IC Alumni Action and Worker Support Fund
Donation protected
Ithaca College alumni care deeply about our professors and staff. Our experiences at Ithaca College would not have been the same without them.
This fund is intended to support efforts resisting the unjust layoffs announced at Ithaca College and to alleviate some of the financial hardship incurred by the faculty and staff already impacted by those layoffs.
When a contingent professor of music asked for mutual aid at Ithaca College in a statement of solidarity with the “lowest paid faculty and staff on campus,” he was reprimanded and his job was threatened. The College was recently found guilty of an unfair labor practice charge as a result. This anti-worker stance has continued in the planned cuts, hastened during a pandemic, that are slated by the Academic Program Prioritization to lay off 116 full-time equivalent faculty members as well as numerous departments and programs. Ithaca College does not need to self-inflict such a compounding toll; this fund shows our collective capacity and willingness to pause the process and maintain the livelihood of our mentors and friends.
It is clear that the decision to fire hundreds of members of our community during a pandemic was not the product of a transparent, inclusive, and carefully thought out plan for long-term sustainability. It is also clear that the pandemic was strategically used as a means to rationalize rushed wide scale cuts that have left members of our community feeling demoralized and helpless.
Instead of ignoring criticism, the College can follow examples like Adrian College, by pausing potential cuts after listening to constituents, or Oberlin College by dipping into their over $90 million of unrestricted endowment funds during this unprecedented time, but instead choose to have faculty and staff bare the brunt of the fiscal losses.
These losses point to management inefficiencies rather than broader issues with enrollment and retention as research shows that the drop at Ithaca College makes it an outlier as compared to other similar institutions.
The Ithaca College mission statement opens its section on “Respect and Accountability” by arguing that “Mutual care, respect, and accountability are expected in all facets of institutional life.” The ways in which The Board of Trustees and Senior Leadership Team have treated faculty and staff, especially the most vulnerable and most willing to serve our community, runs inimical to the College’s stated expectations. In an effort to provide the administration with an opportunity to follow through with its stated mission “to consider the consequences of our actions, to self-examine, and to find ways to restore trust and forgiveness when harm is caused,” our alumni organization, IC Alumni Against Austerity , has decided to become a steward for IC’s values.
Although alumni are counted on as a revenue stream by the institution, the direction of leadership has both exacerbated the disconnect between alumni and administration and already hampered donations. In our pledge to support the faculty and staff, and continue to fight for job security for our friends and mentors, we demonstrate our investment in Ithaca’s future on more accountable and transparent terms. All money collected will go towards community action to resist the APP and to staff and faculty already impacted by the layoffs. This mutual effort will help sustain those that have guided and shaped us by providing them assistance as they face their own uncertain future.
We will redirect our energy towards supporting the College directly once the Board of Trustees and Senior Leadership Team has made clear that it is operating with the College in mind.
We call on the Board and Leadership to:
1) Stop all layoffs
2) Establish a shared governance model where students, staff, and faculty have real decision making power at IC
3) Bargain in good faith with the Contingent Faculty Union (SEIU Local 200)
4) Release a clear and comprehensive document outlining the College’s present and future finances
Next Steps:
The Alumni Action and Worker Support Fund will work collaboratively with the Contingent Faculty Union (SEIU Local 200) to insure that funds are accessed for their intended purpose and so that key stakeholders have a role in determining the appropriate allocation of the funds.
Please share as widely as you can with your networks as we work to ensure that our alma mater remains a place true to its Vision, Mission and Values .
Note: 80% of funds will be allocated directly to impacted faculty and staff who submit requests, and 20% will be retained to fund things such as legal fees, printing, materials, and other costs of movement building. We can help those actions be successful by financially supporting them. All spending will be vetted by faculty and students impacted by the cuts to ensure that funds are used in a way that best serves our mission.
Additional Resources:
The Precedent set at other Universities:
Oberlin Model: https://www.learning-and-outsourced-labor.com/
Hampshire Model: https://www.savehampshire.com/
George Washington University Model: https://gwufa.org/
This fund is intended to support efforts resisting the unjust layoffs announced at Ithaca College and to alleviate some of the financial hardship incurred by the faculty and staff already impacted by those layoffs.
