Cheers for reunion giving

At least six class records and three reunion records were smashed by this year’s Reunion volunteers and donors. All gifts made in May were also part of the Skidmore Fund’s Scholarship Sprint challenge, for which an anonymous donor provided $100,000 for every 300 donors participating, up to $1  million; the unlocking of $800,000 so far raised a cheer from the audience. 

Gasps joined the cheers greeting this year’s reunion-giving total: $3.2 million, from more than 1,100 alumni spanning all reunion classes. 

Inspired by an anonymous classmate offering a $50,000 match, the 50th-reunion Class of ’65 raised a record $202,000 for the Skidmore Fund and a total gift of $926,000; just hours later, a patio at the Arthur Zankel Music Center was named for the class. The historic effort was led by gift chairs Lee Cranshaw Rowan ’65, Judy Farmer Fulton ’65, and Ellen Judge Swanson ’65 and gift-planning chair Toby Weisberg Rubenstein ’65. 

The Class of '90 set new records both for the class and for a 25th reunion. Led by Tim Clemmey ’90 as fund co-chair and

Dana Metes ’90 as class president and fund co-chair, the class raised $89,000 for the Skidmore Fund and a total of $625,000. 

The 10-year reunion Class of ’05 raised a class-record $22,000—including $19,000 designated for campus sustainability—with help from fund chair Jason Del Pozzo ’05 and Friends of the Presidents chair Craig Hyland ’05. 

With a total gift of $218,000, the Class of 2000 broke the class record for Skidmore Fund dollars as well as the record for total dollars by a 15th-reunion class. Also breaking their previous class records for Skidmore Fund totals was the class of ’85, with $83,000, and ’70, with $147,000. Among the post-50th classes, ’45 and ’60 were particularly noteworthy for raising $295,000 and $252,000 respectively. 

President Philip Glotzbach told the audience that student scholarship aid is the second-largest component of Skidmore’s budget, and service awardee Jane Roberts Alpert ’70 said that gifts not only provide “the best professors and the best facilities” but can also “add enormously talented students to our Skidmore family. Who knows what will come from a student who gets the opportunity to attend Skidmore because of the caring and generosity of alumni?”