In the last two months, four top-level administrators have announced their plans to leave Ithaca College — the largest administrative turnover in recent memory.

On July 12, President Peggy R. Williams announced her intention to step down as president in May 2008. She will spend the 2008-09 year on sabbatical and retire in 2009.

Dianne Lynch, dean of the Roy H. Park School of Communications, also confirmed in July her plans to leave the college in January 2008 for a position as dean of the University of California at Berkeley’s graduate school of journalism.

This month, Howard Erlich, dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, and Arthur Ostrander, dean of the School of Music, both announced plans to step down from their positions in May 2008. Ostrander will retire at the end of a sabbatical year in May 2009 while Erlich will have the opportunity to return as faculty when his sabbatical ends.

Williams, the departing deans, Nancy Pringle, vice president of legal affairs, and Carl Sgrecci, vice president of finance and administration, said they do not see a correlation between the four departures.

“This is happening all over the country,” Williams said. “It’s called the graying of higher education. There are going to be massive retirements and resignations in the next five to 10 years.”

Greg Woodward, dean of graduate studies, called the quick departures a “domino effect,” but said they seemed like appropriate choices for each individual.

“It’s an unfortunate kind of pattern, but again, these people have given great service to the college,” Woodward said.

Williams said there have been other concurrent searches for top-level administrators during her 10-year tenure. They include the hiring of Williams, former provost Jim Malek and Robert Ulrich, former dean of the School of Business, during the 1997-98 year; former provost Peter Bardaglio and Steve Siconolfi, dean of the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance, during the 2002-03 year; and Lynch and Susan Engelkemeyer, dean of the School of Business, during the 2004-05 year.

Williams said in every search, the goal is to form committees in the fall and make appointments in the spring so candidates are in place at the beginning of the college’s fiscal year June 1.

The board of trustees plans to form a presidential search committee this fall. Williams said she and Kathleen Rountree, provost and vice president for academic affairs, are still determining the sequence of the dean searches and how each will be handled.

“We’re trying to figure out what makes sense and how to manage it,” she said.

Sgrecci said there is a good chance a new president would be in place to have a say in who filled the dean positions. But both he and Engelkemeyer said having a new provost in place should help attract candidates to campus.

“[The provost] is usually the key person that has you thinking about how you feel about the leadership of an institution,” Engelkemeyer said. “[It] is generally what has the most impact.”

Sgrecci said he is not worried about the college’s transition.

“It just so happens that we have a couple of [searches] here at the same time,” Sgrecci said. “In most of these schools and administrative offices, we have depth in management. There’s no reason in my perspective for [our momentum] to slow down.”

 

President Williams to step down in May

In the 36 years she’s spent in higher education – 19 of those as a president – Williams said she has never understood colleagues who “just knew” when it was their time to retire.

“My approach to careers has been to kick myself out of jobs I love while I still love them, and while I still feel like I’m new and have all the energy that I have,” she said in an interview Monday. “I said to the faculty today, you know, maybe I could stay for three to five years if I could give a month’s notice. But it’s very hard to project out two to three years as to how you’re going to feel.”

Something Williams considered in her decision was the conclusion of the college’s Capital Campaign in December and the completion of Middle States Study accreditation review in May — initiatives undertaken during her tenure she said she wanted to see through.

“The culmination of [these projects] are things I would certainly try to stay through — that’s another reason why I wouldn’t have left last year,” she said. “They become terrific things to have behind you, so to speak, or

I guess in front of you as the new president.”

During her time here, Williams was seen as someone who brought energy to the campus.

“She’s just done a lot to establish what I’d call a collegial environment,” Sgrecci said. “She recognized the institution had momentum.”

Sgrecci credits Williams with helping to guide the college’s Institutional Plan, the college’s “roadmap” to the institution’s development, including the facilities master plan, academic initiatives and campus life goals, among them, adding diversity to campus.

“It’s a living document that has guided our priorities for a long time that she’s been here and to an extent will continue to do so long after she retires,” he said.

Though she said she struggles to pinpoint institutional plans she will not be able to complete before her departure, Williams said she remains frustrated at the lack of federal and state financial aid given to higher education.

Williams said her sabbatical could give her a chance to address this issue on a national level. While she’ll be available to assist in the college’s transition during 2008–09 year, she will also serve on the board of trustees at St. Michael’s College in Vermont. Williams said she will attend her first meeting in October.

“I’ve been on just about every higher education board in the country and have never been on a board of an institution,” Williams said. “It just feels like a perfect and great, logical next step.”

