Ithaca College plans to reopen for on-campus instruction in early October

ITHACA, N.Y. — Ithaca College on Monday said it’s making plans to open for on-campus instruction for students on Oct. 5.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, Ithaca College had moved spring-semester classes for the last academic year to remote instruction on March 23. Classes for the new 2020¬21 academic year would normally begin on Aug. 24. The college’s leader says the extra time will allow students, faculty, and staff to fully prepare for a return to in-person instruction and campus life.

“By putting a stake in the ground for an October 5 start, we are giving our returning and new students the space they need to get ready for the upcoming year,” Ithaca College President Shirley Collado said. “This carefully thought-out timeframe provides our faculty with the opportunity to fully prepare to deliver the strongest educational experience, and for our staff to fully map out their work and put solid, responsive plans in place around our emergency health and safety management.”

Collado acknowledged that making and announcing this decision now “may run counter to current conventional higher education wisdom, but that it is in alignment with the ongoing, methodical, and data-driven deliberative process” the college has undertaken throughout this public-health crisis. Collado also noted that she and the college’s senior-leadership team have “listened to and collaborated” with a variety of stakeholders and leaders, “on campus and off,” per the Monday news release.

Collado applauded the leadership of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who recently unveiled the New York Forward plan which provides “thoughtful, metric-based” guidance on the state’s reopening. She offered “assurances” that the college will continue to carefully align with state guidelines and continue to work closely with community partners as the Ithaca area reopens.

“To provide a solid blueprint for our campus community in moving forward to embrace the 2020-21 academic year, we’ve created the college-wide Return to Campus Task Force, which has begun to work on a detailed plan for what our upcoming academic year specifically looks like and to think carefully through contingencies as this pandemic crisis continues to evolve,” said Collado.