When the British vote to break from the European Union made headlines, Skidmore put faculty political scientist Ron Seyb on Facebook Live to discuss nationalism, trade, and more.

The setting was a new campus space for public discourse and events: an exhibition at the Tang Museum called A More Perfect Union. Its 50 American flags, part of artist Mel Zeigler's Flag Exchange project, are the result of Ziegler's travels to all 50 states to collect private citizens' old and often well-worn flags and provide new ones in return.

With the flags in the background, Seyb answers live questions from viewers and sheds light on how the Brexit decision relates to American politics and economics. He points to strong populist sentiment that distrusts experts or "elites"-and in this referendum, that included the many bankers and statesmen who advised against Brexit. And he describes the growing nativist parties in several European countries; as in the US lately, "border control is a common anxiety," he says. In fact his hunch is that, although economic issues were often cited as primary reasons by Brexit-voting Britons, the key motivation was fear about the recent rise in immigration. [watch the full discussion]

"This campaign season has created a vulnerability to those who promise quick panaceas, along with schoolyard bravado," which "demean and endanger our best traditions and values of openness and acceptance and change." That's what Jill Schuker '66 told the audience when she received the Distinguished Achievement Award at this year's Reunion.

Schuker put her Skidmore government degree to work as an aide to Robert F. Kennedy and later headed the D.C. center of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, served as senior public-affairs director at the National Security Council and a special assistant to the president for national security during the Clinton administration, and helped lead the the State Department and the US Mission to the UN during the Carter administration. [full profile here]

Schuker told the Reunion crowd that it's time to demand and value genuine public service: "We should want our best selves to be seeking, not rejecting, public office." And the news media must provide "more reality and less 'reality show' ... After all, a free press is our tribune and our surrogate."

Calling for all participants in our democracy to put "skin in the game," she said, "We cannot afford to just be on the sidelines as silent, sullen observers." Citing her "real faith in 'the better angels of our nature,'" she proposed: "What about restoring civics to our classrooms and seriously considering national service for all-civilian or military, men and women, at home or abroad?" [full speech here]

Minutes later the Palamountain Distinguished Achievement Award, for young alumni, went to Jessyca Dudley '06. A gun-violence analyst for the Joyce Foundation, she previously implemented disease-prevention and outreach programs in Chicago and fought HIV/AIDS as a Peace Corps worker in South Africa. With her women's studies degree, she also holds a master's in public health. [scroll down here for full profile]

In a Skidmore podcast after Reunion, Dudley spoke of the Wear Orange campaign and small legislative wins to reduce gun violence in the US. As an avid researcher, she said, "I love to geek out" by reading research papers, summarizing them, and sharing the knowledge with others-building relationships with police, advocacy groups, legislators, public-health officers, and others. In the face of legal and political impediments to the gathering of gun-violence data by the government, she hopes to find ways to expand the tracking of gun violence by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Research shows that the presence of a gun in the house does increase the chances for both gun suicide and gun homicide.

Dudley noted that "gun policy is related to domestic violence policy." So some of her work seeks to strengthen rules about gun removal from domestic abusers. Also, since "state lines are porous" when it comes to illegal guns, she argues for better interstate enforcement. [full podcast here]