President, cabinet hold community meeting

Nearly 500 Skidmore employees joined President Philip A. Glotzbach and members of his cabinet on Wednesday, May 20, to hear updates on admissions, financial challenges, planning for the 2020-2021 academic year and other important issues.

Glotzbach also welcomed President-elect Marc C. Conner, who will assume office in July, to the sixth community meeting of the year. Conner, who currently serves as provost at Washington and Lee University, said he was fully involved in contingency planning associated with the COVID-19 emergency at that institution and was already engaged in conversations with the president, members of his cabinet and the Board of Trustees about important issues facing Skidmore.

“I wanted to stay fully involved here so I would be very fluent with everything that is going on when I get to Skidmore,” Conner said. “This is not the way I had envisioned my entry to Skidmore, but I remain eager to establish personal connections with everybody.

“This is a very challenging time in higher education, but my enthusiasm for coming to Skidmore is absolutely undiminished.”

Members of the president’s cabinet offered a series of updates during the Zoom session. Mary Lou Bates, vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid, started by delivering good news about the incoming Class of 2024.

“I’m delighted to report that we exceeded our enrollment goal by about 60 students,” said Bates, noting the class is currently 41% male students, 25% domestic students of color and 10% international students. “The additional enrollment will provide tuition revenue beyond what was budgeted, and, with all the financial uncertainties, that is a good thing.” Bates thanked everyone at Skidmore who has contributed to recruitment efforts.

The president also provided an update on recent meetings of the Board of Trustees, which approved recent faculty tenure and promotions decisions, discussed COVID-19 planning and approved a balanced base budget for next year.

“The budget also contains assumptions that we know are going be challenged and probably won’t hold, so we will have additional work to do,” Glotzbach said.

Dean of Students and Vice President for Student Affairs Cerri Banks said the COVID-19 working group continues to meet regularly and is examining a range of programs and operations that would be necessary to reopen in the fall, from health and wellness and facilities to supplies and staffing issues. The president added that hygiene, social distancing, masks and screening would be part of any plan for reopening.

Banks also spoke about important changes to Title IX regulations that were recently announced by the U.S. Department of Education. Banks said a variety of information, including training, would be provided to members of the Skidmore community over the summer, and a future community meeting is expected to take up this important issue.

Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs Michael Orr spoke about the academic planning working group, which is considering options for the next academic year amid the uncertainty associated with COVID-19. The group is considering a range of possible scenarios for the fall semester, such as a partial return of students by cohort with preference given to first-year students, adjustments to semester dates to avoid the mass departure and return of students to campus during the Thanksgiving break, and offering some coursework online due to the probable need to reduce the number of students on campus in the fall. The group is also preparing for a possible resurgence of the virus and the possible need to switch again to online learning suddenly.

Orr also spoke about the student-faculty ratio at Skidmore and its relationship to broader conversations about structural budget deficits facing the College. Over time, Skidmore’s faculty-student ratio has decreased from approximately 9:1 to less than 8:1. Although Orr noted differences in how these numbers are reported by various colleges, as well as differing teaching needs associated with Skidmore’s strong programs in the arts, Skidmore’s ratio is relatively low among peer institutions given available resources, he said.

“As we look to the future and consider the size and scale of deficits we're anticipating, I think that those require us to at least give thought to where the faculty-student ratio is and consider what it might take to move it back,” Orr said. He noted a historic midpoint of around 8.5 would be associated with approximately 32 faculty positions, a level he said might be achieved through retirement incentives, careful decisions about new faculty hires and broader conversations about the structuring of majors. The dean emphasized that no decisions had been made and any proposals would be reviewed through the shared governance process.

In response to a question, both Dean Orr and President Glotzbach indicated that the College was not considering replacing tenure-track faculty lines with non-tenure-track faculty.

Vice President for Finance and Administration Donna Ng said many employees had been notified about furloughs, most of which will begin June 1. New York state recently approved a shared-work program for some employees.

“HR stands ready to help all employees with the process of signing up for unemployment benefits and answering any questions,” Ng said.

Ng also provided information about work on a five-year financial plan for the College. She noted a challenging outlook in higher education broadly, with parameters such as the discount rate and the demand for financial aid expected to increase. Net tuition revenue is forecasted to decrease from fiscal year 2020 to 2021. At the same time, Skidmore’s endowment has dropped by more than 10% for the most recent quarter ending March 2020 resulting in decreased endowment draw. Employee compensation is the largest component of the budget, and expenses, such as health care, are forecasted to rise. Despite a balanced budget for fiscal year 2021, which begins June 1, budget deficits of $6.7 million for fiscal year 2022 and up to $10 million by 2025 are projected due to expenses growing at a higher rate than revenues.

“These are not sustainable deficits,” Ng said.

Ng noted that although no decisions have been made, a model showing reductions in staff and faculty positions by approximately 10% would bring future deficits to manageable levels. She expressed hope that position reductions might be realized partially through attrition.

Additional information about budget planning would be posted to a website in the coming days, President Glotzbach said.

The president also invited Skidmore community members to join a virtual Commencement ceremony at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 30, and stressed that the College community was looking forward to an in-person ceremony in the future.