Welcome Back

Dear Skidmore Community,

We have returned together! Tomorrow our spring semester classes begin. I am excited for all that the next several months have in store, and so grateful for what it has taken to get us here. 

COVID-19 continues to test us and teach us, and we continue to respond to this challenge with remarkable strength. Flexibility is our mantra for the next several weeks — flexibility, patience, and kindness. Always leading with kindness is the best approach to all human interactions, and especially so in a global pandemic.  

This spring semester is possible due to our scrupulous study and planning, to our staff who work tirelessly to provide our campus structure, to our faculty who ceaselessly find creative ways to continue the educational mission that is the heart of Skidmore, and especially to our students, who throughout this pandemic have been extraordinary, even heroic. When people ask me how Skidmore has consistently done so well in coping with COVID-19, I always say that the success we have had comes from exceptional resilience and commitment by our students. 

I know that all of this takes a toll on us. Yet if this whole crucible experience of the pandemic has taught us one thing, it is the same lesson that Dr. King conveyed: the inescapable network of mutuality that binds us all together. COVID-19 is global — it reaches every place where humans are. Simply put, we truly are in this together — we rise or fall to the challenge of COVID-19 as a community, whether that is our campus, our state, our countries, or ultimately our planet. I continue to be immensely proud of how the Skidmore community has responded to this unprecedented challenge. 

With gratitude and hope, I welcome everyone back for the spring semester, and all the promise and possibility it holds.             

Sincerely,

Marc Conner
President