Skidmore College
Encyclopedia
Skidmore College is a private
, independent
, liberal arts college
with an enrollment of approximately 2,500 students. The college is located in the town of Saratoga Springs, New York State.
Skidmore college currently offers bachelor of arts
and bachelor of science
degrees in more than 60 areas of study. In 2006, Skidmore College was listed as one of the "New Ivies". Skidmore is 49th in the 2011 U.S. News & World Report
ranking of liberal arts colleges. In 2011, Forbes
rated it 69th of America's Best Colleges
.
. The Young Women's Industrial Club was formed in 1903 by Lucy Ann Skidmore (1853–1931) with inheritance money from her husband who died in 1879, and from her father, Joseph Russell Skidmore (1821–1882), a former coal merchant. In 1911, the club was chartered under the name "Skidmore School of Arts" as a college to vocationally and professionally train young women.
Charles Henry Keyes
became the first president of the school in 1912, and in 1919 Skidmore conferred its first baccalaureate degrees under the authority of the State University of New York. By 1922 the school had been chartered independently as a four-year, degree-granting college.
Skidmore College was first located in downtown Saratoga Springs, but on October 28, 1961, the college began to move to the Jonsson Campus, 850 acres (3.4 km²) of land on the outer edges of Saratoga Springs. The Jonsson Campus was named for the Skidmore trustee Erik Jonsson, the founder and president of Texas Instruments
and a former mayor of Dallas, Texas
(1964–71).
Trustee Josephine Young Case delivered a challenge on the development of the new campus, a speech which to this day guides Skidmore's development. For example, on Scribner Library she wrote, "And at the heart of the beating center, you must set the library where every book wanted is immediately at hand, and a thousand others wait beside them to be discovered."
In 1971, the college began admitting men to its regular undergraduate program (a few dozen male World War II veterans had been admitted in 1946 - 49). Skidmore also launched an innovative program called the "University Without Walls" (UWW), which allows nonresident students over the age of 25 to earn bachelors degrees. The program closed in May, 2011. Finally, Skidmore established a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.
Skidmore faculty formed the Collaborative Research Program in 1988, which provides students with opportunities to co-author papers and studies with professors. Skidmore began granting masters degrees in 1991 through its Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) program. The Skidmore Honors Forum was founded in 1998.
2006 marked the start of the largest campaign in Skidmore's history, named Creative Thought. Bold Promise. The goal was to raise $200 million, which was reached and surpassed in 2010, and celebrated at Celebration Weekend.
The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery is the college's most prominent arts facility. In addition to the Tang, Skidmore has substantial undergraduate studio space as well as several smaller galleries. The Saisselin Art Building houses studios for animation, ceramics, communication design, drawing, fibers, metals, painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture. Skidmore has a well-known music program and is currently building a large concert hall with state-of-the-art facilities to replace its current music building.
Most humanities classes are held in one of four academic buildings: Palamountain, Tisch, Bolton, and Ladd. Harder Hall houses math and computer science; geology, chemistry, physics, and biology operate out of Dana Science Center. Almost every classroom at Skidmore is equipped with a computer and a projector, and many contain other audiovisual equipment such DVD players and slide projectors. The average class size is 16 (generally smaller in lab courses) and the typical student-to-teacher ratio is 11:1.
The Lucy Scribner Library, which houses approximately half a million volumes, is notable for both its function and beauty. Its five floors contain a large computer lab, approximately sixty open computers on the main floor, classrooms, private offices for seniors who are working on theses, and many areas for individual and group study. A substantial collection of rare books is kept in the third floor Pohndorff Room. The third floor is home to a children's library which is used by Saratoga residents. Also present is the Help Desk where students can get help with their computers. A helpful service offered by the library is the inter-library loan; students can put in a request for a book found at another college and have it sent to Skidmore free of charge.
