The Park gift and the new business building will advance efforts to incorporate sustainability into the College’s many programs and courses of study.

Thanks to a $7 million gift from Dorothy Park, the business school is poised to become a leader in producing graduates who not only achieve financial and professional success but also promote social justice and environmental stewardship -- keystones of sustainable business management practices. President Peggy Williams announced in March that Park's generous gift would be put toward a new "green" home for the School of Business -- the nation's first sustainably designed new facility for an undergraduate business program.

Dorothy Park is a longtime friend and benefactor of the College. She is also president of the Park Foundation, which has supported a number of IC programs as well as community-based cultural initiatives. Her business school donation -- the fifth-largest single contribution in the College's history -- is a personal gift toward the estimated $14 million cost of the building.

"For students to learn how to solve the complex problems of the 21st century, they need an education that recognizes the interdependence of humanity and nature and that compels them to consider the long-term consequences of any decisions they make," Park noted. "I am delighted to be able to contribute toward a building that houses not just a school but also a way of thinking and being that exemplifies ethical business practices, an understanding of organizations as citizens in their communities, and the responsible use of natural resources."

In acknowledging the significance of Park's gift, Dean Ullrich said, "To succeed in business today, students must learn to lead, to think critically, and to adopt a global perspective that respects the environment. One of the most important resources we have is our physical infrastructure. If we are to produce graduates who can balance economic, social, and environmental factors in their day-to-day decision making, we will need to provide them with facilities that model this process."

The business school's new facility, which will replace the aging, too-small Smiddy Hall, will incorporate the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards of the U.S. Green Building Council. As a sustainably designed facility, it will have lower operating and maintenance costs, incorporate a sense of community, promote interactive learning, and advance environmental stewardship by producing much of its own energy while minimizing the use of water and other natural resources.

In addition, the building will be designed for use as a learning tool for students and visitors, with many of its unique features made visible and understandable to all. "In a commercial building, most of these components would be hidden from the people who entered and used the facility," notes Ullrich. "Our intent, however, is to make many of these elements of sustainable design visible to those who come into contact with the new building. In this way we can transform the structure itself into a teaching tool to demonstrate the process of sustainable design as a key activity for business students to master."

A sustainable building will augment the school's efforts to incorporate into the curriculum those sustainable management practices that were reported in our last newsletter, including two new courses: Business and the Natural Environment, which takes a historical view of ecosystem health and sustainability, and Environmental Law and Policy, which focuses on the need for businesses to deal with issues of sustainability and environmental accountability. This fall a new selective topics course, Sustainability Management, will be offered. Students will review current environmental problems to consider how today's models of production and consumption affect ecosystems' sustainability. Particular emphasis will be given to understanding how environmental policies and regulations create operating guidelines for businesses and how companies can benefit by developing sustainable methods of production and consumption.

In addition, an ad hoc committee of business faculty members is investigating educational strategies that might be used to further incorporate sustainable management practices into the curriculum. Committee members were selected on the basis of the courses they teach (i.e., those related to management and the environment), their relevant research experience, and their support of the idea in principle. The committee is chaired by associate professor Marlene Barken and includes faculty members Mark Cordano, Eileen Kelly, Hormoz Movassaghi, and David Saiia.

In April Ithaca College hosted a sustainability conference that was attended by representatives from businesses and regional governmental agencies from as far away as Santa Monica, the San Francisco area, and Vancouver, British Columbia. One session focused on opportunities for the business school to teach sustainable management practices. This fall the ad hoc faculty committee will present its recommendations to the entire business faculty and the school's steering committee for evaluation. This initiative could allow Ithaca College to take a leadership role in undergraduate education -- ours will be among the first baccalaureate programs to introduce sustainable management practices to the business curriculum. In fact, the College has already garnered national visibility for this initiative: Fox News aired a two-minute segment on the School of Business on Saturday, April 17.

Ultimately, the Park gift and the new business building will advance efforts to incorporate sustainability into the College's many programs and courses of study. "It is our goal to become one of the nation's leading proponents of sustainability, to practice what we preach, and to produce leaders in many fields who will find solutions for meeting the needs of their generation without shortchanging future generations," said President Williams. "Enlightened corporations realize that if they hope to remain competitive they must use natural resources wisely, be responsive to the concerns of the public, and serve as good stewards of the environment."

For additional information on Ithaca's sustainability initiative, go to the sustainability website.