The Ithaca College Student Governance Council met Feb. 2 for their first meeting of Spring 2026 to hear about the college’s plans for Black History Month celebrations and spend time goal setting for initiatives they wanted to pursue over the course of the semester.
The meeting opened with a brief financial appropriations report. Senior Nikki Sutera, senate chair, said five budgets were reviewed at the last appropriations meeting and the committee is now looking primarily at block four funding, which will begin March 23 and run until the end of the academic year.
“If you’re in a student org or are hearing from student orgs that need budgets, I would say bring them in within the next three weeks,” Sutera said.
The council did not have a guest speaker, but during the community session first-year student Olivia Adams expressed her interest in filling the vacant Students of Color Coalition seat on the council. The SOCC acts as a liaison between SGC and various affinity groups and identity–based groups on campus.
“I feel that multiple multicultural communities and organizations aren’t represented because that spot is vacant,” Adams said.
Also during the community session, Cliff-Simon Vital, director of the Unity Center, shared about Black History Month initiatives planned, both at IC and in the Ithaca community. Vital said the Unity Center is transitioning away from having one centralized week with many themed activities and events, and instead spreading celebrations out over the course of the entire month of February.
“It’s important that we show out for events like this, because, as we know, on the federal level, there are schools who are completely gutting offices like ours and budgets like ours,” Vital said. “I’m proud that Ithaca College has been able to stand 10 toes down, even amongst all the pressure that we’ve gotten, to still offer programs like these.”
Vital also said that the center is working to collaborate with more organizations and schools on campus for more events. He encouraged SGC members to share posters promoting Black History Month events happening both on and off IC’s campus. One event Vital highlighted is the visit from civil rights activist Cecil J. Williams. Williams will give a keynote address at 6 p.m. Feb. 11 in Emerson Suites on the second floor of the Campus Center.
“We’re gonna bring somebody pretty iconic to campus,” Vital said. “We’re continuing the legacy of bringing in living ancestors to learn from them now before their stories are erased through time.”
The council had time to set goals and plan for the upcoming semester. Many council members set goals around passing bills related to their committee initiatives, meeting with school administrators and seeking new members for their committees.
“We’re going to have an initiative incubator next week to really start hitting the ground running,” Sutera said. “I know that we have some initiatives starting from last semester, so seeing those through is going to be a really big thing, especially for block three.”
Senior Rishabh Sen, student body president, said one of his goals is to ensure a smooth transition of next year’s e-board members and senators. Senior Asata Rothblatt, vice president of academic affairs, said they are looking for people to join the Academic Policy Committee. Sophomore Amelia Grimshaw, vice president of residential affairs, said one of their main goals for the semester is to review the Residence Hall Association constitution. Sophomore Ty Sayahi, senator–at–large, said they are seeking people interested in joining the Accessible Living Residential Learning Community to fill out an interest form.
Next week the council will host Te-Wen Lo, professor in the Department of Biology and co-chair of self-study with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
The SGC is the sole representative body for the Ithaca College student community. The SGC meets from 7-9 p.m. every Monday in the Taughannock Falls room of the Campus Center. The SGC can be contacted at [email protected].
