"There are many staff members who go above and beyond the call of duty to enrich the quality of life at Ithaca College," says President Peggy R. Williams. This year the College initiated a new program — the Ithaca College Choice Awards — to recognize such employees. Nominees must show accomplishment in at least one of four areas: initiative — creativity in proposing new or improved work methods, ideas, or projects; commitment — contributions to a department and the College over a number of years; support — supporting others in an extraordinary way; or accomplishment — creating or producing a substantive project or program. More than 70 individuals and groups were nominated for the 12 inaugural awards.
In a recent NCAA ranking of 331 Division III women’s cross country teams, the 1999 Ithaca College squad placed second with a team grade point average of 3.79. Earning academic all-America honors were Erin Boshe, ’03; Lauren Byler, ’01; Cara Devlin ’00; Lisa Melillo, ’02; Missy Roether, ’01; and Sherry Spitz, ’00.
In addition to observing the country’s conservatory system of teaching during a May visit to Russia, music professors D. Kim Dunnick and Steven Mauk presented master classes at the Saratov Conservatory of Music and the Gnessins Academy of Music. They were also featured soloists with the Volga Band and the State Wind Band of Russia.
Assistant professor of organizational communication, learning, and design Marie Garland chaired a panel of graduate students — Kole Ade Odutola, Joanne Lavalle, Jiaojie Qu, and Chris Sanchirico — who gave presentations on practical applications in organizational communication at the annual New York State Communication Association convention.
Art department chair Harry McCue has been included in the millennium edition of Who’s Who in the East and the 2001 edition of Who’s Who in America.
Shuttle service between Longview and Ithaca College began this fall, thanks to an anonymous gift.
Silent Echoes, assistant professor of television-radio Mara Alper’s video art work, was screened at Cornell University’s Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. The video combines poetic imagery and sound to illustrate the inner (sacred ritual dance) and outer (business) life of an African American woman. This summer Alper’s experimental video essay Moving On, which uses dance, textured images, and sounds to evoke spiritual renewal at midlife, was broadcast on the Houston PBS affiliate, and another of her works was exhibited at the Coburn Gallery in Colorado Springs.
The Ithaca College Gerontology Institute’s annual conference, to be held on Thursday, May 24, 2001, will focus on creativity and aging. Individuals involved in theater, dance, vocal and instrumental music, the visual arts, and writing will be showcased, presenters will discuss the ways in which aging has affected their creativity, and workshops will include topics such as music therapy and writing life histories.
The Ithacan received a 1999 Mark of Excellence Award for the best all-around weekly student newspaper in the country from the Society of Professional Journalists. The issues that won the award are from fall 1999, when Robert B. Bluey ’01 was editor in chief and Melissa Bloomrose ’00 was managing editor. The awards "are among the most prestigious that college journalism students can win," says David E. Carlson, SPJ vice president for campus chapter affairs.
"One only had to look at the presidential race to see that the important issues — whether Social Security or prescription drugs or health insurance — were all at heart economic issues," says Frank Musgrave, economics professor and director of the Southern Tier Center for Economic Education, based in the Department of Economics. The center held a workshop for area social studies teachers interested in better integrating economics principles and practices into their middle school and high school classrooms.
In September Ithaca’s Delta Phi chapter of the Phi Beta Delta International Service Fraternity inducted its first 57 members. The organization is "dedicated to recognizing scholarly achievement in international education."