Ithaca College

The Remote Engagement Strategy Team (REST) was convened and charged in late August with coordinating campus efforts during our remote semester to enhance student engagement and student and faculty success. 

This team reports to Provost La Jerne Terry Cornish, Vice President for Student Affairs and Campus Life Rosanna Ferro, and Vice President for Marketing and Enrollment Strategy Laurie Koehler, and is supported by them in conjunction with Associate Provosts Jeane Copenhaver-Johnson and Brad Hougham and Dean of Students Bonnie Prunty.

The REST core team membership is listed below, but we are working with dozens of offices and groups across campus to coordinate outreach and support for our campus community. 

As described in the All-Faculty and All-College meetings, REST’s early fall agenda includes coordinating the creation of a variety of tools and strategies, including:

• Remote semester web hub to access resources for academic success, social engagement and health and well-being.
• Central communication strategy to connect students and families to help quickly and accurately through multiple channels.
• A referrals document and triage kit to help faculty, staff and student workers connect students to supports.
• Ongoing student check-in surveys with routing to response teams for personalized outreach.
• Remote learning advisor kit.
• Remote learning and success workshops for students.
• Remote teaching strategies for faculty in partnership with the Center for Faculty Excellence and Teaching and Learning with Technology.
• Remote success strategies for sharing in IC’s social media.
• Communication plans to maintain contact with students who have deferred their enrollment or taken a leave of absence to facilitate their return to IC. 

In the coming weeks, we will share information when each of these tools becomes available. In the meantime, we would like to coordinate our efforts and resources in supporting campus members. If there are efforts underway in your area or a need you have identified, please contact Elizabeth Bleicher at ebleicher@ithaca.edu so we can coordinate.   

With thanks for your collaboration, 

The Remote Engagement Strategy Team 

Susan Bassett, Associate Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreational Sports 

Benjamin Costello, Executive Director, Constituent Engagement Strategy  

Amanda Decker, Assistant Director, Enrollment Marketing 

Julie Dorsey, Associate Professor and Chair, Occupational Therapy 

Michele Lenhart, Director, Office of Student Engagement 

Vikki Levine, Registrar 

Amy O'Dowd, Assistant Dean, Humanities and Sciences 

Hierald Osorto, Executive Director for Student Equity and Belonging & Director for Religious and Spiritual Life 

Andrew Siefert, Statistical Modeler, Office of Analytics and Institutional Research  

Rob Snyder, Associate Director, Business Intelligence Architecture 

Aaron Weinberg, Professor of Mathematics 

Jacqueline Winslow, Director, New Student & Transition Programs  

Jennifer Wofford, Director, Extended Studies 

Elizabeth Bleicher, Professor of English, Chair of REST