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In the late 1940s Leonard Job faced a challenge. As president of Ithaca College, he'd inherited an unusual collection of professional programs. His downtown campus included well-regarded schools for music, speech-drama, teacher education,
physical education, and business, but they only conferred professional degrees. Ithaca lacked academic accreditation.
To successfully compete for the coming wave of post-war GI Bill students, Ithaca would have to broaden its offerings. Job envisioned an institution that excelled both professionally
and academically, one that prepared its students with marketable skills while grounding them in literary, artistic, scientific, philosophical, and historical underpinnings. Job knew that such
an institution would expand Ithaca's student base, ensure its economic survival, and lead to academic accreditation. It all hung on the introduction of a liberal arts major. Job made its
creation a top priority, and in 1948 he invited Earl Clarke to Ithaca as dean of academics. Clarke's mandate was to strengthen Ithaca's general academic offerings, and in the 1949 course
catalog, he formally introduced Ithaca's "General College." The new division of the College included speech and English, education, social science, and science. A year later the board
of regents approved a bachelor of arts degree and a slate of liberal arts courses to support it.
In short order, Clarke incorporated the Departments of Radio,
Drama, History, Social Science, Mathematics, and Business into the General College. He hired new faculty as enrollment climbed. The fast-growing school pressed forward under the guidance of
Dean Warren Hickman, and by 1955, Ithaca earned full academic accreditation. A year later the regents recast Ithaca's General College as the College of Arts and Sciences.
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When Sputnik shattered America's technological complacency in 1957, interest in the sciences exploded along with public funding for science education. Ithaca capitalized on the opportunity, launching chemistry and physics
departments in 1958. Degrees in general science, biology, and science education soon followed. As the 1960s dawned, Ithaca's new president Howard Dillingham faced another opportunity—the baby boom. It offered a demographic bonanza, a flood of
freshmen that would fill college classrooms for 20 years. In the baby boom Dillingham found impetus for Ithaca's long-awaited South Hill campus. In October 1960 he laid the cornerstone of the Student Union, the first building of the new campus. A year later, 586 students from the College of Arts and Sciences moved up the hill, becoming the campus's first residents. While the
College of Arts and Sciences students shared lecture halls with construction workers, faculty shared office space with packing crates in basement trunk rooms. Conditions weren't ideal, but
they were memorable.
Under the leadership of Deans Frank Kolmin and Robert Davies, the new campus, the growing student body, and the air of enthusiasm on South Hill attracted a new generation
of committed young educators and scholars. Their youthful—frequently vocal—independence may have flustered administrators, but their energy fostered a stimulating academic
environment.
Ithaca's chemistry department launched an innovative undergraduate research program, forming a hands-on approach to science education that continues today. Arts and sciences
students were introduced to study-abroad options. Some lectures were even wired into a "dial-a-course" system, so students could attend remotely—a program that presaged Internet "distance
learning" by 30 years.
By 1967 the College of Arts and Sciences had arguably become Ithaca's most prominent division. It flexed its muscles in a yearlong speaker program, highlighted by renowned historian
Arthur Schlesinger and luminary broadcaster Rod Serling.
The new decade ushered in a period of internal reevaluation. Under College president Ellis Phillips, Ithaca's academic departments were completely reorganized, and in 1971 the College of Arts
and Sciences became the School of Humanities and Sciences.
In a post-1960s search for academic "relevance," virtually all graduation requirements, outside of individual majors, were abolished. A modified pass/fail grading system
further complicated the picture, and by the mid-1970s some employers and grad schools refused to credit Ithaca transcripts. Enter Jim Whalen. Assuming the College presidency in
1975, Whalen believed Ithaca's future hung on sound fiscal management and serious academic policy. As the '80s dawned, Ithaca faced an enrollment decline as the
baby boom went bust. Whalen and Dean Thomas Longin focused on academic strengths. Leaner departments included only top faculty members.
By the mid-1980s, with Howard Erlich stepping in as interim dean, a vibrant new culture began to emerge. It combined the
strengths of the school's formative years—entrepreneurialism, hands-on learning, and independent thinking—with Whalen's commitment to academic rigor. This culture also
put a premium on faculty and student performance. Erlich nurtured these values through the '80s and continued to do so after being named dean in 1989. "I learned that administration is about influence," he
said. "It's about trying to create a context for healthy, high-quality things to happen." Innovative programs in London and Washington, D.C., were turning cities into classrooms for students in the School of
Humanities and Sciences. A weak general studies major grew into an academically rigorous planned studies program. Interdisciplinary efforts prospered. Community outreach
efforts carried lessons from the classroom into the real world. And hands-on experiential learning found a beneficial alliance with traditional classroom teaching.
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Working with the departments, Erlich focused on attracting and retaining high-quality faculty members who could support a hands-on educational philosophy. The departments sought
professors who were as adept in the classroom as they were in their academic fields. "We wanted academic professionals who were excellent classroom teachers," Erlich said. "We found
people who challenged their students with opportunities inside and outside the classroom."
With a committed faculty and a growing reputation for high-quality academic programs, the School of Humanities and Sciences began attracting an increasingly well-qualified
body of students. "We started attracting students who were looking for a challenge," Erlich said.
The new Ithaca culture took root through the '90s and blossomed. Interdisciplinary programs cut across disciplines to foster learning. An outstanding first-year seminar program
was supported by the Pew Foundation.
Today a hands-on exploratory program is utilized by a full 40 percent of first-year students. And an innovative honors program transcends subject matter to foster intellectual growth.
Most freshmen arrive from the top 25 percent of their graduating class. And this fall roughly 70 percent of entering freshmen selected Ithaca as their first choice among colleges.
"When I started here, we were a long way from that reality," Erlich said. "We've witnessed a remarkable transition in this school."
Fifty-Year Timeline
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