The Ithaca College Faculty Council met Sept. 2 for its first meeting of the 2025-26 academic year to hear updates from President La Jerne Cornish and to confirm council members into their subcommittee positions. This meeting was also the first meeting with the new council and council chair, Dennis Charsky, professor in the Department of Strategic Communication and the director of the Communication Management and Design program.

Cornish opened the meeting by welcoming the faculty members and thanking them for their work. Cornish invited John Neeson ’84, chair of the Ithaca College Board of Trustees and Christopher D. Palmieri ’96, vice chair of the board of trustees, to a faculty council meeting via Zoom.

Cornish said there were, as of Sept. 2, 1,122 first-year students admitted to IC and 74 transfer students. She said these numbers are not final and that final numbers will be out once the campus census is completed Sept. 9.

“We stuck the landing and we’re happy about that,” Cornish said. “May this be the first of many landings.”

Cornish allowed the council to voice their concerns but listed some of her own worries for the current academic year. She said she was worried about federal legislation targeting colleges, citing a National Science Foundation grant that was cut with a year remaining. She said IC has been lucky, unlike some other higher education institutions, like Cornell University.

“We are blessed to be able to offer what we offer,” Cornish said. “So while we think about some of the things we used to want desperately, I’m grateful that we are under the radar.”

Rachel Wagner, professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion, asked Cornish about the status of the college’s ability to provide medical assistance to transgender students. Cornish said she did not have an answer and would ask Stanley Bazile, vice president for Student Affairs and Campus Life, because he would know.

Melanie Stein, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, then gave her provost report, saying she knew there was no shortage of problems on campus and in the world, but that solid and respectful dialogue is the best way to solve many of those problems.

“I hope for as many fruitful dialogues with faculty as I can manage,” Stein said. “This is a place that allows for that, and it’s why I like coming to faculty council.”

Stein said that new academic expansion could be anticipated in the near future and the coronavirus-era suspension and contraction of academics was over. Stein said there are talks to create a new interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts program in creative industries, which would span every school at the college except for the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance. Stein also said there was a program in the works to create micro-credentials, which would allow students to receive credentialed skills on their degree alongside their chosen majors and minors. Micro-credentials are a way to show skills developed through liberal arts education that are otherwise unrepresented on a degree.

Ruth Barber, associate professor in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, asked Stein if the micro-credentials would be matched with a certificate. Stein said they would not be certificated, but would appear on a transcript, as well as a degree, and that taking a certain amount of classes would result in a listed skill on your transcript.

Charsky opened the role and subcommittee confirmations. David Gondek, former council chair and associate professor in the Department of Biology, was confirmed as the council parliamentarian. The role of the parliamentarian is to guide meetings and keep the proceedings and council members on track.

Additionally, council members were confirmed to their positions on the faculty council subcommittees.

Academic Calendar committee:

• David Gondek, associate professor in the Department of Biology
• Angela Branneman, associate professor in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance
• Eren Akdur, instructor in the School of Business

Honorary Degree committee:

• Hugh Egan, professor in the Department of Literatures in English
• Devan Rosen, professor in the Roy H. Park School of Communications
• Eric Troiano, assistant professor in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance

Faculty Handbook Amendment committee:

• James Mick, professor in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance
• Amy Rominger, clinical associate professor in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology
• Two positions on the committee were left unfilled

No one was confirmed for the role of liaison to the All-College Committees on Assessment, Policy, and Curriculum.

The council passed the motion to enter an executive session – restricting the meeting solely for members of the council – where they discussed new business and updates from the various schools following the first week of classes.

The Ithaca College Faculty Council meets from 4-6 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month in the Taughannock Falls room of the Campus Center. The faculty council can be contacted at [email protected].