At a college, the bottom line role of every faculty and staff member is to provide students with a successful educational experience. This may be through obvious paths, like ensuring a smooth transition to college and offering clear academic instruction. It may also take more winding paths, like giving faculty professional development opportunities so that they can then be better educators, or ensuring students stay healthy so that they can continue to attend their classes regularly. Ultimately, the goal is student success. 

For this reason, it is essential that students at Ithaca College, as well as faculty and staff, have a clear understanding of how hiring decisions are being made, as the decisions impact the campus community as a whole. 

Over the past several years, the college has seen significant turnover in its faculty, staff and administration. Since late 2022, the college has hired three new school deans for the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, the Park School of Communications and the School of Business. They are also currently in the process of searching for a new dean of the School of Health Science and Human Performance. There has been turnover in a number of other important positions in recent years as well, including college president, provost and directors and assistant directors for a number of crucial college departments. 

During some searches, like the dean’s searches, the college took the important step of including students in the hiring process. They offered student positions on advising panels and held meet and greet sessions with potential candidates, accepting feedback on which candidate may best meet the needs of the academic school. These opportunities allow the people who will be directly affected to play a role in the hiring process while also bringing a diversity of voices and perspectives to the table. In other searches, this has not always been possible and it will not always be possible. 

However, what is always possible is being honest about how a search will be conducted and being clear about how and why certain decisions have been made. What the college should not do is conduct each and every search differently without explanations for their decisions. 

If Ithaca College is a community, as they often claim to be, it is important that all members of that community can understand and, when possible, participate in the process of hiring at all levels, but especially in high-level positions that fundamentally affect the functioning of the college.