The Ithaca College Student Governance Council met Sept. 8 to hear from Luca Maurer — executive director for student equity, inclusion and belonging in the Center for Equity, Inclusion and Belonging — about his office’s efforts to foster inclusion on campus in the face of federal pressures at the council’s first meeting of Fall 2025.
Maurer said the Center for EIB held teach-in sessions in Spring 2025 with Emily Rockett — vice president, general counsel and secretary to the Board of Trustees — Crissi Dalfonzo, director of the Center for LGBT Education, Outreach and Services, and Diana Dimitrova, director of International Students and Scholar Services. He said these sessions focused on addressing students, faculty and staff’s concerns with the federal government’s actions.
“What we were hearing was, ‘We hear the news, but we don’t really understand,'” Maurer said. “‘How does this affect us?’ ‘Does this affect us?”’
Senior Rishabh Sen, president of the student body, asked Maurer what resources are available to students who are facing harassment from students that have been emboldened to be hateful by the current political landscape.
“There are students who, in the past, did not feel as comfortable sharing hateful rhetoric [that] might feel like now they have that level of federal support to do so,” Sen said.
Maurer referred Sen to the college’s non-discrimination policy and encouraged the council to report any discrimination they faced through the college’s discrimination reporting form. He said that students’ identities are still largely protected under New York state law.
“Let me give you the big picture,” Maurer said. “Ithaca College policy and state law is still very much in force in the state of New York.”
In Fall 2025, what was formerly called the BIPOC Unity Center was renamed to the Unity Center — removing any mention of race or ethnicity in its description. Maurer said in an interview with The Ithacan during the meeting that the Unity Center is going to continue to provide the same services and resources it always has regardless of its name.
“The refresh of the Unity Center was really about recognizing that it has always existed to serve all students,” Maurer said. “Due to the restructure last year, it serves first-gen students and a couple of other scholarship programs that were not represented in the title.”
Maurer said the Center for EIB helps support affinity groups for faculty and staff like groups focused on supporting early career, LGBTQ+ and remote working faculty and staff. He said the college is launching a disability affinity group for faculty and staff Sept. 16.
“[The affinity groups] are self governing, and they are specifically to help foster equity and belonging for people who are part of these groups,” Maurer said.
Senior Asata Rothblatt, the vice president of academic affairs on the council, volunteered to join the council’s appropriations committee. Rothblatt said she served as a member of the committee from Fall 2022 to Spring 2024.
“I have a lot of knowledge to bring to [the committee] and I also just find it very satisfactory to help out with it,” Rothblatt said.
The council then entered executive session — restricting the meeting to only members of the council — to confirm Rothblatt to the committee.
The council ended their meeting by planning ahead for its Sept. 15 meeting where they will hear from Reginald Briggs, senior director of dining services, and for the SGC platform presentations from 4-6 p.m. Sept. 15 in the Klingenstein Lounge in the Campus Center.
The SGC is the sole representative body for the Ithaca College student community. The SGC meets from 7-9 p.m. every Monday in the Taughannock Falls room of the Campus Center. The SGC can be contacted at [email protected].
