Assistant Professor of Management
Ethics. Sustainability. Profitability. Balancing short-term needs with long-term consequences. Many schools can teach you the nuts and bolts of business management. But it takes a globally responsible institution to show you how to apply business knowledge wisely.
"That's what is setting us apart," says Ithaca College professor David Saiia. "We are actively working to explore linkages. We are making useful connections."
The Ithaca College School of Business has long championed an interdisciplinary view of business education. It's visible in the school's curriculum, its faculty, and even its facilities. For example, Ithaca is striving for a leadership role in the emerging field of sustainability. This philosophy, based on the premise that short-term goals shouldn't compromise future needs, links such diverse subjects as market economics, ethics, ecology, and strategic planning. Sustainability will be a visible feature of Ithaca's new business school facility--one of the nation's first to be built from the ground up using the principles of sustainable design.
"Sustainable thinking is part of a collection of ideas, a new way of approaching things across subject areas to find solutions," Saiia says. "Sustainability does not obscure the fundamentals; in fact, its consideration requires a deeper understanding of the fundamental principles before integrated solutions can be attempted. As a comprehensive college that stresses interdisciplinary thinking, Ithaca is an ideal place to consider the interrelated problems that define sustainability. There's a huge market out there for individuals who know how to apply knowledge across disciplines and solve problems."