When a contingent professor of music asked for mutual aid at Ithaca College in a statement of solidarity with the “lowest paid faculty and staff on campus,” he was reprimanded and his job was threatened. The College was recently found guilty of an unfair labor practice charge as a result. This anti-worker stance has continued in the planned cuts, hastened during a pandemic, that are slated by the Academic Program Prioritization to lay off 116 full-time equivalent faculty members as well as numerous departments and programs. Ithaca College does not need to self-inflict such a compounding toll; this fund shows our collective capacity and willingness to pause the process and maintain the livelihood of our mentors and friends.
It is clear that the decision to fire hundreds of members of our community during a pandemic was not the product of a transparent, inclusive, and carefully thought out plan for long-term sustainability. It is also clear that the pandemic was strategically used as a means to rationalize rushed wide scale cuts that have left members of our community feeling demoralized and helpless.
Instead of ignoring criticism, the College can follow examples like Adrian College, by pausing potential cuts after listening to constituents, or Oberlin College by dipping into their over $90 million of unrestricted endowment funds during this unprecedented time, but instead choose to have faculty and staff bare the brunt of the fiscal losses.
These losses point to management inefficiencies rather than broader issues with enrollment and retention as research shows that the drop at Ithaca College makes it an outlier as compared to other similar institutions.
The Ithaca College mission statement opens its section on “Respect and Accountability” by arguing that “Mutual care, respect, and accountability are expected in all facets of institutional life.” The ways in which The Board of Trustees and Senior Leadership Team have treated faculty and staff, especially the most vulnerable and most willing to serve our community, runs inimical to the College’s stated expectations. In an effort to provide the administration with an opportunity to follow through with its stated mission “to consider the consequences of our actions, to self-examine, and to find ways to restore trust and forgiveness when harm is caused,” our alumni organization, IC Alumni Against Austerity , has decided to become a steward for IC’s values.
Although alumni are counted on as a revenue stream by the institution, the direction of leadership has both exacerbated the disconnect between alumni and administration and already hampered donations. In our pledge to support the faculty and staff, and continue to fight for job security for our friends and mentors, we demonstrate our investment in Ithaca’s future on more accountable and transparent terms. All money collected will go towards community action to resist the APP and to staff and faculty already impacted by the layoffs. This mutual effort will help sustain those that have guided and shaped us by providing them assistance as they face their own uncertain future.
We will redirect our energy towards supporting the College directly once the Board of Trustees and Senior Leadership Team has made clear that it is operating with the College in mind.
We call on the Board and Leadership to:
1) Stop all layoffs
2) Establish a shared governance model where students, staff, and faculty have real decision making power at IC
3) Bargain in good faith with the Contingent Faculty Union (SEIU Local 200)
4) Release a clear and comprehensive document outlining the College’s present and future finances
Next Steps:
The Alumni Action and Worker Support Fund will work collaboratively with the Contingent Faculty Union (SEIU Local 200) to insure that funds are accessed for their intended purpose and so that key stakeholders have a role in determining the appropriate allocation of the funds.
Please share as widely as you can with your networks as we work to ensure that our alma mater remains a place true to its Vision, Mission and Values .
Note: 80% of funds will be allocated directly to impacted faculty and staff who submit requests, and 20% will be retained to fund things such as legal fees, printing, materials, and other costs of movement building. We can help those actions be successful by financially supporting them. All spending will be vetted by faculty and students impacted by the cuts to ensure that funds are used in a way that best serves our mission.
Additional Resources:
The Precedent set at other Universities:
Oberlin Model: https://www.learning-and-outsourced-labor.com/
Hampshire Model: https://www.savehampshire.com/
George Washington University Model: https://gwufa.org/
Fundraising team (2)
Sarah Grunberg
Organizer
Ithaca, NY
Sara-Maria Sorentino
Team member