Skidmore maintains nine on-campus residence halls (Howe Hall, Jonsson Tower, Kimball Hall, McClellan Hall, Penfield Hall, Rounds Hall, Wait Hall, Wiecking Hall and Wilmarth Hall) and two on-campus apartment complexes (North Woods Village and Scribner Village).
Residence Hall rooms at Skidmore are quite large and the college usually appears on the Princeton Review's "Dorms Like Palaces" list. Most residence halls are arranged in suite style with 3 or 4 bedrooms sharing one common bathroom. The exception to this is Wiecking Hall which is Skidmore's only corridor-style building. Most suites are single sex. Gender-neutral housing is available in Wiecking Hall, the Scribner Village and North Woods apartments, and select suites during room selection.
The North Woods Apartments are available to juniors and seniors and can hold 380 people in 3- and 4-person apartments. The Scribner Village apartments are available to most students except incoming freshmen. They house from 4 to 7 people.
Much of Skidmore's property is taken up by North Woods, a 530 acres (2.1 km²) forest that adjoins the academic campus and reaches up to the bottom of the Adirondack mountains. The woods contain extensive hiking trails that are open to the general public.
. Predock's striking, innovative design includes two major gallery wings (the Wachenheim Gallery and the Malloy Wing), two smaller galleries (the State Farm Mezzanine and the Winter Gallery), digitally equipped classrooms, and several event spaces. The Tang is nationally known for both its architecture and its holdings, and its excellence has been recognized by the New York Times, Art in America
, and Architectural Digest
, among other publications.
The Tang has a private collection of over 5,000 works, including pieces by Rembrandt van Rijn, Albrecht Dürer
, Francisco de Goya, William Hogarth
, Roy Lichtenstein
, Andy Warhol
, Garry Winogrand
, W. Eugene Smith
, Eugène Atget
, Dorothy Dehner
, David Smith
, Nayland Blake
, and Nan Goldin
. The museum also maintains extensive collections of art from Africa, South Asia, China, and the Americas.
An ambitious program of relevant, scholarly exhibitions is perhaps the Tang's greatest draw. Artists who have shown at the Tang include Kara Walker
, Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler, Trisha Brown
, and Richard Pettibone. Among other recent exhibitions are "Brushing the Present: Contemporary Academy Painting from China", "From Pop to Now: Selections from the Sonnabend Collection", "The World According to the Newest and Most Exact Observations: Mapping Art and Science", "Work: Shaker Design and Recent Art", and "Molecules that Matter".
The Tang is an educational center as well as a museum. Skidmore classes regularly meet in the galleries and classrooms, and groups from other schools visit to view exhibits, hear lectures, watch powerpoint presentations, and participate in workshops. Tours, demonstrations, and other events are generally open to the general public. In addition to visual arts exhibitions, the Tang often hosts plays, musical performances, and dance recitals.
, a long-time faculty member in the English department, it has been published at Skidmore since 1969 and now has an international subscriber base of several thousand readers.
Each issue generally includes poetry, fiction, interviews, and essays. Salmagundis editors often devote large sections of an issue to a timely special subject. Recent theme issues include "The Culture of the Museum", "Nigerian Mathematics", "Homosexuality", "Art and Ethics", "The Culture Industry", "Kitsch", and "FemIcons."
Nadine Gordimer
, J. M. Coetzee, Tzvetan Todorov, George Steiner, Orlando Patterson, Norman Manea, Christopher Hitchens
, Seamus Heaney
, Mary Gordon, Susan Sontag
, Benjamin Barber
, Joyce Carol Oates
, Richard Howard, Carolyn Forche
, Martin Jay
, and David Rieff are among the writers who have contributed to Salmagundi. Regular columnists include Benjamin Barber
, Tzvetan Todorov, Martin Jay, Charles Molesworth, Marilynne Robinson, Carolyn Forché, and Mario Vargas Llosa
.
awarded the newspaper first place for a four-year college weekly for special coverage of the community reaction to the September 11 attacks.
