First Cohort of New Initiative Selected

Dear campus community members,

I am thrilled to announce the selection of the inaugural cohort of President’s Fellows, and I hope you will join me in offering these six members of our campus community our deepest congratulations. The President’s Fellows for the 2018-19 academic year are:

Faculty

Jason Freitag, Associate Professor, Department of History. Area of interest: IC and global engagement

Sue-Je Gage, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology. Area of interest: Risk management

Staff

Beth Hulbert, Facilities Services Attendant, Office of Facilities. Area of interest: Financial services

Mary Jo Watts, Learning Technology Coordinator, Teaching and Learning with Technology. Area of interest: Analytics and institutional research

Students

Terri Landez ’19, Music Performance, Cello. Area of interest: Student affairs and campus life operations

Carlie McClinsey ’19, Integrated Marketing Communications. Area of interest: Communications

I was incredibly impressed by the high caliber of our applicants for this program and the tremendous creativity they brought to their ideas around leadership, shared governance, and collaborative work at Ithaca College. The six fellows who’ve been selected demonstrated incredible vision, and throughout the next academic year they will have a great deal of learning opportunities both as individuals in their selected project or department area and as a group through cohort-based and interdisciplinary professional development opportunities. I look forward to seeing all that our six fellows will accomplish and discover in the coming academic year.

The President's Fellows Program is supported by the president's discretionary fund, and initially I had planned to identify two faculty members, one staff member, and two students as fellows for the 2018-19 academic year. Due to the strength of the pool of candidates and the resources that were available, I was able to offer funding to two staff members instead of one. I am also pleased to share that, given the high interest in this program, it is my intention to continue the President’s Fellows Program for the next several years.

When I announced the creation of this program in November, I had hoped to provide a springboard for members of our campus community to dream up innovative and original ways to connect with one another and with the college. The proposals of our many applicants did exactly that, with ideas that touched many different offices, disciplines, and sectors around our campus. This kind of broad thinking is critical to our community as we look ahead to our strategic planning process in the next academic year, and as we shape the goals of our institution for many years to come. We have a tremendous amount of talent on our campus and I am excited about what our future holds.

My deepest thanks go to all who applied for this program, and my heartfelt congratulations go to our six 2018-19 President’s Fellows.

Please stay tuned to our IC News page next week, which will provide an in-depth story about our first cohort of President’s Fellows, their ideas, and their areas of interest.

All my best,

Shirley M. Collado
President

Sent via email on May 9, 2018.