Senior Aaron Boom, president of the Student Government Association (SGA), said the next president of the college should look to continue Williams’ attention to student proposals and the institution’s core values of diversity and sustainability.

“We need to look for someone who will pick up these issues and run with them,” he said.

 

Lynch leaves unfinished legacy

When Dianne Lynch, the dean of the Roy H. Park School of

Communications, leaves the

college in December, she will have served the shortest ever-tenure as dean of the school and one of the shortest at the college.

Lynch served 14 years as a professor in the journalism department at St. Michael’s College in Vermont before coming to Ithaca in 2004.

She will leave behind a host of new initiatives like the CellFlix short film festival, which brought the school national media attention; wireless Internet in Park Hall; the freshman laptop initiative; an educational presence in the online world Second Life; the creation of a national advisory board for the school; and the reorganization of the Strategic

Communication department.

A hallmark of Lynch’s style, according to sophomore Luke Elmers, the Park school’s representative to the SGA, is her ability to connect with students and her creative, get-things-done style of leadership.

“She’s this brilliant, bubbly, creative individual, who ... is incredibly down-to-earth,” he said. “I’ve not met one person who is unhappy with Dean Lynch. Unfortunately for her, that means some people feel personally offended that she’s leaving.”

Lynch said her greatest regret will be the things she’ll leave unfinished, like the hiring of the director for the new Center for Independent Media, the restructuring of the journalism department and the creation of a gaming degree.

“Three years is a great amount of time to start things, but not enough to finish them,” she said.

One of the biggest letdowns during her tenure was her inability to completely address the problems many students have with the school’s journalism department.

In the fall of 2004, several classes had no professors, and Lynch acknowledged that the program was in a “state of flux.”

Though she brought in an outside consultant and hired several professors and chairs who have since left, students continued to protest that the department wasn’t living up to their expectations. The dissent reached a climax last December, when Lynch met with dissatisfied journalism majors to try to address their issues.

Dan Cassavaugh, a senior journalism major, said he was disappointed with the timing of Lynch’s departure.

“The transition time is not a good time for her to be leaving,” he said. “A lot of projects are unfinished.”

Her final decision to leave Ithaca College was a complicated one.

On March 5, 2007, Lynch interviewed for the job of dean at Berkeley. She then decided against the move, afterward writing in her blog All Things Park that she belonged at Ithaca

College. Berkeley continued to pursue her, however, and in early May, she revealed to The Ithacan that Berkeley’s Provost George Breslauer had called her to resume discussions about the job, which she agreed to reconsider.

On July 17, the University of California’s Regents Board Committee on Compensation awarded Lynch a starting salary of $230,600, with a one-time bonus of $57,650 provided she remains at the school for five years. She will also be provided with a “research fund” of $30,000 a year. Lynch declined to comment on her current salary.

In an e-mail sent July 20, Lynch told the Park community she had accepted the position at Berkeley. She said Dianne Gayeski, a professor, associate dean and chair in the strategic communication department, will serve as interim dean in the spring. Gayeski said she will consider applying for the position of dean if she enjoys the job.

Lynch said she will continue to be “110 percent” the dean of Park for the fall semester, even team-teaching Digital Journalism Workshop.

Gossa Tsegaye, an assistant professor of television-radio and chair of the faculty council, said it was unfortunate that she wouldn’t be at the school long enough to see many of her initiatives to fruition.

“I love Park, so my thing is, ‘how dare you leave us?’ But students will be taken care of, and we’ll have to do a search, but life will go on,” he said.

Still, Cassavaugh said he was very happy with how Lynch led the Park school.

“She really did a lot for the students,” he said. “It’ll definitely be a loss for the school.”

 

Erlich retires after 20 years

Howard Erlich, dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences at the college, will have served 20 years in the position at the time of his retirement. He said statistics show the tenure of administrators in comparable positions averages seven years, and he feels it is a healthy time for new leadership in the School of Humanities and Sciences.

“Twenty years is a long time,” Erlich said. “It has been a privilege to be dean of this school.”

During Erlich’s tenure as dean, enrollment of the school has grown nearly 20 percent and has added about 50 faculty members. He also served as chair of the Core Experience Task Force, an initiative created as part of the college’s Institutional Plan to foster a shared student experience.

Erlich said the school has also added a considerable number of majors, such as writing, environmental studies , environmental sciences and teacher education, as well as two graduate programs in adolescent education and masters in teaching.

Erlich said he thinks the transition period that comes with hiring new administrators will be smooth because of documents and policies like the Institutional Plan to guide the next generation of administrators.

 “It’s like turning a big ship,” he said. “Because the college is well-positioned now, the process will happen slowly and smoothly. These will be only subtle changes, I’d guess.”

