Kress leads first faculty meeting as acting president

Having assumed the acting presidency November 1, Susan Kress presided at her first faculty meeting on Friday.

Kress - who until October 31 was vice president for academic affairs, a position she had held since June, 2006 -- delivered a report that covered the major actions taken by the trustees at their October meeting and administered an agenda that included a presentation on the College's successfully completed "Creative Thought Bold Promise" campaign and a motion regarding the transfer of credits for courses taken online.

But first she said a few words about the realignment - which includes the naming of Dean of Faculty Muriel Poston as acting vice president for academic affairs and Associate Dean of Faculty Paty Rubio as acting dean of faculty -- that will carry the administration through the end of President Philip A. Glotzbach's six-month sabbatical on May 1.

Calling this transition "a very strange thing for me," she noted that "Phil has helped me to get all of this in proportion."

"Just as you enter the office, there's a small table," she said. "On that table is a small pile of books that Phil obviously consults frequently. On the top of this pile of books -- very well used and thumbed through -- I found Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and The Sickness Unto Death."

"I think I will keep it there," she added. "It will keep my boundless optimism in check."

A member of the Skidmore faculty since 1975, Kress is a distinguished teacher, literary scholar and feminist and the first Skidmore professor appointed to the Class of 1948 Chair for Excellence in Teaching. Of her new role as acting president, she says, in seriousness, "It is very important to keep our momentum going. When the president comes back from his leave, I want to report real progress on the initiatives of the Strategic Plan."