91.1 FM is Skidmore's radio station. It is administered by a board of directors composed entirely of undergraduates. Students, college employees, and residents of the local community are eligible to host shows, but they must apply to the board in order to win timeslots. Competition for high-profile slots is fierce.
WSPN's staff strives to create a cutting-edge mix of musical programming and talk shows. Although it is a small station with a small broadcast area, it has built up a reputation for innovative programming. The Princeton Review consistently ranks it among the nation's top college radio stations, and its internet broadcast reaches listeners throughout the country.
Among the colleges and universities that regularly participate are Bard, Bates, Brandeis, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Emerson, George Washington, Haverford & Bryn Mawr, Kenyon, Manhattan, Marist, NYU, Oaksterdam University, School of Visual Arts, Skidmore, SUNY Binghamton, Swarthmore, Tufts, University of Arizona, University of Maryland, University of Southern California, USC, Vassar, Wesleyan, William & Mary, and Yale.
In addition to the A Cappella groups, Lift Every Voice, Skidmore's Gospel Choir was established in 2008 and chartered in 2009 as an official club. The Treblemakers, chartered in 2010, is the colleges first and only all-inclusive A Cappella group.
sitcoms College is HARD and Don't Question It are also based at Skidmore.
and run out of the recently dedicated Williamson Sports Center.
In 1998 the Women's Tennis Team won the Division III National Title and have been ranked in the Division III top 25 and competed in the NCAA Tournament since 2006. In 2005 the Skidmore Men's Baseball and Lacrosse teams won their conference championships and appeared for the first time in the NCAA Tournament. In 2008 the Women's Crew team was invited to the Eastern Collegiate Athletics Conference in Massachusetts and the Women's Varsity Eight finished the season ranked 10th in the nation. The women's Field Hockey team is a three time Liberty League Champion (2008, 2009 and 2010) and has appeared in the NCAA tournament 10 times.
Private school
Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...
, independent
Independent school
An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...
, liberal arts college
Liberal arts colleges in the United States
Liberal arts colleges in the United States are certain undergraduate institutions of higher education in the United States. The Encyclopædia Britannica Concise offers a definition of the liberal arts as a "college or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general...
with an enrollment of approximately 2,500 students. The college is located in the town of Saratoga Springs, New York State.
Skidmore college currently offers bachelor of arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
and bachelor of science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degrees in more than 60 areas of study. In 2006, Skidmore College was listed as one of the "New Ivies". Skidmore is 49th in the 2011 U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
ranking of liberal arts colleges. In 2011, Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
rated it 69th of America's Best Colleges
Forbes Magazine's List of America's Best Colleges
In 2009 Forbes Magazine, along with The Center for College Affordability and Productivity, compiled a list of America's Best Colleges based on "the quality of the education they provide, the experience of the students and how much they achieve".- 2009 List :...
.
History
Skidmore College has undergone many transformations since its founding in the early twentieth century as a women's collegeWomen's colleges in the United States
Women's colleges in the United States are single-sex U.S. institutions of higher education that exclude or limit males from admission. They are often liberal arts colleges...
. The Young Women's Industrial Club was formed in 1903 by Lucy Ann Skidmore (1853–1931) with inheritance money from her husband who died in 1879, and from her father, Joseph Russell Skidmore (1821–1882), a former coal merchant. In 1911, the club was chartered under the name "Skidmore School of Arts" as a college to vocationally and professionally train young women.
Charles Henry Keyes
Charles Henry Keyes
Charles Henry Keyes, Ph.D. , was a notable American educator. He was the first president of the Throop Polytechnic Institute and he became the first president of Skidmore College in 1912....
became the first president of the school in 1912, and in 1919 Skidmore conferred its first baccalaureate degrees under the authority of the State University of New York. By 1922 the school had been chartered independently as a four-year, degree-granting college.
Skidmore College was first located in downtown Saratoga Springs, but on October 28, 1961, the college began to move to the Jonsson Campus, 850 acres (3.4 km²) of land on the outer edges of Saratoga Springs. The Jonsson Campus was named for the Skidmore trustee Erik Jonsson, the founder and president of Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
and a former mayor of Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
(1964–71).
