Skidmore College - Scope Magazine Spring 2019

3 SKIDMORE COLLEGE Agreeing to disagree How do colleges grapple with contentious issues at a time when public discourse is so polarized and vitriolic? “Find ways to see the humanity in someone you deeply disagree with,” says Zachary Wood, author of “Uncensored: My Life and Uncomfortable Conversations at the Intersection of Black and White America.” Veteran journalist Sanford J. Ungar, “Free Speech on Campus” author Sigal Ben-Porath and Nadine Strossen, the first woman ever to lead the ACLU, spoke as part of the series “Skidmore Speaks: Conversations About the First Amendment and the Meaning of Free Speech.” “Free speech isn’t shouting for the sake of shouting,” says Scott Jaschik, editor and founder of Inside Higher Ed. “It’s inviting people into a conversation to understand, agree or disagree.” “It’s an emotional return to one of the most important events in my life,” Skidmore clarinetist Paul Green says of a special Skid- more performance revisiting his televised, childhood concert with classical music icon Leonard Bernstein. Green reminisced with the late composer’s son, Alexander, and legendary double bassist Gary Karr at the Arthur Zankel Music Center about the 1962 “Young People’s Concert” that helped propel both men’s musical careers. “It was a shocking reality that I wasn’t dream- ing and that I was actually performing as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic while being guided by the man whom I con- sidered the most inspiring and greatest musician in the world,” recalls Karr. The Skidmore Orchestra restaged the concert as part of celebrations of the late composer’s 100th birthday. RECONNECTING WITH BERNSTEIN Alexander Bernstein, left, joins bassist Gary Karr, second from right, and Skidmore clarinetist Paul Green, far right, for a panel discussion moderated by Jeremy Day- O’Connell, chair and associate professor of music, foreground, at “Leonard Bernstein at 100 — The Educator and Intellectual” Nov. 10, 2018, in Arthur Zankel Music Center.