815 North Broadway
Saratoga Springs,
New York, 12866
SKIDMORE PHONE
518-580-5000
History of Skidmore College
An independent, liberal arts institution with an enrollment
of approximately 2,200 men and women, Skidmore was founded by
Lucy Skidmore Scribner.
In 1903 Mrs. Scribner, responding
to what she saw as an absence of practical educational opportunity
for women in Saratoga Springs, opened the Young Women’s
Industrial Club of Saratoga. With a few teachers and a handful
of promising students, she initiated classes in the fine and
practical arts, which were designed to give young women the
means to make a living while learning to appreciate the more
aesthetic experiences in life.
Mrs. Scribner, who had been widowed
only four years after her 1875 marriage to J. Blair Scribner
(the eldest son of Charles Scribner, founder of the publishing
company bearing his name), had arrived in Saratoga in 1900
from New York City hoping to improve her failing health through
the famous spa’s invigorating air and medicinal waters.
The treatment was apparently effective, and she joined the
city as a permanent resident.
Her inherent concern for others soon
brought about the establishment of the industrial club, which
rapidly developed into a thriving enterprise, chartered in
1911 by the New York Board of Regents as the Skidmore School
of Arts. The school was named for Mrs. Scribner’s father,
Joseph Russell Skidmore, the elder son of Jeremiah Skidmore,
a New York City coal merchant.
Sensing the promise of the young
institution, Mrs. Scribner sought a new president with the
educational vision and prominence to direct its development.
With the help of Columbia University President Nicholas Murray
Butler, she recruited Charles Henry Keyes, a well-known educator
from Teachers College, as Skidmore’s first president.
His vision and energy proved as effective as Mrs. Scribner
had hoped, giving the school the momentum it needed. In 1922
Dr. Keyes fulfilled his avowed ambition of having the school
chartered as Skidmore College, a four-year degree-granting
institution.
In addition to developing a liberal
arts curriculum that became the basis for Skidmore’s
present curriculum, Dr. Keyes pioneered the formation of a
baccalaureate nursing program and began the more active shaping
of a campus. By the time of his death in 1925, Dr. Keyes had
played a key role in acquiring several of the Victorian mansions
overlooking Congress Park, which began to give the college
a more precise physical identity.
Henry T. Moore, Skidmore’s second
president, arrived in 1925 from the chairmanship of the Dartmouth
College psychology department, ready to take on the challenge
of developing the young college both academically and physically.
His thirty-two-year presidency brought Skidmore College to
a position of leadership in women’s education. Under
his tenure, academic programs were developed and refined,
and an excellent faculty recruited. A library, infirmary,
residence halls, and dining halls were built, and further
property acquisitions allowed for enrollment growth, as old
homes became student dormitories, and carriage houses became
classrooms, studios, and laboratories. Even more significant
than his administrative and financial abilities was his influence
on a generation of Skidmore students whom he inspired to intellectual
and creative achievement. The young college had grown to
an enrollment of more than 1,100 by his retirement in 1957.
Val H. Wilson, formerly of Colorado
Women’s College, became Skidmore’s third president
that year, bringing with him buoyant enthusiasm, boundless
energy, and an informal style that further personalized the
Skidmore community. He concentrated on strengthening the faculty
and academic programs, initiated inroads in the creation of
interdepartmental offerings, and encouraged more and more
students to enter graduate school.
Under Dr. Wilson, Skidmore’s
growth strained its campus at the seams. Enrollment had risen
to 1,300, and many of the turn-of-the-century buildings were
growing obsolete, requiring increased maintenance and renovation.
The adequacy of the physical plant also was threatened by
the loss of fifty acres of athletic fields to a new superhighway
as Interstate 87 worked its way northward.
It was at this critical time in Skidmore’s
history that a generous gift brought about a courageous decision
by the Skidmore College Board of Trustees. Board member J.
Erik Jonsson and his wife, Margaret, offered an alternative
to the difficulties of maintaining and restoring the campus.
The Jonssons donated sufficient funds to purchase a 650-acre
tract on the outskirts of the city—a tract Mrs. Scribner
had sought fifty years earlier—and challenged the board
to begin the construction of a completely new campus for Skidmore.
In a historic move many now believe was the only hope for
the college’s continued health and survival, the board
voted October 28, 1961, to purchase the land and begin the
construction of what is now known as the Jonsson Campus.
