The Ithaca College Student Governance Council met Dec. 1 to give updates on initiative progress and to hear from Barbie Bargher, director of Student Financial Services, to speak about financial aid.
The council prepared questions during their Nov. 17 meeting for Bargher which were given to her before the meeting. Bargher was asked how tuition increases are communicated by IC. Bargher said that these increases are communicated through school wide announcements, with the latest one being posted Oct. 14 through Intercom, which reported a 3.9% increase in cost of attendance for the 2026-27 academic year.
Bargher explained the process of awarding scholarships that the college goes through. Bargher said tuition and fees are determined by a student’s individual program. She said $215 million was awarded in grants, scholarships, loans and work-study last year and IC evaluates student aid eligibility at the end of every semester.
Senior Nikki Sutera, senate chair, asked how changes have been made to how scholarships are awarded to returning students. Bargher said IC previously used an application process that students would apply for, but now uses a database that matches returning students to scholarships. Bargher said the database evaluates students by factors such as their GPA and major to match them with scholarships.
Senior Rishabh Sen, president of the student body, said he has heard students say that this new evaluation process feels less merit based. Sen said students do not have the option to choose what achievements appear on their application.
“I think there is a need from a student side to have opportunities to reduce how much they’re paying based solely on their academic and extracurricular performance,” Sen said.
A reporter from The Ithacan asked Bargher about the now closed investigation that was opened March 2025 by the U.S Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights which alleged Title VI violations in the college’s scholarship selection process. The complaint said scholarships such as the African Lation Society Memorial Scholarship and the Rashad G. Richardson “I Can Achieve” Memorial Scholarship were only recognizing students of color. Bargher said although scholarships are handled by donor relations she had heard from the Division of Advancement’s donor relations that they were reorganizing scholarships.
“I do know they were going through all of their scholarships,” Bargher said. “Because some of them are old and some of [those] majors don’t even exist anymore.”
Sophomore Amelia Grimshaw, School of Humanities and Sciences senator, asked Bargher what her advice was for students seeking to increase their aid. Bargher said students should look beyond the college.
“There’s endowed scholarships we try to help supplement [with], but it really depends on each student and what their financial need is,” Bargher said. “But for the most part, it’s looking for scholarships outside of Ithaca [College].”
The council then reviewed two candidates, first-year student Ari Medvinsky, senator-at-large, and first-year student Margaret “Mega” Gem Martinez, international senator, for cochair positions on the newly established artificial intelligence ad hoc committee. After an executive session, which is limited to only members of the council, both candidates were confirmed.
The council then broke into small groups to discuss the progress of their current initiatives. Martinez said her initiative of instituting prayer rooms in more buildings on campus has received funding from administrators and will move forward. Martinez said the prayer rooms would have at least five sacred texts from Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism. Martinez said that they have found one space available for a prayer room in Emerson Suites.
“Right now, we’re just looking at how we can measure the data [and] how we can measure our success,” Martinez said. “I’ve been trying to get meetings with religious life, residential life and facilities [to see progress].”
Junior Eva Horst, vice president of campus affairs, said she is currently working on an initiative for an increase of signage around campus to make sure that accessible routes are clearly lined out on campus. Horst said that she is working with Disabled Students Alliance on this initiative.
During senator reports, sophomore Ash Beall, senator-at-large, said the DSA has been taking pictures of campus vehicles being parked in access aisles and on sidewalk ramps. Beall said they had reached out to Scott Garin, executive director of the Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management about this issue. Garin told Beall that accessible routes should be kept open and wanted to look further into these instances.
During open agenda, Medvinsky said the first meeting for the AI ad hoc committee would take place Dec. 10 in Clarke Lounge on the second floor of the Campus Center. This meeting is open to the public and its goal is to start to collect anecdotal evidence and student opinions on AI. For those who cannot attend in person, a form will be released to further survey students.
Next week the council will host a short meeting to hear senator reports and confirm council members to new roles.
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].
