Ithaca College

Submitted on behalf of Provost Marisa Kelly

Faculty and academic administrators must work together in the coming weeks and months to ensure that we have our new Integrative Core Curriculum (ICC) approved and in place for all incoming students by the fall of 2013. Several necessary steps have already been taken in order to help move us forward.

First, at its opening meeting of the academic year, Faculty Council approved the new Committee for College Wide Requirements (CCR). This committee has college-wide curricular oversight of programs that are required of all students, including approval of the final details of the ICC template and, working with faculty, the development and approval of the final set of themes for the themes and perspective core. Proposals will move from the CCR to APC for final review. Very soon, Faculty Council will be calling for faculty nominees to fill the two at-large seats for this new committee (with school-based faculty representatives being handled at the school level). 

The IC 20/20 plan also calls for the appointment of a General Education coordinator. This position will report directly to the Provost’s Office. I will soon be launching an internal search to fill this position, and I will be looking specifically for a tenured IC faculty member with a commitment to integrative learning and a passion for ensuring the success of the new integrative core for all students in all schools.

Even as we work to get these structural elements in place, it is critical that faculty in all schools be working to develop plans for each degree program, in accordance with the ICC template (available on the Provost’s web site), that will ultimately be required of all incoming first-year students in the fall of 2013. As you know, these plans must be approved by New York State (and specific professional accrediting bodies) before they can be required, and must be in place by fall 2013 in order to ensure the success of our next Middle States accreditation review. This puts us on a very tight timeline. As such, working with the deans I have developed a loose schedule for moving ICC plans through the curriculum review process (see below).

Finally, to foster the development of themes that can be tested with incoming students, and to slowly expand the number of Ithaca Seminars we offer, we are going to tie our fall 2012 Ithaca Seminar offerings to the Themes and Perspectives component of the ICC. In order to require all students to begin this coursework in the fall of 2013, we will need approximately 80 Ithaca Seminars. In the fall of 2012 we will offer approximately 65 of those 80 seminars, tied to a set of themes. This will allow us to test themes and determine whether or not some should be eliminated and others added, and help us to phase in across the campus changes in existing programs that are needed to make room in student schedules for the new requirements.

The timeline below will help us to achieve these goals. Of course, I am not suggesting these are required deadlines. Rather these dates are in response to questions I have received from both faculty and administrators about the timeline surrounding our next steps. Different programs will be able to move forward at different rates. But what is critical is the submission to New York State of revised ICC (general education) plans in the summer of 2012. 

Suggested Timeline

October 15: The Committee for All College Requirements (CCR) begins work on final approval of the template details and (consulting with faculty across campus and in direct coordination with the Director of the Ithaca Seminars) on the development of the themes and the criteria for determining the “perspective” of particular course proposals. A Call for Participation in the Ithaca Seminar for fall 2012 will go out. This call will be asking for faculty to commit to teaching at least one section with the understanding that the courses developed will align with one of the themes, once those are fully articulated. It is anticipated that many of the themes will be developed from ideas brought forward by these Ithaca Seminar participants. (Please see the Ithaca Seminar website for more information).

December: The CCR and then the APC approve the initial set of themes for the new program.  All majors in all schools except H&S will have proposed ICC plans in alignment with the new template proposed and sent to their school curriculum committees. Final list of fall 2012 Ithaca Seminar faculty will be in place. School curriculum committees begin review of ICC proposals.

February: Submission to the Registrar’s Office of the names and times of fall 2012 Ithaca Seminars. School-based curriculum committees continue review of department/degree program ICC plans and move to the school vote if required. H&S continues its ICC curriculum development work in light of proposed changes in the program requirements in the professional schools.

March – May: The CCR and the APC review Integrative Core Curriculum plans as submitted by each school and submit approved plans to the Provost’s Office for final preparation for submission to New York State.

I am asking the CCR and the APC to add additional meetings in the spring of 2012 in order to ensure that we can move forward proposals within the time frame required.

I recognize that I am asking faculty to do a great deal of important work in a relatively short period of time. I have confidence that you recognize the very real need to meet the requirements laid out for us by Middle States, and that you therefore recognize the importance of finalizing the details of the new ICC in time to meet our fall 2013 deadline. I know that if we work together we can achieve this goal and ultimately have an integrative core that will advance student learning at IC for many years to come. Let me thank you now for the work you are undertaking this year.