"Through your generosity we have been able to foster, enrich, and extend learning opportunities for our students."

Dear Friends:

I write this letter during the spring semester's last week of classes, perhaps my favorite time of year, not only because summer is on the horizon, but because I participate in many events celebrating student accomplishment. On Tuesday evening the new physics honor society -- Sigma Pi Sigma -- was established, students and faculty were inducted, and the second annual Peter Seligmann scholarship was awarded. Thursday was a triple header: lunch with scientific honor society Sigma Xi inductees, dinner with humanities and sciences honors program graduates, and production of a semiautobiographical play written by English major Paul Evans, a wheelchair bound graduating senior. Friday afternoon brings college honor society Phi Kappa Phi ceremonies. Each of these culminating events serves as a delightful reminder of the significant student achievement to which we contribute and the noteworthy successes of our graduating seniors.

Some of the stories for the newsletter are important, if predictable: for example, we include faculty retirements not only because we wish to honor our retirees but also because the majority of this newsletter's readership are graduates, many of whom have been taught by our retiring faculty. Some of our longer stories, "The New Face of Science" for example, bring to your attention significant developments in the school -- in this instance the reshaping of entire departments due to clusters of retirements, as well as the faculty's exceptional success in winning grants. And I am particularly attentive to an apparently small story that I think is representative of the school -- in this instance "Connections: Writing in the Real World" in which we share with you the quiet work of associate professor of writing Jerry Mirskin, as he and his students mentor teens housed at a New York State juvenile detention facility near Ithaca.

Those of you who have been generous enough to contribute to the school's annual fund campaign may be interested particularly in "The Ithaca Fund: Small Grants Deliver Big Ideas," as this story explains how the school spends most of the money donated to the School of Humanities and Sciences' annual fund. (An envelope is included with this news- letter.) Through your generosity we have been able to foster, enrich, and extend learning opportunities for our students; I hope you read carefully the Ithaca Fund story and agree that we are wise stewards of your support. Further, the College's student newspaper, the Ithacan, ran its February 26, 2004, editorial on the H&S fund: "The new grant program in the School of Humanities and Sciences is a fine example of the ways in which Ithaca College can expand its academic research offerings while remaining a student-centered learning environment." And the editorial concluded: "Furthermore, alumni who see the products and success of this program will be likely to donate further and help continue to support such grants." Wise words indeed.

With your help and support, your school strives to improve, focusing always on student learning, our outstanding faculty, and the wondrous possibilities when those two elements are combined. I welcome your thoughts, suggestions, reactions. My e-mail address is herlich@ithaca.edu, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Howard S. Erlich
Dean