The committee charged with helping find the next president of Ithaca College held its first meeting on Tuesday, September 17. The meeting followed the appointment of four additional committee members by the Executive Committee of the Ithaca College Board of Trustees.
"Our charge is to screen individuals who apply or who are nominated as prospects to succeed Jim Whalen, who as our sixth president has served with distinction for 22 years," said David Sass '57, vice chairman of the board of trustees and a member of the search committee. "At the end of our work the board of trustees will select our next president. In this regard, it is the hope of the board that our committee will send forth several final candidates who have our broad support."
Named to the student seat on the committee was Craig Bloem, a senior marketing major from Marlborough, Massachusetts. Bloem has served as a vice president of campus affairs for the Ithaca College Student Government Association and as a resident assistant. He is the founder and president of a student organization, Ithaca College Student Home Pages, on the World Wide Web.
The staff seat on the committee was filled by 17-year employee Vicki Estabrook, manager of employment services in the Office of Personnel Services. Estabrook previously worked in the Office of Career Planning and Placement; she is a former chair of the Staff Council and currently serves on the President's Advisory Committee.
Named to faculty seats on the committee were Dana Wilson, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Music; and Frank Darrow, associate professor of chemistry. Wilson joined the School of Music faculty in 1978 and is the co-director of the composition program. He has won numerous national and international grants and awards for his compositions; in 1994 he was presented with a Presidential Recognition Award from the College. Darrow has held both faculty and administrative positions since coming to the College in 1966. He served as provost from 1973 to 1976, as chair of the Department of Chemistry from 1982 to 1990, and as faculty representative on the board of trustees from 1986 to 1989. He has published and presented extensively on the subject of science education.
The faculty will have an opportunity to seat a third member on the search committee should it submit a full slate of nominees as originally requested by the board. In a letter to the chair of the Faculty Council, board of trustees chairman Herman E. Muller Jr. encouraged faculty to provide by September 30 three additional names for board consideration.
In addition to Muller and Sass, the previously named search committee members are Richard Miller '69, M.S. '71, dean of the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance; and trustees Irene Gomberg, Robert Joynt, Robert Kur '70, William Schwab '68, and Arlene Wolff '57. Muller will serve as chairman of the committee and Joynt as vice chairman.
The search committee will next meet in late October and hopes to have presidential candidates on campus for interviews this spring.