The Ithaca College Shared Governance Task Force announced that it will present a draft of its shared governance proposal to the campus community Oct. 24.
The proposed draft for the shared governance model will be sent in an email to all members of the campus community, according to the Intercom announcement. The email will also contain a survey for the campus community to anonymously give feedback on the draft.
The Shared Governance Task Force formed in January in response to concerns in the community that the college did not have an official structure for shared governance. Shared governance is the collaborative decision-making of all constituent groups of the college, which would include administration, faculty, staff and student body. Since then, the committee has worked toward creating this draft.
Julie Dorsey, associate professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy and a faculty trustee on the task force, said she could not comment on what the proposal would include because it is better for the group to internally discuss what the model will be.
Meetings and open sessions for faculty, staff and students to discuss the draft are being held Oct. 24 through Nov. 11, according to the announcement. The open feedback sessions will be Oct. 27 from 10 to 11 a.m. and Nov. 3 from 12:10 to 1 p.m. in Textor 102.
Following the feedback sessions and the survey, which will close Nov. 11, the task force will begin reviewing all feedback for consideration in the final proposal, according to the Intercom announcement. The task force will meet with the Ithaca College Board of Trustees from March 1 through March 3 to present a final draft for approval.
Dorsey said the task force appreciates the community’s patience with the release of this draft and that it has been working hard to bring this proposal to the campus. In previous reporting by The Ithacan, Dominick Recckio ’16, former president of the Student Governance Council, expressed his concerns about the transparency of the task force, to which Dorsey said there are no secrets.
“It hasn’t been a lack of transparency,” Dorsey said. “It’s that this is the way that it has worked best to move forward with a really important topic.”
Dorsey said student participation in the task force has improved since last semester with student representatives’ — such as junior Elijah Greene, junior Michele Hau and junior Marieme Foote — being active in the process.
Foote, president of the SGC, said she wants the campus community to take the draft seriously and to engage with the task force by giving it feedback. She said the draft is a dense document which could deter students from reading it.
“I’m just looking for people … to also engage with us and provide the committee information on what they think and to be really open and frank about it,” Foote said.
