Ithaca College administrators provided updates on enrollment, academic program development, finances and philanthropy during the Oct. 21 State of the College meeting in Emerson Suites.

President La Jerne Cornish also shared a recap of the Board of Trustees’ fall meetings, which ran Oct. 8 through Oct. 10 on campus.

Academic program development

Melanie Stein, executive vice president and provost, explained the college’s progress in the Middle States Commission on Higher Education reaccreditation process.

The Middle States Committee finished the Self-Study Report draft during summer 2025, and asked campus community members to share feedback on the draft report from Sept. 29 through Oct. 20.

Stein said that more than 100 students, faculty, staff and members of the Board of the Trustees have viewed the draft, and at least one person from each of these constituencies has shared feedback. Stein said the committee will likely share an updated draft in November after implementing feedback.

MSCHE assigned Joseph Evan, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at King’s College, to serve as the team chair for IC’s re-accreditation. Stein said Evan will travel Nov. 13 to visit key constituencies on campus and will return with the full MCHE evaluation team from March 29 through April 1, 2026 for a broader campus visit.

The provost’s office has been working with deans, faculty and consultants from Hanover Research to assess which academic programs are most critical to the college’s mission and identify programs that could be dropped, added or changed. Stein said her team is trying to leverage the highest demand programs for additional opportunities to increase enrollment.

Stein said the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre degree has the highest applicant demand, but it is expensive to educate students in that program.

“We collectively asked ourselves, ‘Well, is there any way we could somehow leverage that applicant pool in a way that makes sense for the institution?’” Stein said. “The faculty under Dean [Steve] Teneyck’s leadership came up with a [B.F.A.] program for dance and choreography for musical theater. … It will draw from that same student interest that we know is out there, but because it’s adjacent and a little bit more specialized, it makes sense for the institution from a financial standpoint.”

Stein said her team is also working with faculty to develop degree programs that draw from many of the college’s established majors. Stein said they are currently working on a Bachelor of Arts in Integrative Performing Arts, which would combine music, theatre and dance into one major. Faculty from across the School of MTD, School of Humanities and Sciences, School of Business and Park School of Communications are also developing a B.A. in Creative Industries.

The college is also working to attract learners outside of the traditional college-going age group. Stein noted that the college introduced its first online program, a part-time master’s of Speech Language Pathology, in 2024. Stein said this program was designed to attract working adults from across the country.

The college is also discussing dual admission opportunities with Tompkins Cortland Community College, and is working to generally improve the process for students to transfer to IC from other institutions.

Stein said the college has also started introducing micro-credentials, which will allow students to put marketable skills on their résumé after completing a cluster of courses — typically two to four. So far, the Department of Computer Science has introduced micro-credentials in data-centric programming, Python programming and web development.

Enrollment and finances

Rakin “Rock” Hall, vice president for Enrollment Management and Student Success, said the college opened up undergraduate admissions applications sooner in Fall 2025 to attract more applicants early on.

Hall’s slides showed that the college had received 2,040 applications as of Oct. 20, which is 34% ahead of the applications received at this point in Fall 2024.

Hall said the college hopes to enroll 1,200 first-year students for Fall 2026. Administrators reduced the college’s enrollment target from 1,310 students in the FY 2025 budget forecast after the college missed its Fall 2024 enrollment target by about 200 students.

Hall said his team is working on a campaign to introduce families to IC earlier on, which he hopes will draw a larger first-year student class. Hall said the college could not execute this campaign or reach its other enrollment goals without every single faculty and staff member’s work.

“Whether you answer an email, a phone call, direct someone walking across campus, shake a hand, give a smile, all of that matters,” Hall said. “And you know the charge is, we have to do it again, and I think we will.”

Tim Downs, senior vice president and chief financial officer, said the college finished FY 2025 with a $9.7 million budget deficit. This is higher than the $9.2 million deficit projection that the Board of Trustees approved in the FY 2025 budget. However, the deficit did not increase as much as expected after the college missed its Fall 2024 enrollment goal. Downs had previously projected that the college would finish FY 2025 with a $12 million deficit.

Downs said the board approved a $9.2 million budget deficit for FY 2026, using the new enrollment target of 1,200 first-year students.

“Over the last year, this campus has gone through a lot to really begin to stabilize ‘what does our future look like,’” Downs said. “These are very short-term steps we’re taking to be able to kind of close the deficits that we’re operating under. … The good news is, with that work, we’ve rebalanced to a place that we are comfortable, that we’re able to hit.”

Down’s slides showed that the college hopes to decrease the budget deficit to $4 million by the end of FY 2027 and eliminate the deficit by the end of FY 2028.

Downs said the college’s cash and reserves have continued to grow, reaching the highest point in the college’s history. Downs’ slides showed that the college’s cash and investments increased to $527.8 million as of June 30, up from $511.6 million on June 30, 2024. The college’s endowment grew from $403.2 million in June 2024 to $437.1 million in June 2025.

Philanthropy

Laine Norton, vice president for the Division of Advancement, said that fundraising has become an essential funding source for many colleges, especially as the industry faces decreasing enrollment, shifting public perception and other challenges.

Norton noted that the college has recently received generous gifts to pay for the new outdoor track facility and provide scholarships for students in the Department of Chemistry. Norton said the Division of Advancement works with partners from across campus, including in academics and athletics, to build relationships with potential donors.

“The gifts we received today had seeds planted decades ago,” Norton said. “Financial aid, scholarship, the student experience all play a role in creating passion for the institution that can result in giving.”

Norton said her division has created a dashboard in partnership with the Division of Information Technology and Analytics to show dollars raised and money realized on a daily basis.

Closing

Cornish concluded the meeting by recapping some of the events and discussions during the Board of Trustees’ Fall 2025 meetings.

Cornish said the board launched a new Council of Trustees, which is composed of former trustees who want to help shape the future of the college. She said current and former trustees learned about the college’s ongoing feasibility study with consulting firm Marts&Lundy, which focuses on the college’s preparedness to begin a comprehensive capital campaign.

Dave Maley, director of Public Relations, said via email that the comprehensive capital campaign would be a “major fundraising initiative for a broad range of college needs.” Maley said Cornish will share more information at the appropriate time.

Cornish said the college will proceed with the 3% salary increase for faculty and staff, which was approved during the Board of Trustees’ May 2025 meetings. The increase will start Jan. 1, 2026.

Cornish said administrators are continuing to work toward the college’s institutional priorities — financial sustainability, student success, integration and advancement.

“We have momentum,” Cornish said. “This place feels good despite all that’s going on in the world.”