By the time his tenure was cut short
by his sudden death in 1964, Dr. Wilson saw construction begin
on the Lucy Scribner Library and on the first residential
and dining complex.
Joseph C. Palamountain Jr., Skidmore’s fourth president,
took office in 1965. A political scientist with a doctorate
from Harvard, Dr. Palamountain came to Skidmore from Wesleyan
University, where he was provost. He guided Skidmore through
a period of dynamic growth and change. Under his leadership,
the development of the college’s new physical plant progressed
rapidly. Currently, the Jonsson Campus has a total of forty-nine
buildings.
Dr. Palamountain’s twenty-two-year
presidency was characterized by impressive growth in the academic
and financial areas of the college. Skidmore experienced the
doubling of the student body and major increases in applications,
the near doubling of the faculty, the transition from a women’s
college to a coeducational institution, and the creation of
the first external degree program in New York State (University
Without Walls). During his presidency there were two innovative
curriculum changes and the chartering of a Phi Beta Kappa
chapter. The financial health of Skidmore was bolstered by
growth in the endowment and in the college’s net worth,
due in part to the launching of the $25-million Celebration
Campaign in 1985.
David H. Porter, the college’s
fifth president, came to Skidmore in 1987 from Carleton College,
where he taught classics and music. Early in his presidency,
Dr. Porter established the Commission on the ’90s to
help chart Skidmore’s course to the twenty-first century.
The commission recommended new institutional priorities, with
an emphasis on enhancing the academic tone on campus, ensuring
long-term financial stability, and promoting greater diversity
within the campus community and curriculum.
During the Porter presidency, Skidmore
launched an Honors Forum and a program of scholarships in
science and mathematics. The campus landscape changed dramatically
as Skidmore renovated and expanded Scribner Library, constructed
an outdoor athletic complex, upgraded computer and telecommunications
capabilities, built an addition to the Sports and Recreation
Center, and expanded Dana Science Center. In addition, Dr.
Porter helped lead the largest fund-raising effort in Skidmore’s
history, the Skidmore Journey: A Campaign for Our Second Century,
launched in 1993. The five-year campaign raised $86.5 million,
enabling the college to substantially increase its endowment
and providing funds for construction of the Tang Teaching
Museum and Art Gallery.
In 1999, Jamienne S. Studley became
Skidmore’s sixth president and the first woman to hold
that office. A graduate of Barnard College and Harvard Law
School, she was previously associate dean of Yale Law School
and general counsel of the U.S. Department of Education. President
Studley led a strategic planning process
that established the college’s direction for the coming decade. The plan outlined three major goals: enhancing
academic quality and faculty-student interaction; attracting
and challenging an increasingly talented, motivated, and diverse
student body; and strengthening the sense of community and
citizenship across the campus.
During the Studley presidency, the college adopted a new core curriculum
and expanded opportunities for international study. President Studley
shepherded the renovation and expansion of Case Campus Center, the establishment of the Intercultural
Center, and the construction of the Frances
Young Tang Teaching Museum.
Philip A. Glotzbach became the seventh president of Skidmore College on
July 1, 2003, following eleven years at the University of Redlands in
Redlands, California, where served as vice president for academic
affairs and earlier was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
His areas of specialization include the philosophy of psychology and the
philosophy of language; among other topics, his recent research has
dealt with philosophical issues in perception and artificial
intelligence.
Dr. Glotzbach has written and presented widely on issues in higher
education, often drawing on his background in philosophy to shed light
on contemporary issues. His topics have ranged from the shaping of
institutional mission and the importance of science in the liberal arts
to faculty workloads, collaborative leadership, and the complex role of
an academic dean.
Dr. Glotzbach earned a B.A. degree from the University of Notre Dame in
1972 (summa cum laude) and a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1979. He is a
member of Phi Beta Kappa.
There has been a continuity of purpose
underlying the change and growth at Skidmore. The college
has consistently espoused the goal of liberal education as
the best means of preparing for a life of continuing personal
growth and of responsible and significant service to the community.
Skidmore’s programs, both those in the traditional liberal
arts and those of a professional nature, represent liberal
education in their common pursuit of academic excellence and
their concern with sensibilities, values, and qualities that
distinguish educated persons.
