Last week the Ithaca College Board of Trustees held the first of its three meetings for the 2008-2009 academic year. A number of weighty topics were on the table, led by discussion of the economic turbulence of recent months and how this may impact the ability of families to invest in a private college education for their children. This was my first board meeting as president, and you can well imagine how much energy I and the vice presidents put into our preparations for every point on the agenda. And yet, as happens at every board meeting I have ever attended, our presentations and discussions were not the highlight of the meeting. Once again, the students stole the show.

Trustees on the Campus Life and Community committee heard students describe their peak educational experiences at IC. Shannon Archer ‘10, an integrated marketing communications major, described how her PR and marketing courses came to life for her while creating advertisements and t-shirt designs in a fund-raising effort for Colleges Against Cancer.

“It is a revelation,” Shannon said,” to realize that you have skills and talents that can be used to help others.” 

Chris Lee ‘10 gave the trustees a taste of celebrity when he described opening for Incubus in front of 17,000 people as a member of the campus singing group Ithacappella. Sarah Hathaway ‘09, who studies communication management and design, interned on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and at the Make-a-Wish Foundation while on Ithaca’s Los Angeles program. She described what it felt like to be honored on the American Idol Gives Back program, standing on stage with other extraordinary volunteers. Listening to these students, the trustees were enthralled. 

Meanwhile, spouses of the trustees were having lunch with my wife, Amber, and with some of the over 30 IC students who served as interns during the Olympic Games. Robert McHugh ‘09, a cinema and photography major in the Park School interned with NBC at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York. He was asked by a fellow intern from another college what high position his parents had at GE (the NBC parent company), to enable him to get this internship. Robert, who enjoys no such connections, felt a burst of pride at realizing how far his own hard work has already carried him. 

Mario Nishihara ‘09 is a sport media major who was born in Japan and interned in Beijing with the Olympic News Service. “Every day I see something that makes me reflect further on the time I spent in China,” she said.  “I will always see the world differently because of this experience.” 

Listening to these students, one of our trustee spouses noted the contrast from when she was 21 years old. “How do Ithaca College students come to be so self-confident,” she asked, “so thoughtful in learning from their experiences, and so gifted in describing those experiences to others?” 

I wish I knew the answer to that question. What I do know is that amazing students know how to get the most out of amazing opportunities. And the trustees, who of course serve on our board precisely because they care about the education of the next generation, are reinvigorated by every opportunity to hear what students have to say. 

Trustees and the administrative leadership used the board meeting to make some important headway on key issues facing the College. But as always, the lasting memories were forged by students.

I had the opportunity recently to join a group of Ithaca College alumni, parents and friends in the owner’s box for a Tampa Bay Buccaneers football game, courtesy of Ed Glazer, co-owner of the team and member of the Ithaca College class of ‘92. The evening before, we took a tour of the team’s new training facilities, including an opportunity to talk with Coach Jon Gruden.  As we walked from the magnificent lobby through locker rooms, weight rooms, training rooms, meeting rooms, and media centers, our group of Ithaca College supporters could not help but note features that we might want to incorporate into our own Athletics and Events Center, an ambitious undertaking on which the College hopes to break ground next spring.

The most striking aspect of the tour, though, was to see how strongly team images were incorporated throughout the facility.  Our first hint was the giant Buccaneer flag that flies between that stadium and the training center a half mile away.  Within the training center itself, the Buccaneer red and silver is everywhere, along with the team logo.  Giant photographs of players in action adorn the walls, as do reminders of the team’s triumph in Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003   In the weight room, where players push their capacities and in which the team gels into a band of brothers, banners spur the players on with such slogans as “You Get What You Deserve” and “How Much Do You Want It?”

An NFL team in a typical year will have a large number of players who were not on the team the year before.  Since the average professional career is less than five years long, a significant fraction of the players will be new to the league.  Others will be new to the team through trade or free agency.  Molding 53 athletes into a cohesive team is a challenge renewed every fall.

A college campus, by contrast, is a bastion of individualism.  Students are on campus to extend their horizons and hone their skills as individuals.  Dorm rooms and faculty offices are decorated according to personal taste, and adornments are carefully chosen to proclaim one’s unique identity and interests.
 
Despite those differences, a professional sports team and a college campus are united by the pursuit of excellence.  Every day on South Hill sees the creation of several thousand stories of striving for greater insight, capacity or performance.  Breakthroughs are made in studios, seminar rooms, laboratories, clinics, practice rooms, and rehearsal spaces.  Students have their “Eureka!” moments in the library and on stage.  Although we never come together as a single unit on Sunday afternoon to measure our progress in competition against an opponent, the Ithaca College campus is as focused on the development of human potential as are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

On the day we were there, Tampa Bay soundly defeated the team that had previously been in first place in their division.  You get what you deserve.