Trustee Josephine Young Case delivered a challenge on the development of the new campus, a speech which to this day guides Skidmore's development. For example, on Scribner Library she wrote, "And at the heart of the beating center, you must set the library where every book wanted is immediately at hand, and a thousand others wait beside them to be discovered."
In 1971, the college began admitting men to its regular undergraduate program (a few dozen male World War II veterans had been admitted in 1946 - 49). Skidmore also launched an innovative program called the "University Without Walls" (UWW), which allows nonresident students over the age of 25 to earn bachelors degrees. The program closed in May, 2011. Finally, Skidmore established a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.
Skidmore faculty formed the Collaborative Research Program in 1988, which provides students with opportunities to co-author papers and studies with professors. Skidmore began granting masters degrees in 1991 through its Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) program. The Skidmore Honors Forum was founded in 1998.
2006 marked the start of the largest campaign in Skidmore's history, named Creative Thought. Bold Promise. The goal was to raise $200 million, which was reached and surpassed in 2010, and celebrated at Celebration Weekend.
Presidents of Skidmore
- Charles Henry KeyesCharles Henry KeyesCharles Henry Keyes, Ph.D. , was a notable American educator. He was the first president of the Throop Polytechnic Institute and he became the first president of Skidmore College in 1912....
(1912–1925) - Henry T. Moore (1925–1957)
- Val H. Wilson (1957–1965)
- Joseph C. Palamountain, Jr. (1965–1987)
- David H. Porter (1987–1999)
- Jamienne S. Studley (1999–2003)
- Philip A. Glotzbach (2003–present)
Academic Departments and Programs
Campus and facilities
Most of the buildings on Skidmore's 850 acres (3.4 km²) campus were constructed after 1960. Consequently, the grounds have a contemporary ambience that is enhanced by the numerous sculptures and murals that decorate the quads and other common areas.The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery is the college's most prominent arts facility. In addition to the Tang, Skidmore has substantial undergraduate studio space as well as several smaller galleries. The Saisselin Art Building houses studios for animation, ceramics, communication design, drawing, fibers, metals, painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture. Skidmore has a well-known music program and is currently building a large concert hall with state-of-the-art facilities to replace its current music building.
Most humanities classes are held in one of four academic buildings: Palamountain, Tisch, Bolton, and Ladd. Harder Hall houses math and computer science; geology, chemistry, physics, and biology operate out of Dana Science Center. Almost every classroom at Skidmore is equipped with a computer and a projector, and many contain other audiovisual equipment such DVD players and slide projectors. The average class size is 16 (generally smaller in lab courses) and the typical student-to-teacher ratio is 11:1.
The Lucy Scribner Library, which houses approximately half a million volumes, is notable for both its function and beauty. Its five floors contain a large computer lab, approximately sixty open computers on the main floor, classrooms, private offices for seniors who are working on theses, and many areas for individual and group study. A substantial collection of rare books is kept in the third floor Pohndorff Room. The third floor is home to a children's library which is used by Saratoga residents. Also present is the Help Desk where students can get help with their computers. A helpful service offered by the library is the inter-library loan; students can put in a request for a book found at another college and have it sent to Skidmore free of charge.
Skidmore maintains nine on-campus residence halls (Howe Hall, Jonsson Tower, Kimball Hall, McClellan Hall, Penfield Hall, Rounds Hall, Wait Hall, Wiecking Hall and Wilmarth Hall) and two on-campus apartment complexes (North Woods Village and Scribner Village).
Residence Hall rooms at Skidmore are quite large and the college usually appears on the Princeton Review's "Dorms Like Palaces" list. Most residence halls are arranged in suite style with 3 or 4 bedrooms sharing one common bathroom. The exception to this is Wiecking Hall which is Skidmore's only corridor-style building. Most suites are single sex. Gender-neutral housing is available in Wiecking Hall, the Scribner Village and North Woods apartments, and select suites during room selection.
