Ithaca College
Faculty Council
March 5, 2013
VIP Room, A & E Center
Present:
D. Birr, L. Black, J. Blumberg, J. Bonnetta, B. Bower, K. Breuer, W. Dann,
S. Freedman, S. Grigoriev, M. Hall, C. Henderson, S. Howard-Baptiste, A. Kissiloff, S.
Lahr, R. Lesses, C. McNamara, B. Murday, T. Patrone, J. Pena-Shaff, J. Pfrehm,
P. Rothbart, W. Schlesinger, S. Stansfield, T. Swensen, D. Turkon
Absent:
D. Duke, J. Lapp, A. Monticello, B. Whitehead
Excused: J. Harrington, S. Osterreich
Guests:
L. Chabot, R. Gearhart, M. Kelly, S. Knight (The Ithacan), T. Rochon, J. Rosenthal
1. Welcome and Announcements:
P. Rothbart called the meeting to order at 7:05 pm, and announced that there was a
reporter from The Ithacan present.
2. Open Session:
P. Rothbart asked for open session items. J. Rosenthal was present and in his role as a
Faculty Council liaison to the budget committee, provided a review of his written report1 to
Council members. The budget is available online. R. Lesses requested clarification
regarding the sources of revenue for IC 20/20. M. Kelly responded that big-ticket items
such as capital projects, endowed scholarships and professorships will be funded by revenue
generated from the upcoming capital campaign. Further questions prompted P. Rothbart to
suggest that given members have not had a chance to look at the report, further discussion
about IC 20/20 revenues could be reviewed by the Executive Committee and put on a future
agenda. J. Rosenthal stated that traditionally a motion is made to send this report on to the
faculty. Motion: T. Swensen made a motion, seconded by J. Pena-Shaff. Vote:
Unanimous.
3. Approval of Minutes: February 5, 2013:
P. Rothbart presented the minutes stating that a different approach to assembling the
minutes was taken, and asked if there are any concerns. Motion to accept the minutes
made by T. Swensen. D. Turkon motioned to strike the word “has” on second
page, second to the last paragraph, last sentence, to make the sentence
grammatically correct. J. Pfrehm seconded the motion. P. Rothbart asked if there
were any objections to amending minutes as stated. Hearing no objections
minutes were accepted.
4. Chair’s Report:
 P. Rothbart reported that a Sakai site is now available to all Faculty Council
members. Emailing of materials in parallel to Sakai postings will continue through
the end of the spring semester. The goal is to move solely to use of the Sakai site
for meeting materials distribution. The transition is being made to save time and
resources. P. Rothbart recognized and thanked A. Kissiloff for his efforts in putting
the site together.
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Faculty Council Executive Committee has had an initial meeting with the President
and the Provost to discuss various issues. Several more meetings have been
scheduled, and P. Rothbart will keep Council members posted as the meetings
progress.
Document located on Sakai: Resources/Meeting Materials/March 5, 2013 Meeting Materials/budget13-14v3.doc
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A Town Hall meeting was recently held, but not well attended. P. Rothbart will send
out, via email and Intercom, the date for the next meeting (April 2, 2013 in Textor
101). There was some discussion regarding attendance and frequency of meetings;
as well as concern about not knowing the location of the most recent meeting. It
was noted that Tuesday meetings are not good for H&S faculty; and P. Rothbart
confirmed he was aware of this, but room availability was an issue; however, next
semester he will be very conscious of the Thursday timeframe in planning future
meetings.
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The Faculty Representative to the Board of Trustees position, currently held by J.
Hamilton, comes up for renewal this year. P. Rothbart would like to have a series of
names to present by the end of March. This is an important position. P. Rothbart is
going to ask that this representative attend as many Faculty Council meetings as
possible as ex officio so that this person can better represent faculty to the Board of
Trustees. More information is coming in the next week or so.

