly joined the Department of Art History in 2003. She earned her B.A. at Oberlin College and her M.A. and Ph.D. at Northwestern University.
Luke Keller joined the Department of Physics in 2003. He holds a B.Sc. from the University of Arizona, Tuscon, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas, Austin.
Michael Rogers joined the Department of Physics in 2003. He holds a B.S. from the State University of New York, Geneseo, and an M.S., M.A. and Ph.D. from Oregon State University.
Stephen Sweet joined the Department of Sociology in 2002. He holds a B.A. from the State University of New York, Potsdam, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire.
David Turkon joined the Department of Anthropology in 2005. He earned his B.S. at Canisius College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the State University of New York, Buffalo.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20090220135854789