Cross Country Kudos: Nine Ithaca College cross country runners were named to Empire 8 all-conference teams: five members of the IC women’s team—including Rachel Blasiak ’07, who was honored as Empire 8 runner of the year for the second year in a row—and four members of the men’s team. Coach Bill Ware was named conference coach of the year.

Administrative moves: David García is the College’s new associate provost, replacing Garry Brodhead, who retired this year. García had been the associate dean for the School of Humanities and Sciences since he arrived at IC in 2003. Anthropology professor Stacia Zabusky was named to an interim assistant dean post in H&S.

Diane Gayeski ’74 has been named to a three-year term as the associate dean for academic initiatives in the Park School. She is also serving as the interim chair of the graduate program in communications and continuing to teach. Gayeski is a consultant as well as a professor in the newly renamed Department of Strategic Communication (formerly Organizational Communication, Learning, and Design) and has been on the faculty since 1979.

In the School of Business, Meg Nowak was named to the newly created position of assistant dean for student services. She holds a Ph.D. from Boston College and a master’s degree from Indiana State University. She  brings extensive experience in academic advising and new student orientation to the position.

Rob Gearhart ’82, M.S, ’85, Park School faculty member, has returned to take a new position as director of online learning, certificate, and professional programs in the Division of Graduate Studies.

Student kudos: Kristen Leising ’07, Michael Potter ’07, Cem Unsal ’07, and Constance Ames ’08 were recently announced winners of the Sigma Iota Epsilon Management Honorary 2006 National Scholar Competition. Nationally, only seven students received this honor, awarded for excellence in academics, extracurricular activities, service, leadership, and contributions to their local SIE chapter. Four out of seven is a truly remarkable showing by IC!