Ithaca College

Posted on behalf of Marisa Kelly, Provost & Vice President for Educational Affairs.

President Tom Rochon has announced that the college’s six-year physical therapy program in the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance will be united on the South Hill campus. The final year of the program, which has been located in Rochester since 1991, will move to renovated facilities in Ithaca beginning in the fall of 2014.

“Expanding the physical therapy program on our home campus will allow for a greater integration of the undergraduate and graduate experience for those students and faculty, in addition to advancing the principles of the campus-wide IC 20/20 initiative and Integrative Core Curriculum,” said Rochon.

Classrooms and laboratories now housed in space leased since 2006 from the Colgate Rochester Crozier Divinity School will be moved to Hill Center, the adjacent Center for Health Sciences and Smiddy Hall. Since Hill Center is currently undergoing renovations, the timing was right to modify those plans to accommodate the new facilities.

The new cadaver lab and the movement analysis lab, two key components of the PT educational program, will now also be available to undergraduate students and faculty members in physical therapy as well as in the rest of the school, furthering its reputation for delivering first-rate, hands-on health sciences education.

“We are tremendously excited by this development and the opportunities it will bring for our students and faculty to learn and teach in new facilities,” said Linda Petrosino ’77, M.S. ’78, dean of the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance. She points out that students will continue to gain practical experience by participating in clinical affiliations at locations throughout the country.

“This decision came following a great deal of consideration and consultation,” said Petrosino. “We are justifiably proud of the tradition of educational excellence we provide to our physical therapy students and the subsequent high quality of care that our graduates provide to their clients. This move will continue our ability to deliver the kinds of academic and clinical experiences our students require in order to continue being leaders in their field.”

The Department of Physical Therapy offers a six-year, dual-degree program in clinical health studies and physical therapy. Students receive a bachelor of science degree in clinical health studies after four years of study and a doctor of physical therapy degree after two years of graduate study.

“We appreciate the support that the Rochester community has given to our program, and we are continually looking for ways to build upon the considerable resources — both human and structural — that our home campus can deliver,” said Marisa Kelly, provost and vice president for educational affairs. “Everyone in the department, the school and the college will be able to take advantage of the knowledge base provided by our graduate students and faculty.”

Moving the Rochester operations to Ithaca was one recommendation that arose out of the college-wide Effectiveness and Affordability Review that was conducted over the past year with the assistance of Huron Consulting Group. While the college has not yet finalized an overall plan of initiatives based on the Huron recommendations, this proposal was given a priority review in order to enable the necessary planning to take place.

Rochon says that although the decision will ultimately have a positive financial impact on the college budget, it is rooted first and foremost in the long-term educational benefits to the program, the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance and the college as a whole.