Governance at Ithaca College provides adequate communication and full opportunity for appropriate joint planning and effort. The governing process should provide the broadest possible exchange of information and opinion and include, where appropriate, the advice of and consultation with appropriate constituencies.

The Board of Trustees of Ithaca College is the final institutional authority. The Board of Trustees, while maintaining a general overview, entrusts the conduct of administration to the administrative officers: the president, vice presidents and deans.

The president, as the chief executive officer of the institution, has ultimate managerial responsibility and authority.

The faculty has primary responsibility for such fundamental areas as curriculum, subject matter and methods of instruction, research, faculty status, and those aspects of academic student life which relate to the educational process. The faculty sets the requirements for the degrees offered, determines when the requirements have been met, and requests the president and Trustees to grant the degrees thus achieved.