Following up on Ithaca College’s review of the Integrative Core Curriculum in April, the college has selected a task force to provide proposed changes to the ICC.
The task force currently consists of 15 members, comprised of 13 faculty members, one staff member and one student. Two of the faculty members were on the ICC program review from 2018 to 2019, James Morton, assistant professor in the Department of Sport Management, and David Gondek, associate professor in the Department of Biology.
There are also five faculty members representing each of the five schools. The School of Business will be represented by Matthew Lunde, assistant professor in the Department of Marketing. The Roy H. Park School of Communications will be represented by Cathy Crane, associate professor in the Department of Media Arts, Sciences and Studies. The School of Health Sciences and Human Performance will be represented by Chris Hummel, clinical professor and chair in the Department of Exercise Science and Athletic Training. The School of Humanities and Sciences will be represented by Jennifer Tennant, associate professor in the Department of Economics. The School of Music will be represented by Deborah Rifkin, associate professor in the Department of Music Theory, History and Composition.
Faculty members Tatiana Patrone, associate professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion, and David Brown, professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics, will serve on the task force. Both faculty members teach multiple ICC courses.
Sophomore Reed Pollard, a former member of the Student Government Council, was selected as the student representative.
Susan Adams Delaney, associate professor in the Department of Writing, will serve on the task force because of her experience as director of the ICC.
The college’s freshman seminar coordinator, Andrew Utterson, associate professor in the Department of Media Arts, Sciences and Studies, will serve on the task force.
Stacia Zabusky, associate dean for curriculum and undergraduate programs in H&S, and David Pacun, associate dean in the music school, will also serve on the task force. Katherine Burke, academic advisor in the Academic Advising Center, is also on the task force.
Gondek said the process for selecting the task force involved community members either being nominated or self-nominating to be on the task force. The nominations came from each of the five schools and the Ithaca College Faculty Council. These nominations were then considered by the curriculum committees of different schools, which approved and sent nominees’ names to the Committee for College-Wide Requirements (CCR), which gave final approval.
Gondek said that while this process selected many of the task force members, CCR also wanted the task force to be a “representative body,” with members who have experience with the ICC, like Delaney or Utterson. In addition, CCR also wanted assistant deans and people from CCR working on the task force.
Gondek said the task force would like more student representatives, as it currently only has one.
“Ideally we would have more student voices at the table because it’s really a student–focused experience,” Gondek said.
Crane is a part of the subcommittee that deals with revisions to the e-portfolio and said all subcommittees on the task force will submit proposals for changes to the ICC to the CCR by Fall 2020.
Crane said there is a consensus among the college community about there being issues with the themes and e-portfolio. Gondek said the issues students have with themes are that they are too restrictive in terms of what courses students can take. Delaney said the issues students have had with the e-portfolio come from the difficulty in using it as a tool for reflection on courses they may have taken years ago. Delaney said the issue with the e-portfolio stems from it trying to do two things at once — providing reflection for students and also assessing student performance.
