Posted on behalf of Tom Grape ’80, chairman of the board of trustees, and David Lissy ’87, vice chairman of the board of trustees.
During the Thanksgiving holiday, all of us will have the opportunity to express our gratitude but also to reflect upon ways that we can come together as a community to make Ithaca College an even stronger, more welcoming place for everyone.
Over the last couple of months, many members of the IC community – students, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni – have made clear their desire to see meaningful action to address concerns they have about the college’s governance and campus climate. To a large degree, these concerns spring from community members’ personal experiences of feeling invalidated or excluded. We thank them for their courage in raising these concerns and for their persistent advocacy.
Since October, the Board of Trustees has taken steps to better understand community concerns and begin to address them. We have met directly with students. The full Board of Trustees attended a student rally on October 21. At our Board meeting October 22, we voted to approve a resolution intended to improve IC’s system of shared governance, specifically to “enhance collaboration and communication among members of the IC community.” Over the next three weeks, the two of us will continue to meet with student, faculty, staff, and alumni representatives, by phone and in person, in order to hear from them directly about their experiences, concerns, and ideas for moving IC forward. Our goal is to ensure that these meetings provide us with as many viewpoints as possible, and to share what we’ve learned with all of you.
We also invite you to email trustees@ithaca.edu with your own perspectives and ideas for IC. Although we cannot promise that we will be able to respond to each email individually, we can guarantee you that we will read every one.
It is not easy to see the community that we love so dearly going through such a difficult period. It is clear that we have much work to do to create an inclusive and welcoming environment for all students, no matter their background. We have heard the calls for IC to live up to its own ideals and create a community where everyone can learn, thrive, and feel a sense of belonging. There is no more important work for a college than this.
We wish all of you a restful and joyful Thanksgiving, and we look forward to continuing this important work together.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20151119193902918