Arts & Culture

Electrocute Me With Color: Semele at Ithaca College

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Correction appended

Semele by George Frideric Handel is the tale of the affair between a mortal girl named Semele (Laura McCauley) and the immortal Jupiter (Joseph Michalczyk-Lupa), and what results when Jupiter’s vengeful wife Juno (Hector Gonzales Smith), the goddess of marriage, finds out about it. Based on one of the origin tales of the Greek/Roman gods and goddesses, the story itself is naturally wrought with drama, passion and tragedy. I honestly had no idea of what to expect from Semele, as I have never seen an opera before. Would I be seeing a fantastically mawkish tale? A complete train wreck of emotions as the three lead characters, fantastically selfish and vain, tromp around the stage?

composer

Composer Professor Steve Stucky Ph.D. ’78 Dies at 66

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Prof. Emeritus Steve Stucky Ph.D. ’78, music, a widely acclaimed composer and Pulitzer Prize winner, died Sunday at his home in Ithaca. He was 66. Stucky taught at Cornell for 34 years, during which he founded Ensemble X — a musical collaboration between Ithaca College and Cornell faculty. He retired last year to teach at the Juilliard School, according to a Department of Music press release. Stucky was born in Kansas and studied at Baylor University in addition to Cornell.

Ithaca College

Ithaca College President Announces Retirement Following Protests

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Ithaca College President Tom Rochon announced plans to retire Thursday, following months of protests over his administration’s handling of racial incidents and demands for his resignation. Rochon announced in a statement that he plans to retire in July 2017, after completing the 2016-17 academic year. The search for a new Ithaca College president will begin this summer. “I am proud of the progress and accomplishments achieved by the college over what will be a nine-year tenure as president,” Rochon said. “I look forward to working with the college community over the next 18 months …

Ithaca College

Ithaca College Faculty Vote ‘No Confidence’ in President

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Approximately 78 percent of Ithaca College’s faculty members — or 316 of the 406 that participated — voted no confidence in I.C. president Tom Rochon on Monday after a similar vote in which 72 percent of participating students voted no confidence in their president following a string of issues over race and freedom of speech on campus. “Since Rochon arrived on campus in summer 2008, faculty have issued many public statements, petitions, letters to the campus newspaper and op-eds articulating their opposition to his autocratic leadership style and other grievances,” said a press-release from three I.C. faculty members with the results. “This semester’s vote of no confidence is the product of several years of profound faculty dissatisfaction.”

“Both the faculty and the students have been clear,” said I.C. Prof. Mary Bentley, health promotion and physical education. “I can’t imagine how [Rochon] would lead in a place where faculty and students have not authorized him to.”

Out of 469 faculty members, 406 cast a ballot in the ‘no confidence vote’ — roughly 86.6 percent of all full-time, continuing faculty members eligible to vote. “These results are also remarkable because so many people voted, despite fears of retribution in this toxic environment,” said I.C. Prof Nick Kowalczyk, writing, in the press release.

Ithaca College

Racial Tensions Build Among Ithaca College Students, Administration

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Ithaca College students and faculty have grown increasingly frustrated with the administration’s response to racial issues on campus, with tension reaching a new high in the past few weeks as students and faculty call for a vote of no confidence for President Tom Rochon. “You can’t even walk through campus right now without hearing about [these issues] or go to class without hearing it part of class discussion,” said Dominick Recckio ’16, president of Ithaca College’s Student Government Association. According to Recckio, problems first surfaced during Residential Advisor training at the start of this year when RAs reported racial aggression by Public Safety officers. At the training session, Officer Terry O’Pray reportedly stated that racial profiling does not occur at Ithaca College. Officer Jon Elmore showed RAs various weapons, and when he showed a black BB gun, he said he would shoot anyone he saw with one on campus, according to The Ithacan, Ithaca College’s student newspaper.