Ithaca College will relocate offices and departments to advance the Campus Master Plan and help to centralize the School of Humanities and Sciences.
La Jerne Cornish, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, and Hayley Harris, vice president for human resources and planning, made the announcement to the campus community Nov. 14. According to the email, the moves address the goals of advancing the Campus Master Plan in the college’s five-year strategic plan. The purpose of the master plan is to improve the utilization of space on campus. Some of the moves will occur in Spring 2020, but the majority of the changes will be made in summer 2020, according to the email.
The Office of Student Accessibility Services, the Academic Advising Center, Tutoring Services, Integrative Core Curriculum, the Reserves Officers’ Training Corps, the Office of State Grants, the Office of International Programs and the Office of Extended Studies will be moved to the garden level of the Peggy Ryan Williams Center, according to the email. The Office of College Communications will be on the first floor.
There will be minimal costs for the moves because it is a matter of reallocating space that is already on campus, the email stated.
Over the past few months, co-chairs of the master plan working group — Tim Carey, associate vice president in the Office of Facilities, and Marc Israel, assistant provost for finance and administrative operations — have spent time determining how to best accomplish the goal. The master plan has been in the works since 2015.
“The Ithaca Forever strategic planning process was the impetus for this plan,” Carey said via email. “I am pleased that one of the initial actions emanating from the new strategic planning process is the improvement of space utilization for the direct benefit of students and faculty members.”
Yolanda Clarke, manager of tutoring services, said the move should increase engagement and collaboration among the offices.
“I am very happy that Tutoring Services will be in a location with other key student services on campus,” she said via email. “This will be highly beneficial for our students. We also look forward to the aesthetically pleasing, student–friendly space in the most significant building on campus.”
Currently, the Office of Student Financial Services and the Office of the Registrar are on the second floor of Peggy Ryan Williams. Carey said that moving student-oriented services to one central area is more convenient for students.
“The moves will promote ‘one-stop shopping’ for students who regularly utilize student–serving departments located in the Peggy Ryan Williams Center, as well as the departments that will be relocated to PRW,” he said via email.
In addition, offices for faculty in the School of Humanities and Sciences that are currently in Rothschild Place, like the Department of Philosophy and Religion, will be relocated to the second and third floors of Job Hall, which are currently occupied by administrative operations.
Offices for faculty in H&S are currently spread across campus, but the move will consolidate them. The majority of faculty offices will be located along the corridor from Dillingham Center to Muller Faculty Center once the moves are completed.
Melanie Stein, dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, said that relocating faculty offices creates a stretch of campus more identifiable as H&S space.
“The upcoming move will offer rich opportunities for both our students and our faculty to develop a stronger sense of H&S identity, to pair with the bonds they already have with their departments and with the college as a whole,” Stein said.
The Honors Program and the Center for Civic Engagement, which are located on the garden level of the Peggy Ryan Williams Center, will move to the Muller Faculty Center.
In an email sent to honors students, Jeane Copenhaver-Johnson, associate provost for academic programs, said that the specific details of the move are still being confirmed but that she is excited that the move will consolidate services for students.
Information Technology services currently located on Job Hall’s third floor, East Tower’s 14th floor and the Terrace Residence Hall 13 first floor will move to Rothschild Place and the warehouse in the Central Services Building. The tenure and promotion space and a majority of the Office of Human Resources will move to Terrace 13.
The Center for LGBT Education, Outreach and Services, which is currently located in the Hammond Health Center, and the BOLD Scholars Program will move to the Towers Concourse. The ID Office, currently on the first floor of Friends Hall, will relocate to be adjacent to IC Square in the Campus Center.
The Office of Facilities and the Department of Theatre Arts will also trade spaces so the theater department gains more space in the lower level of Dillingham Center.