Other committee elections are coming up. P. Rothbart is considering putting out a
note on the importance of committees over the next year or two. There is now a
centralized committee listing, with membership, located at
www.Ithaca.edu/provost/standingcommittees (link is available on Sakai site). This
list is also available at the Provost’s site, via quick links; and it is a good place to
start should anyone needs to contact someone.
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P. Rothbart met with the new Director of Academic Advising, Sally Neal. She has
indicated that there will be formation of an advising center advisory committee. She
is also planning to announce a schedule of events.
5. Degree Conferral Recommendation:
Faculty Council was asked to review and approve the statement. P. Rothbart requested a
motion to approve the degree conferral statement. J. Pfrehm motioned to approve. D.
Turkon seconded the motion. Vote: Unanimous.
6. Provost’s Report:
 Provost Kelly updated Council members on the Homer Workflow Project. The Course
Registration Override form will be the first form transitioned to electronic format, and
will be beta tested in Park School (for Park classes only) as a means of testing the
process. She hopes the electronic form process will be ready to go next fall across
the entire campus. Provost Kelly stated there are no changes in who approves
things, only the way in which approvals are conducted (from paper to electronic
format). If issues arise with a particular form, where the differences between
schools are so complicated, and/or conversations about changing the approval
process are needed, there will be a different and much broader review before
implementation. At this point, it is just a vehicle change, not a substantive change.
Additional announcement will be made as things progress.

Provost Kelly reported on the February Board of Trustees Meeting, sharing that from
her perspective, conversations at the committee level were really outstanding.
Members were really engaged in high-level conversation, and in very appropriate
ways, that demonstrated their enthusiasm for the Ithaca College educational
mission. There were also very good conversations around developments in IC
20/20, what is happening in the Center for Faculty Excellence, the first year
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residential experience, and the good work going on in our classrooms with such
things as the Ithaca Seminars and the new Integrative Core Curriculum.
7. Executive Session:
P. Rothbart requested a motion to go into Executive Session. Motion was made by T.
Swensen, seconded by C. McNamara. Vote: Unanimous.
8. Proposed Strategic Plan for Online Learning:
R. Gearhart, Assistant Provost for Extended Studies and Online Learning made a
presentation to Faculty Council regarding a draft strategic plan for online learning at Ithaca
College. The draft outline2 was distributed to Faculty Council for the purposes of soliciting
feedback on this plan to assure that the right issues, etc., are in the plan.
R. Gearhart reviewed the committee’s charge, which includes identifying the right format for
the Ithaca College environment and aligning this effort with IC 20/20 in a way does not
harm the Ithaca College brand.
Some
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discussion points included:
Recognizing that online learning refers to a wide spectrum of activities;
Using online learning to create/complement more semester away study options;
Flexibility around blended learning;
Supporting existing programs;
The opportunity to use online learning to create new programs;
Alignment of effort with IC 20/20 initiative;
Utilizing online courses to alleviate oversubscribed courses (could assist in on-time
graduation and retention efforts);
 Compensation for developing a course (and course content); and
 Faculty development and training related to using technology in teaching/learning.
Some questions raised included:
 Do we have sufficient services available to collaborate with faculty regarding
instructional course design expertise?
 Do we have a goal for the number of online classes we would like to make available?
 How do we know if we are successful?
 Has a campus survey to students been considered to gain broader student feedback
regarding online classes?
 Will this be a centralized/decentralized process?
 Will the number of classes a student can take be limited over a semester, and/or
their academic career at Ithaca College?
P. Rothbart thanked R. Gearhart, suggesting they add their committee information to the
Standing Committee information on the Ithaca College web site.
9. New Business: None
P. Rothbart asked if anyone wished to present new business. Hearing no response, P.
Rothbart requested a motion to move to Executive Session. L. Black made a motion,
seconded by W. Schlesinger. Vote: Unanimous.
10. Executive Session
Meeting adjourned: 9:00 PM
Document located on Sakai: Resources/Meeting Materials/March 5, 2013 Meeting
Materials/DRAFT_OnlineLearningPlan_forINPUT.pdf.
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