This use of adjuncts is far below the national average of Dave Maley, college spokesperson, quoting Moodys, said the A2 rating underscored Ithacas healthy flexible reserves and liquidity and low debt burden as well as management's willingness to adjust expenses to reduced revenues, all of which support its good strategic positioning., While Ithacas outlook was revised, Maley said, Moody's also revised its outlook for higher education overall from stable to negative this year as a result of predicted widespread instability due to the coronavirus pandemic. The excision of central people and programs, among other administrative actions, will be a wound for Ithaca for a long time to come., Sorentino added, I cannot imagine many alumni wanting to donate to, or otherwise publicly support, the school under this new vision.. On Oct. 18, the committee sent a letter voicing criticisms to President Shirley M. Collado; La Jerne Cornish, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs; and the members of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT). , only Like so many other professors who have been cut or faced with reimagining program curricula in their colleagues absence, Dremock wondered which of her courses and initiatives will vanish when shes gone. These responsibilities could range from entirely teaching lower-level courses themselves, to assisting professors by developing teaching materials, preparing or giving exams and grading student work. The University of Idahos plan to buy the University of Phoenix is a symptom of public universities operating more li. As is always the case, class size varies depending on pedagogical needs of particular classes and disciplines, but, overall, our average class size will remain small. The college will use a phased approach for bringing students back to campus, with the first two weeks of classes being remote. Are We Losing the Public in Public Higher Ed? Ultimately say as to who gets cut, where, lies with her and other administrators. Tom Swensen, professor in the Department of Exercise Science and Athletic Training, said he is concerned that more positions than necessary will be cut. We are not going to hit our targets just by reducing staff.. Ithaca College previously announced plans to cut more than 100 full-time faculty positions. The letter asked the administration to have a discussion with the faculty prior to the APPIC decisions being made. We know members of our community have questions about the. Any full-time continuing faculty in notice-appointment positions (e.g., NTEN) whose positions are discontinued will be formally notified in writing no later than March 1. How much money will be saved by the reductions? Ithacas five-year strategic plan, called Ithaca Forever, describes a visionary, nimble and sustainable future for the comprehensive, liberal arts-influenced college and its professional schools. In Fall 2020, 72.2% of students are white, according to AIR. To maintain a 12-to-1 student-faculty ratio, the college will only need 415 out of its 547 faculty members, Cornish said. This hiring practice is primarily a way to save money amid increasingly tight budgets. In Stepping Away, Lisa Jasinski considers their roleand suggests they should take a serious pay cut. The HR team is available to faculty members who have questions. Our COVID crisis will end. What resources will the College make available for faculty whose employment will be terminated? And while COVID has dramatically exposed this truth, it did not create it. Ithaca College continues to be affected by . The student-faculty ratio at Ithaca College is 11:1, and the school has 67.8% of its classes with fewer than 20 students. Adam S. Subscribe for free to Inside Higher Eds newsletters, featuring the latest news, opinion and great new careers in higher education delivered to your inbox. Please see below for answers to some of the more frequently asked questions. Colleges. Sucha credit shiftmight have the effect of reducing the number of different courses (and the total number of students) a faculty member teaches at a given time, and it may also reduce the total number of different courses a student might be completing during a semester. What happens to students who have not yet identified their forever major? At the college,theclinical facultyandranked academic facultycanholda variety ofranks(e.g., Lecturer, Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor). Collado said at the All-College Gathering on Sept. 22 that staff and faculty reductions are a response to the need to resize the college, as mentioned in the Ithaca Forever strategic plan. Programs can, and do, put limits on transfers into particular programs (due to capacity issues or curricular revisions, for example), and this should be expected for some high-demand majors, as is typical. Cornish also discussed tentative return-to-campus plans for Spring 2021. There is so much value to liberal arts in conjunction with "career-focused" degrees. Students in Integrative Studies programs create a robust plan of coursework for their self-designed major, which is then submitted for review/approval by the Integrative Studies Advisory Board and the Associate Dean in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Students have voiced concerns about racism at the college in the past, and on Oct. 6, the Student Governance Council and the Students of Color Coalition hosted the Stand for Justice webinar to discuss ways to address racism at the college. Higher Education News, Opinion and Careers | Weekdays, Quick Summary of the Week's Higher Ed News | Fridays, Admissions and Enrollment News, Opinion and Careers | Mondays, Diversity News, Opinion and Career Advice | Tuesdays, Student Success News, Ideas, Advice and Inspiration | Weekdays, Plain Speaking or Rude? Students in the Exploratory Program will be able to request a change of major for majors that are available as of the catalog year in which they declare that major. At Ithaca, at least, she said, the academic prioritization process will continue long after this so that well never be in this position again. We recognize that institutions have very different profiles and potential student pools that can account for some of this, but still the overall picture seems to be graver for IC than for many of its competitors. Of course cutting folks at an institution will save the institution money, but why this many cuts at once? That number includes full-time and part-time professors, along with students with various enrollment statuses. The average graduation rate of the last 10 years is 76.44% where the current academic year rate is 77%. Shirley M. Collado Student-faculty ratio is less than the national average Low number of TAs teaching courses Cons Total cost is $13,181 higher than the national average for a private, 4-year colleges Room and board cost is $4,085 higher than the national average Ithaca College at a Glance Disciplines are very different, with some requiring lower student to faculty ratios than others, and our students take classes across schools. Cornish said its important to remember that 130 is not necessarily the number of professors who will be cut. First Year students can select move-in appointments for Thursday, August 17, 2023. At the Faculty Council meeting Oct. 6, Cornish said that approximately 130 full-time equivalent (FTE) faculty out of the 547 FTE positions will lose their jobs because of decreased enrollment. This is not just a lack of shared governance but a complete lack of transparency and interest in collaboration on the part of administration. Pfaff added, From my perspective, Im having a hard time figuring out how given our infrastructure that the reduced student size makes sense. One of us, LaJerne Terry Cornish, the provost, and her team have provided weekly updates about the program prioritization process to all faculty members, hosted informative and responsive faculty meetings monthly, and participated in direct, meaningful engagement with our faculty council. This isn't the first time Ithaca College has had to cut its workforce this year. On what grounds do we conclude that 12:1 is the appropriate student-faculty ratio? We have made a commitment to offering you the program you declared as your major, consistent with the catalog year in which you were accepted into that major. The Spring 2021 academic calendar states that online instruction will begin Jan. 25, with on-campus instruction beginning Feb. 8. Instead of a top-down plan that hollows out programs, Dremock said Ithaca is full of brilliant people who really like and care about the school and its students, who would have come together to find alternative means of saving money. In additionto theranksthey hold, facultyare hired to meetparticular curricularand staffing needs of thecollege;thetypesoffaculty appointmentsoffered arebased, in part,onthe anticipated duration ofthe staffing need. "It is important to note that, while the pandemic has certainly had an impact on the college, it is not the primary driver of these decisions, only an accelerant.". Several faculty members contacted for this story declined comment or said it was too early in the process to know what to say. . Subscribe for free to Inside Higher Eds newsletters, featuring the latest news, opinion and great new careers in higher education delivered to your inbox. Because one of our strategic planning goals is to be a national model for colleges committed to the values of diversity, equity and inclusion, achieving this goal is important to us and a constant consideration in our decision-making process. Most notably, no involuntary reductions were made to tenured or tenure-eligible positions, preserving recent gains towards the colleges diversity goals. In 2018, private for-profit institutions reported a 22-to-1 ratio, according to the NCES. Over our extended history, programs have emerged and been discontinued, via regular processes of curricular revision, and these transitions did not diminish the value of the Ithaca College degrees our alumni have earned. At the same time, it affirmed the colleges A2 rating on $108million in outstanding revenue bonds. Support our journalism and become a digital subscriber today. 4,785 are undergraduates and 339 are graduate students. Among the resources are: information on continuing health insurance coverage, information on applying for unemployment benefits, and resources for exploring future employment options. Ithaca says its currently gathering feedback on the recommendations, with a plan to submit final recommendations to the provost and president by March1. With 10 students for every one instructional faculty member, Ithaca College ranks among the best colleges when compared to the national average of 15. It is expected that the changes proposed in the Shape of the College would collectively strengthen the Ithaca College reputation for future generations of students. What Does Student-to-Faculty Ratio Really Mean? Faculty will choose to teach their classes fully online or with an in-person and online hybrid model.