Ithaca College

Posted on behalf of Gregory Woodward, dean of the School of Music. 

Many of you may already have heard about the vandalism that occurred this past weekend in the James J. Whalen Center for Music. I wanted to take this opportunity to update members of the School of Music community as well as the wider Ithaca College community about that incident.

The good news is that nearly all of the pianos that were vandalized have been put back into service and are currently being used by students. While the extent of damage varied from piano to piano, none were completely destroyed. After a thorough assessment, it appears that the totality of the damage was less than first thought. This in no way minimizes the amount of harm and disruption caused by this senseless act. The feeling of frustration and violation felt by the students, faculty, and staff of the School of Music is very real, and it was only through many hours of work by our terrific piano technicians and others that we were able to reopen most of our practice spaces by the end of the day on Sunday. 

The Office of Public Safety is continuing to investigate, and we ask everyone who uses the Whalen Center to be especially vigilant and observant for any unusual behavior or activity. If anyone has information about this incident, please contact Public Safety at 607-274-3333, or leave an anonymous voice mail message at 607-274-1060.

I must say I feel a bit like Jimmy Stewart in that great holiday movie, It's a Wonderful Life. When faced with adversity, he finds out how many friends he really has. The tremendous outpouring of support in the wake of this incident has been gratifying. We have heard from friends and strangers alike who have wanted to know how they can help. I assure you that we appreciate the many offers of assistance we have received. While we have been able to respond to the vandalism with existing school and College resources, I hope that everyone who has reached out will continue to find a way to remain engaged with the School of Music.

Greg Woodward
Dean, Ithaca College School of Music
gwoodward@ithaca.edu