The North Woods Apartments are available to juniors and seniors and can hold 380 people in 3- and 4-person apartments. The Scribner Village apartments are available to most students except incoming freshmen. They house from 4 to 7 people.
Much of Skidmore's property is taken up by North Woods, a 530 acres (2.1 km²) forest that adjoins the academic campus and reaches up to the bottom of the Adirondack mountains. The woods contain extensive hiking trails that are open to the general public.
The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery
The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery was opened in 2000, and was designed by the architect Antoine PredockAntoine Predock
Antoine Predock is an American architect based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Antoine Predock is the Principal of Antoine Predock Architect PC. The studio was established in 1967...
. Predock's striking, innovative design includes two major gallery wings (the Wachenheim Gallery and the Malloy Wing), two smaller galleries (the State Farm Mezzanine and the Winter Gallery), digitally equipped classrooms, and several event spaces. The Tang is nationally known for both its architecture and its holdings, and its excellence has been recognized by the New York Times, Art in America
Art in America
Art in America is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It is designed for collectors, artists, dealers, art professionals and other...
, and Architectural Digest
Architectural Digest
Architectural Digest is an American monthly magazine. Its principal subject is interior design, not — as the name of the magazine might suggest — architecture more generally. The magazine is published by Condé Nast Publications and was founded in 1920, by the Knapp family, who sold it in 1993...
, among other publications.
The Tang has a private collection of over 5,000 works, including pieces by Rembrandt van Rijn, Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...
, Francisco de Goya, William Hogarth
William Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
, Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein was a prominent American pop artist. During the 1960s his paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City and along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist and others he became a leading figure in the new art movement...
, Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, Garry Winogrand
Garry Winogrand
Garry Winogrand was a street photographer known for his portrayal of America in the mid-20th century. John Szarkowski called him the central photographer of his generation....
, W. Eugene Smith
W. Eugene Smith
William Eugene Smith was an American photojournalist known for his refusal to compromise professional standards and his brutally vivid World War II photographs.- Life and work :...
, Eugène Atget
Eugène Atget
Eugène Atget was a French photographer noted for his photographs documenting the architecture and street scenes of Paris....
, Dorothy Dehner
Dorothy Dehner
-Biography:She grew up in Cleveland.In 1918, she took classes at the Pasadena Playhouse, and studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.In 1922, she moved to New York City, and studied at the Art Students League....
, David Smith
David Smith (sculptor)
David Roland Smith was an American Abstract Expressionist sculptor and painter, best known for creating large steel abstract geometric sculptures.-Biography:...
, Nayland Blake
Nayland Blake
Nayland Blake is an artist whose mixed-media work has been variously described as disturbing, provocative, elusive, tormented, sinister, hysterical, brutal, and tender....
, and Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin
Nancy "Nan" Goldin is an American photographer.-Life and work:Goldin was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in the Boston, Massachusetts suburb of Lexington, to middle class Jewish parents whose ideas, moderately liberal and progressive, were put to the test when on April 12, 1965 their eldest...
. The museum also maintains extensive collections of art from Africa, South Asia, China, and the Americas.
An ambitious program of relevant, scholarly exhibitions is perhaps the Tang's greatest draw. Artists who have shown at the Tang include Kara Walker
Kara Walker
Kara Walker is a contemporary African American artist who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence and identity in her work. She is best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes, such as The Means to an End--A Shadow Drama in Five Acts.-Biography:Walker was born in...
, Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler, Trisha Brown
Trisha Brown
Trisha Brown is a postmodernist American choreographer and dancer.Brown was born in Aberdeen, Washington, and received a B.A. degree in dance from Mills College in 1958. Brown later received a D.F.A. from Bates College in 2000. For several summers she studied with Louis Horst at the American Dance...
