Spring 2016 Semester Updates

Dear Members of the Skidmore Community: 

I hope the semester is off to a great start for all of you. As we make our way through a lively period in Skidmore’s history, I write to update you on a wide variety of news and activities affecting everyone in our community.

Another great year for applications
We received a record number of applications for Skidmore’s Class of 2020. We currently have 9,115 on file, in comparison to 8,453 last year—an increase of 8% over last year and 6% over the previous record set two years ago. The majority of the additional applications are from international students, 74% of whom are seeking financial aid. In this year’s pool, 27% of applications are from international students, in comparison with 22% last year and 20% the year before. We also received a record number of Early Decision (ED) applications: 547 this year, a 30% increase over last year’s 411. The ED Round II Committee meets next week, so final numbers are not yet available, but we are hoping to enroll 42% of the class through ED this year, compared to 38% last year.

Campaign at $101 million
We are making excellent progress on our comprehensive fundraising effort, Creating Our Future: The Campaign for Skidmore. We just passed $101 million in gifts and pledges, and we are already seeing the Campaign’s impact in a number of areas—additional support for our financial aid program, new internships and collaborative research opportunities, the Valentine Boathouse (where we have just started the permitting process), and the Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative (MDOCS).

Strategic Plan on its way to the board
The Plan has now received the endorsement of the Strategic Planning Committee of the Board of Trustees, the Institutional Policy and Planning Committee (IPPC), the Staff Advisory Group, the Student Government Association (SGA) Senate, and our faculty. Many thanks to Professor Tim Harper for presenting it at Friday’s Faculty Meeting, where a vote endorsed it with two amendments. The Plan has also been sent to the Alumni Board and will be taken up by the full Board of Trustees later this month. Thank you all for your good work in getting us to this point. Once the Board approves the contents of the document, it will be copy-edited and sent back out to the campus community. It is very exciting to have this blueprint in place to guide our next decade.

Middle States process well in hand
We were successful in the Middle States document review stage of the reaccreditation process, and now we are eagerly awaiting the campus visit (March 6–9) from an external review team led by Janet M. Riggs, President of Gettysburg College. The Self-Study can be accessed here, using your Skidmore login credentials.

General Education work progressing
The Committee on Educational Policies and Planning (CEPP) continues to work on the proposed new curriculum, making refinements based on feedback received. January’s Academic Summit provided another opportunity for members of the community to comment on the proposal, and CEPP will now make adjustments based on those latest comments.

Federal complaint filed
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has notified us that a complaint has been filed related to the handling of a sexual assault case at Skidmore in 2014. We are responding to this action and the Department’s request for documents and will comply with all requirements. Skidmore is now one of the 276 OCR investigations at colleges and universities around the country. We will keep you apprised of further developments.

Research continues at Starbuck Center
As we informed you in an earlier campus memo, several members of President’s Cabinet and I met with colleagues working in Starbuck Center who expressed concerns about three current cases of breast cancer. Since that time, the new Starbuck Steering Committee (SSC) has met on several occasions and hosted a campus meeting to share information from the last round of testing in 2012. The SSC has been in contact with the New York State Department of Health and other organizations, and work continues to develop future assessments. You can find the latest news at their blog, using your Skidmore login credentials. 

Diversity and inclusion initiatives and actions move forward
The Fall Semester was marked by student activism around campus climate and inclusion. I appreciated our students’ willingness to work collaboratively with the administration and their continuing conversations with the Committee on Intercultural and Global Understanding (CIGU). We are moving on actions to address some of the issues they have raised. We are in a time of transition with regard to a number of leadership roles relating to diversity and inclusion at the College, and I expect us to make progress in filling those positions and continuing to move forward as we go through this semester. In January, Sarah Willie-LeBreton, Professor of Sociology and Department Chair of Sociology and Anthropology at Swarthmore College and noted expert on diversity and higher education, consulted with President’s Cabinet, presented at Academic Summit, and met with other groups, including the Advisory Council on Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct. 

Academic Affairs continues to underscore the importance of engaging in important work related to diversity—especially its commitment to recruiting and retaining faculty and staff from underrepresented groups. The Dean of the Faculty, together with the Center for Leadership, Teaching, and Learning, is offering a series of workshops and trainings related to diversity and inclusion. And, of course, other areas of Academic Affairs—in particular, the Tang—continue to organize their work around this broad topic.  

Cabinet searches underway
Foundations have now been laid to fill important positions on the President’s Cabinet. For the Dean of Students and Vice President for Student Affairs position, the search firm of Storbeck/Pimentel & Associates has been hired to advise the process. We will make an announcement soon about the makeup of the search committee. (I am very grateful to Gail Cummings-Danson for taking on this cabinet role while retaining her position as Director of Athletics.) After getting the search for the Dean of Students underway, we will launch the search for the Vice President for Marketing and Communications. Both positions are key to achieving the goals set forth in our new Strategic Plan, and we will involve the campus in helping us to make these critical decisions.

New shows at the Tang
On Saturday the Tang officially launched three exciting new shows. Alma Thomas brings awareness of a great American artist to a new generation in a partnership with the Studio Museum of Harlem. Borrowed Light, which highlights the gift of more than 500 photographs to the Tang last year, forms the core of three courses this semester being taught by Ian Berry, Mimi Hellman, and Robert ParkeHarrison. Critter & Guitari is an interactive sound exhibition created by 2002 Skidmore graduates Owen Osborn and Chris Kucinski that reveals the skills and entrepreneurship they developed as students here. The Tang is happy to set up group tours for faculty and staff.

Legal updates
The driver in the terrible Halloween night crash that killed our student Michael Hedges and injured two others recently pled guilty to vehicular manslaughter and will be sentenced in March. And the former campus safety officer involved in a sexual misconduct case off campus was sentenced to five years’ probation. 

Space planning 
Last fall the Space Planning Working Group, chaired by Crystal Moore and Dan Rodecker, made recommendations that were approved by cabinet and IPPC for the first of many projects that will serve our students, faculty, and staff over the next two to three years while the Center for Integrated Sciences (CIS) is being planned. Projects now underway include the move later this year of the Office of Special Programs from Filene Hall to the recently acquired Van Patten House at the far north end of North Broadway. Van Patten will undergo substantial renovation this spring and summer to prepare for the move. Filling the vacated space in Filene will be the Economics and Classics Departments, joining MDOCS there. Also, on May 16, CIS-related geothermal work will begin and will put the Palamountain parking lot out of commission for much of the summer; we appreciate your planning and patience.

Hoverboards banned on campus
An IPPC policy went into effect on January 25 prohibiting the self-balancing scooters known as hoverboards, battery-operated scooters, and hands-free Segways from our campus. This step was taken because of fire hazards and other concerns raised by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Anyone who has brought one of these devices to campus should contact Campus Safety, who will work with our facilities team to find safe storage until the devices can be removed from campus. If such items are found on campus, they will be confiscated for safe storage until the end of the semester.

Skidmore Cares another great success
Marie and I thank you for your enthusiastic involvement in Skidmore Cares. In December the program collected 2,218 food items, 1,017 school supplies, nearly $3,000 from our vendors, and over $8,000 from the campus, primarily from Beatlemore Skidmania—for a grand total of $11,091 in contributions, which were distributed to ten Saratoga County helping agencies. We should all be proud of this generous community effort!

I wish you all a wonderful spring semester.