Tim Downs, vice president for Finance and Administration and chief financial officer, spoke with the Ithaca College Student Governance Council Oct. 21 about the 1.27% drop in enrollment at the college between Fall 2023 and Fall 2024.
The council also provided suggestions on how Downs could get student feedback regarding renovations to the Campus Center, and discussed its plan to hold a town hall-style meeting in the Campus Center Nov. 4, ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
Enrollment
Downs said the college projected approximately 1,400 new students to enroll in Fall 2024, but the college only enrolled 1,140 for Fall 2024. He said one reason for the drop in enrollment was because of the delays to the 2024–25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
“[The FAFSA is] how you know how you’re going to pay for college,” Downs said. “Without that … colleges can’t even tell you what institutional aid you’re getting.”
Downs said the college developed a 70-question Student Aid Index calculator to provide families with financial information during the FAFSA delays. He said the length of the survey discouraged families from filling it out and that he is working to streamline it.
“We have to balance accuracy and precision in what we’re trying to get versus ease and guidance to families,” Downs said. “We’re trying to work with families and those that have higher need … so we can get to an answer quicker and better by trying to come up with more targeted, focused questions that are on there.”
Downs said he has asked academic departments to tighten up their budget to combat the financial deficit left by the drop in enrollment. He said he is comfortable with the budget cuts because every department rarely spends its entire budget.
“It technically shouldn’t hurt anybody because it’s already what they’re doing,” Downs said. “It’s just we’re going to adjust the budget to that actual number so they won’t have the option of spending more if they want.”
Campus Center renovations
Downs said the Campus Center is an architecturally flawed building that needs to be updated because of the slopes and ramps needed to connect different floors. It was the fourth building constructed on campus and opened in 1965. He said if he was a student at the college, he would not want to hang out at Egbert Hall in the Campus Center.
“I love all buildings,” Downs said. “And I don’t like this building.”
Downs said the college is just starting to plan the building’s renovation to turn it into a space where students would like to spend time in. He suggested potentially moving Ithaca Bakery upstairs to Egbert Hall. He asked the council about ways he could get student feedback and ideas for renovating the Campus Center.
Junior Senator-at-Large Noeline Luyindula suggested going to spots where groups of students would be, like BIPOC students at the BIPOC Unity Center and health science majors at Vida Cafe, to get feedback.
“[Find] out where the clusters are and then use faculty and staff to find out when the clusters are the most [busy],” Luyindula said.
Juno Brooks, Class of 2027 senator, suggested using QR code surveys to get feedback from more introverted students in addition to directly interviewing students about their ideas.
“You have to do a lot of little things to get into every group,” Brooks said. “Also, offering students free food always makes them complacent.”
SGC meeting Nov. 4
Junior Senate Chair Nikki Sutera said the council will have a town hall-style meeting at 7 p.m. Nov. 4. The meeting will take place in IC Square instead of the council’s usual location at the Taughannock Falls room. She said that while all SGC meetings are open to the community, she encourages students to attend this meeting.
Sutera said Jason Starkman ’22 and Sam Edelstein ’22 — who lead the civic education startup Poliquicks — will speak about elections at the Nov. 4 SGC meeting ahead of the Nov. 5 election. She said she would like the meeting to be less formal than usual SGC meetings and hopes to hear from the community for the majority of the meeting.
“My goal is for it to be more chill,” Sutera said. “The only thing that I’m going to keep formal is just the very beginning to make sure that our legislative stuff is done. I want at least 90 minutes for community session.”