Faculty and staff of the School of Humanities and Sciences will continue to work on elements of the Strategic Plan, a to-do list created as part of the school’s 50th anniversary to outline the direction of academics and programs. So far, administration has completed several of the tasks, including measuring students’ perception of the school.

Bloom, a student in Erlich’s school, said he was initially uneasy by the seeming “mass exodus” of administrators but now looks forward to the upcoming transition. He said he thinks the arrival of three new deans could unify the college’s

five schools.

“I think one of the major problems we have at IC is that we have a lot of school pride, but very little college pride.”

Bloom said he hopes to help begin tangible, school-wide projects this year that will incorporate different majors and students. Fresh faces on campus may actually benefit these sort of schemes, he said.

Sharon Stansfield, associate professor of computer science and chair of the faculty senate of Humanities and Sciences, said Erlich will leave his successor a solid foundation and large shoes to fill.

“He will take with him a body of institutional knowledge that will be hard to replace,” she said.

Stansfield said she hopes Erlich’s successor will have strong leadership qualities and seek advice and input by faculty and staff members in regards to which actions to take first.

 

Ostrander retires after 37 years at the college and 23 years as dean

Ostrander has spent 37 years on the Ithaca College campus — one of the longest tenures of any current faculty member of the James J. Whalen School of Music.

Ostrander, who became dean in 1985, said he has considered retirement during the last few years and first mentioned it to Williams more than a year ago.

Dean Ostrander said it was purely coincidental that his announcement came so close after three other top-ranking administrators announced their departure.  

“These are all individual decisions that had nothing to do with where Ithaca College is today, but has everything to do with where each individual is in terms of their professional careers,” he said.

He said he made his final decision late this summer, after completing many of his main initiatives for the school, including its the February evaluation by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), he said.

“[It] would be a wonderful time for a new person to come in with the accreditation behind them so that they can then begin the strategic planning for the period ahead for the school,” he said.

Ostrander has been a driving force behind the school’s growth, which has climbed from 328 total students to approximately 500.  The number of auditions has more than tripled, rising from 300 to 1,000 per year, he said.

Ostrander also oversaw the expansion of the School of Music, which opened in 1999.  The project nearly doubled the size of the building and added faculty studios, a recital hall, two rehearsal halls, a computer lab, a lecture hall and a music

education suite.

The previous building did not meet the needs of the music school’s student body, said Ostrander.

“[The new building] was essential for us to really be able to deliver a top-rate curriculum,” he said.

Ostrander also organized an exchange program with the University of Limerick in Ireland, a spring break study abroad program that culminated last year with its fourth and final tour.  The program has given students in the music school, who often do not study abroad due to their rigorous class schedule, a chance to travel with their ensemble, Ostrander said.

Junior Meaghan McTammany, president of the Collegiate Music Educators National Conference [CMENC], said it is clear Ostrander has the concerns of the student body in mind.

“[He cares] very much about students in the School of Music, in terms of what we think, what changes can be done, and how he can address them and go about doing them,” she said.

Ostrander also brought a series of endowed concerts to the school and coordinated student concerts at the Lincoln Center in New York City, including one concert this April.

Mark Radice, professor of music theory, history and composition, joined the Ithaca College faculty two years after Ostrander became dean. He said it is Ostrander’s inherent qualities – his patience and willingness to listen to others’ opinions – that have made him an effective dean.

“Because [Dean Ostrander] has been congenial and built on consensus he’s managed to have 61 faculty who ... are willing to help one another, willing to help the student body and deeply committed to the School of Music,” he said.

Townsend Plant ’00, the director of the school’s admissions, said transitioning into a new dean’s direction might be difficult after years of following Ostrander’s leadership.

“You have to recognize that change is inevitable and hope that [the new dean is] … able to work with a diverse array of people, like our faculty, and continue to move the school forward,” he said.

Radice said the new dean will need to keep the faculty unified toward a common purpose.  He added that he believes it would be unfortunate for the school if the position were filled with a non-musician.  

“It’s better to have someone who’s not only a skillful administrator, but also knows art and discipline of music,” he said.

Ostrander will be on sabbatical for the 2008-09 academic year, during which he plans to travel with his wife who recently retired from her position as the music teacher at Caroline Elementary School in Slaterville Springs, N.Y.

He says he will miss the students and faculty at the music school, whom he has come to feel closely connected to.

“I will miss simply the day to day vitality of being in a place where music is being created all the time,” he said. “You walk through those halls and you hear music.  It’s just been a joy to me to be part of this music-making and to help to make this place prosperous.”