Skidmore College

FEBRUARY 2017

Global ocean temperatures

Skidmore-NASA research

Capturing carbon

Prof. Meg Estapa

Forest and field plants take up carbon dioxide and emit oxygen through photosynthesis, but that's dwarfed by the oceans' hundreds of billions of tons of tiny algae. Their processes for deep-sixing carbon are complex, cryptic, chaotic—and crucial to understand if we're to mitigate or adapt to climate change. A scholar of this deep-sea carbon pump, Skidmore professor Meg Estapa is on a research cruise with NASA scientists this month, and they're sharing their oceanographic adventures online.

Lindner ’03 on fake news

Podcast: Sociology of news

Andrew Lindner, Jennifer Delton, Pat Oles, Sheldon Solomon, Chris Mann

Andrew Lindner, left, at an election-season forum with fellow professors Jennifer Delton, Pat Oles, Sheldon Solomon, and Chris Mann

A sociology professor at his alma mater, Andrew Lindner '03 studies journalism in society, including "citizen journalism" and the rise of online fake news. In his "This is Skidmore" podcast, he discusses the rise of nontraditional news sites such as Vox, Breitbart, and FiveThirtyEight, while also noting that FiveThirtyEight is owned by the same parent company as ABC. He advises readers not only to to check who owns the source of any online report but to check multiple sources and compare the stories.

Major-good advice

Choosing, or changing, majors

Students at Major Fair

Alexis Traussi '17 arrived thinking she'd major in business, but she loved her first-year seminar, "Famine, Warfare, and Plague in 14th-Century London," and then a course with "impressive history majors" sealed the new deal. Anh Vu Nguyen '17 changed his second major from biology to computer science after he took a computer science course required for his math major. He felt CS could keep him "at the frontier of the field, as technologies change daily." Such exploration and cross-pollination are key to Skidmore's integrative liberal learning, and recently upperclassmen from scores of majors shared ideas and tips for trying and choosing fields to major in.

Also In This Issue

A fresh batch of alumni news, from travels to jobs to new babies, can be viewed now on the Class Notes site.

Ensemble Connect 10th

Skidmore's partnership with Carnegie Hall and the Juilliard and Weill music institutes marks 10 years with a special concert Feb. 17, as the rising stars of Ensemble Connect present classical and new works. Tickets here.

Corn-dusted skate, napa slaw, lentil salad with tropical fruits—and that's just the appetizer. Skidmore's dining-services team again won American Culinary Federation gold, besting 10 other college staffs in using lentils, cauliflower, walnuts, pheasant, and more.

Edvinas Rupkus '19 scored 32 points and Jack Byrne '92 scored 22 as the men's basketball team rose from an 11-point halftime hole to top Union, 88-78, on Saturday. The same day, the Skidmore women beat their own 11-point deficit, outscoring Union by 23 to 9 in the fourth for a dramatic 51-46 victory. Following Big Green Scream wins over Hobart and William Smith on Friday, both teams are at the the top of the conference.

Calendar highlights

In Sister, Show Me Eternity, soprano Sylvia Stoner '94 joins two guests to explore the sisterhoods of Emily Dickinson, Feb 19, 3 p.m., Zankel Music Center

Janine Antoni and Stephen Petronio, this year's McCormack Visiting Artists, discuss their work, including the Tang Museum's Entangle, March 2, 5:30 p.m., Tang Museum

Zankel Professor Pushkala Prasad discusses "Racialized Capitalism and the Tainting of Brand U.S.A." in this year's Moseley Faculty Lecture, March 7, 8 p.m., Gannett Auditorium

Podcast: '15ers in locker-room talk

Nick Petrella '15, a pitcher for Thoroughbreds baseball, and Keirsten Sires '15, a T'bred tennis and soccer player, teamed up in an entrepreneurship course to create a forum where student-athletes can rate and read about the recruiting process at different colleges. LockerRoomTalk.com is their subject in this podcast.

Regional events

Florida alumni are steakhouse-socializing March 14 in Palm Beach; hearing American-studies professor Amber Wiley discuss Chicago history, poetry, and culture March 15 in Vero Beach and March 16 in Naples; and gallery-hopping March 17 in Sarasota and St. Pete.

Boundless career help

Skidmore's Career Development Center advises alumni all over the world by phone and Skype. Special offer ending March 17: online scheduling of sessions with the CDC's alumni specialist.

Recent accomplishments by alumni from the classes of '14, '08, '05, '04, '99, '98, '84, '76, and '69, including Flying Squirrel Bar founders Max Poppel '05 and Dan Rose '04.

As a service to classmates, here is a listing of deceased alumni and their online obituaries that Skidmore has recently learned of.