Ithaca College President to Step Down Following Protests for Handling of Race-Related Incidents

Melissa Quinn / January 14, 2016

Tom Rochon, president of Ithaca College, announced Thursday he will be stepping down next year following campus-wide protests and calls for his resignation from both faculty and students related to his handling of race-related incidents.

In a letter sent to the school’s faculty, students, and supporters Wednesday, Rochon said he made the decision to retire from the Ithaca, N.Y., school after “much reflection” over the winter break, effective July 1, 2017.

“I recognize that colleges evolve through the eras defined by new opportunities and challenges,” he said. “I believe it is best for IC to be led in the future by a president chosen by the [Board of Trustees] specifically to make a fresh start on these challenges, including those that became so apparent to us all last semester.”

People of Color at Ithaca College, a student-activist group, spearheaded protests opposing Rochon. The group praised his announcement on its Facebook page Thursday.

During the fall semester, People of Color at Ithaca College criticized Rochon’s handling of a number of race-related incidents and began calling for his resignation.

Three specific events sparked the protests, which expanded to include the broader student body and a number of faculty.

The first involved public safety officers who allegedly made “racially insensitive” and “aggressive” statements during training sessions with Ithaca College resident assistants.

The second incident involved an off-campus party hosted by an unaffiliated fraternity in October that was themed “Preps and Crooks.” Both Ithaca College students and alumni said the theme was “racially charged” and a “microaggression.”

The third incident occurred during a panel called “Blue Sky Reimagining,” during which an African-American alumna said she had a “savage hunger” to succeed in her professional career. A Caucasian alumnus also speaking on the panel repeated the description and called the woman a “savage” multiple times.

In response to the three events, People of Color at Ithaca College looked to Rochon to address the incidents and later disagreed with what they said were inconsistent responses from Ithaca College’s administration.

As tensions continued to build on campus, more than 1,000 students participated in a number of protests, including a “walk out” on Nov. 11 and a demonstration in December, during which chants of “Tom Rochon: resign” broke out.

The Ithaca community’s disapproval of Rochon came to a head after the faculty and students expressed no confidence in the college president in separate votes held by both groups.

Protests in response to race-related events at Ithaca College erupted as two other universities—the University of Missouri and Yale University—saw similar backlash from students and faculty on their own campuses, also for their administrations’ handling of racially charged incidents.

In response to demonstrations at the University of Missouri, its president, Tom Wolfe, resigned in November.