Mei Dennison
The position of Vice President for Marketing Communications has been held by Mark Eyerly since its formation in July 2023 and will be cut Aug. 31.
Effective Aug. 31, the position of Vice President for Marketing Communications at Ithaca College will be eliminated as part of ongoing cost-reduction measures. The position has been held by Mark Eyerly since its formation in July 2023. After Aug. 31, the Marketing Communications team — Allison Usavage from creative, Melissa Pittinaro from marketing and Sloan MacRae from communications — will report directly to Tim Downs, senior vice president and chief financial officer.
President La Jerne Cornish announced her decision to cut the position in an Aug. 18 email to staff and faculty. This decision follows similar changes in April when Downs’ position changed to oversee the Advancement, Enrollment, and Marketing and Communications divisions in addition to the Division of Finance and Administration.
Downs’ position change was part of a larger consolidation of administrative positions that Cornish announced in an April 3 email to the campus community in response to an administrative analysis study conducted with the Huron Consulting Group. The college has been working with Huron Consulting Group since October 2024 to find ways to decrease the budget deficit by cutting costs and increasing revenue.
“As part of our ongoing cost-reduction measures, I made the difficult decision to eliminate the position,” Cornish said in the email.
The position of Vice President for Marketing Communications was added to the college administration in July 2023 after it separated from the enrollment division. Since then, Eyerly has helped facilitate enrollment growth, engage alumni and fundraise. In a 2023 interview with The Ithacan, Eyerly said he wanted to run the team like a newsroom, not an ad agency.
“The first thing [the writers] are focused on is just finding really good stories and telling those stories,” Eyerly said. “Then we can decide how we can multi-purpose that content across various audiences.”
In her email, Cornish said Eyerly and his team were able to meaningfully connect with audiences and set the division up to service the community into the future.
“Mark restructured the MarCom division, embedding a bold storytelling approach and bringing in exceptional new leaders to join an already talented and committed team,” Cornish said in the email. “Together, they expanded our ability to share what makes IC distinctive.”