04/30/2025
“Ivory Tower,” the longest-running television show on Central New York public television, will record a special episode at SUNY Cortland, and the panelists will include two Red Dragon academic superstars.
Professor Michael Tillotson, chair of SUNY Cortland’s Africana Studies Department, and Bob Spitzer, distinguished service professor emeritus of political science, will join a panel of academic experts from across the region to record WCNY’s popular public affairs program on campus.
Tillotson is a frequent “Ivory Tower” panelist and a nationally respected academic whose work has helped shape the field of Africana studies. Spitzer is an original “Ivory Tower” participant and an internationally known expert on gun legislation whose expertise is frequently sought by news outlets around the globe.
The panel will record a special live-to-tape episode at Cortland’s Brown Auditorium on Tuesday, April 29, at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to all students, faculty, staff, and members of the community. The episode will also be available to stream on-demand.
"I always feel fortunate when I walk into the studio to engage in the life of the mind,” Tillotson said. “To be on the trading floor of the marketplace of ideas, and to examine the larger questions of the human story with a crew of thinkers that I look forward to seeing every time.”
“I was sorry to leave ‘Ivory Tower’ when I retired and moved away from the area, but I’ve continued to watch the program online,” Spitzer said. “I am so very happy to return for an episode of the show, especially since it will take place at my longtime home campus.
“I’m looking forward to seeing many old friends and colleagues, both on the show and on the SUNY Cortland campus.”
Spitzer and Tillotson will join host David Chanatry, Utica University professor of journalism emeritus; Tara Ross, Onondaga Community College professor of history; Jenny Stromer-Galley, Syracuse University professor of information studies, and retired Brig. Gen. Ty Seidule, Hamilton College visiting professor of history.
The expanded, hourlong format of the show will allow for audience questions. Barbara Fought, professor emerita of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, will moderate the questions.
The episode will premiere on WCNY-TV on Thursday, May 1 at 8 p.m., with encore broadcasts on Friday, May 2 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, May 3 at 5:30 p.m. It will also be available to livestream at wcny.org/livestream.
Learn more about WCNY’s “Ivory Tower,” now in its 21st season, at wcny.org/ivory_tower.
WCNY was founded in 1965 as The Educational Television Council of Central New York. Today, it is a public communications organization that produces content across multiple platforms, including television and radio, web and targeted email content, the WCNY CONNECT magazine, and social media.