The Ithacan Thursday, November 7, 20 13
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Volume 81, Is s u e 1 0
Plans to close TC Lounge stir concerns
Fairy tales come alive
by noreyana fernando and sabrina knight news editors
it: Spoken Word and the Oral Tradition,” the newly designated ICC course will be taken at a slower pace to spend more time on the innovative spoken word revolution itself, she said. The revamped course will also place a greater emphasis on the creative arts perspective, wherein students will write and perform original spoken word poetry. “It’s a great medium for expressing what’s really important to people — identity issues, political concerns,” she said. “This is, by its very nature, geared toward that.” Frederik Kaufman, professor of philosophy and religion, said his class, “Environmental Ethics,” focuses on the environment as a way to think about the lives people want to lead. “So many of the environmental problems are not so much in the environment but in our heads,” he said. Kaufman said his course challenges the technological approach to sustainability, which views the natural world in terms of resources, by looking at people and determining what should change
More than 60 Ithaca College students gathered at the Towers Concourse Lounge for the weekly Open Mic Night on Nov. 6, a day after the administration announced a decision to close down the lounge to accommodate offices beginning in the 2014–15 academic year. The decision to close down the lounge is a part of the college’s efforts to find a new home on campus for the Physical Therapy Center, which will move from Rochester, N.Y. to Ithaca College over the summer of 2014. The TC Lounge, formerly known as the Tower Club, opened in Fall 2010 and currently serves as a study lounge, cafe and a space used by students for weekly open mic nights. In a Intercom announcement sent Nov. 5, Marisa Kelly, provost and vice president for educational affairs, said the Information Technology Services offices, which are currently on the second floor of Job Hall, will move to the TC Lounge next year. The Office of International Programs and the Gerontology Institute, which are currently in the Center for Health Sciences, will move into the vacant spot in Job Hall. The vacant spaces in CHS will then be used as additional classrooms and offices for physical therapy beginning next year. The cadaver and movement analysis laboratories of the PT Center will be housed in the recently renovated Hill Center. These new facilities are scheduled to open for the 2014–15 academic year. A survey was sent out by the Student Government Association on Nov. 6, and 756 members of the college responded. Of them, 96 percent said the TC Lounge is an important part of campus culture, and 97 percent said they wished they were allowed to participate in the decision-making process. Kelly said she reached out to the Residence Hall Association a few days before the decision was announced. She also said faculty in physical therapy have been very involved in planning, and faculty in the Department of Gerontology and the Office of International Programs were consulted. “I did want to give RHA advance notice about this, and I have promised to meet whenever they would like over the course of the spring semester in thinking about what are the best hours, for example, in continued expansion of the library hours to help meet the needs of the students who might otherwise need to go to the lounge,” she said. Junior Sam Gibble, who also works as a President’s Host tour guide, said
See Courses, page 4
See lounge, page 4
Sophomore Rebecca Skowron plays Little Red Ridinghood in Ithaca College's production of "Into the Woods." Story on page 13.
durst breneiser/the ithacan
College announces ICC courses for Spring 2014 by Kayla Dwyer Staff Writer
As registration for the spring semester approaches next week, first-year students may now consider new courses, such as “The Spoken Word Revolution” and “Numbers in Education,” specifically designed for their respective themes within the Integrative Core Curriculum. The freshman class is the first wave of students who must fulfill degree requirements within their theme designation for the ICC. The goals of the new general education program are to design students’ curricula in a way that addresses major issues — the themes — from multiple perspectives to become integrative thinkers and problem solvers, Danette Johnson, director of the ICC, said. “I would certainly imagine that there will be new courses every semester for the foreseeable future,” Johnson said. “New faculty continuously come to IC with differing backgrounds and interests, so they will likely want to develop some new courses.” This week, Ithaca College professors spoke about their courses in relation to the six themes:
Cristina Gomez, assistant professor of mathematics, will be teaching a new course in Spring 2014 that fulfills the ICC theme requirements.
Jennifer Williams/The Ithacan
Identities; Inquiry, Imagination and Innovation; Power and Justice; Mind, Body, Spirit; The Quest for a Sustainable Future; and a World of Systems. Some professors have constructed new courses, and others have altered existing courses to fit the requirements of the ICC. The courses are also likely to see a different audience than would be expected because the ICC requirements cannot
Gust of Sound Indie-pop band Guster rocks Emerson Suites, page 14.
overlap with major requirements. For example, Mary Beth O’Connor, assistant professor of writing, said she expects her new course, “The Spoken Word Revolution: Poetry for Performance,” will attract a wide reach of students. O’Connor’s course fulfills requirements for students whose designation is Inquiry, Imagination and Innovation. Previously an Honors seminar titled “Slam
Read their lips Women's crosscountry team have tradition hidden in their lips, page 23. f ind m or e onl ine. www.t heit hacan.org
compost it The college should model county compost efforts, page 10.