, and Richard Pettibone. Among other recent exhibitions are "Brushing the Present: Contemporary Academy Painting from China", "From Pop to Now: Selections from the Sonnabend Collection", "The World According to the Newest and Most Exact Observations: Mapping Art and Science", "Work: Shaker Design and Recent Art", and "Molecules that Matter".
The Tang is an educational center as well as a museum. Skidmore classes regularly meet in the galleries and classrooms, and groups from other schools visit to view exhibits, hear lectures, watch powerpoint presentations, and participate in workshops. Tours, demonstrations, and other events are generally open to the general public. In addition to visual arts exhibitions, the Tang often hosts plays, musical performances, and dance recitals.
Arthur Zankel Music Center
Because of a record-breaking donation made by the estate of Arthur Zankel, Skidmore received $46 million, a portion of which was used as a lead gift to make the state-of-the-art Arthur Zankel Music Center. Designed by Ewing Cole, the building has won awards even before it was built. Most notably, it is lauded for its environmentally friendly nature. For example, rain water is collected on the roof and turned into usable water in restrooms.Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater
Janet Kinghorn Bernhard '26, while a senior at Skidmore, became the first editor of the Skidmore News. In the 1960s, she and her husband, Arnold, (a Skidmore trustee) committed themselves to building a theater on the new campus. They were both present in 1987 to see their long-awaited dream come true, at the dedication of the Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater. The facility has a main theater, with 300 seats, that is the site of most major productions, as well as a convertible black-box space. The main theater is also the home of the annual National College Comedy Festival. the Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater was named the #17 Best College Theater by the Princeton Review.Dining facilities
A new dining hall was opened in Fall 2006 with futuristic architecture and a new kitchen which has greatly improved food quality. The new dining hall offers a variety of food selections including 7 food sections; The Global Café (foods from around the world), Semolina (pasta), Emily's Garden (salad bar and Vegan options), The Diner (more typical college foods), The Corner Deli (custom made sandwiches and wraps), Dessert, and Supremo's (pizza). The Pizza section has a brand new wood burning oven that is warm and earthy, contrasting with the rest of the dining hall's modern design. Also available is a "do-it-yourself" station where patrons can use items such as a juicer, a large griddle and waffle machines.Campus Plan
Lo-Yi Chan, architect and campus planner, and apprentice of famous architect I M Pei has created Skidmore's next major Campus Plan. The expansion of the campus will provide Skidmore with the growth desired to join the ranks of top academic institutions in the years to come.Student Government Association
The Skidmore College Student Government Association (SGA) is the governing body of the roughly 100 student-run clubs and organizations on campus. In addition to being the official liaison between students and the administration, the Skidmore SGA advocates for college policies that benefit the short - and long-term - interests of the student body. The primary functioning and operation of the SGA is done by an Executive Committee composed of the SGA President, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Vice President for Budget and FInance, Vice President for Residential Affairs, Vice President for Clubs and Organisations, Vice President for Communication and Outreach, Vice President for Diversity Affairs and the Senior Class President. The Student Senate, made up of over 35 elected leaders is the largest and final body in all matters. The Class Council, made up of class officers, and the Inter-Hall Board, made up of Hall Presidents and Vice Presidents, are primarily responsible for on-campus programming. SGA is also includes countless other individual students appointed to campus policy committees and adjudicatory bodies.Salmagundi
Salmagundi is a quarterly journal that focuses on the humanities and social sciences. Founded by Robert BoyersRobert Boyers
-External links:...
, a long-time faculty member in the English department, it has been published at Skidmore since 1969 and now has an international subscriber base of several thousand readers.
Each issue generally includes poetry, fiction, interviews, and essays. Salmagundis editors often devote large sections of an issue to a timely special subject. Recent theme issues include "The Culture of the Museum", "Nigerian Mathematics", "Homosexuality", "Art and Ethics", "The Culture Industry", "Kitsch", and "FemIcons."
Nadine Gordimer
Nadine Gordimer
Nadine Gordimer is a South African writer and political activist. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature when she was recognised as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity".Her writing has long dealt...
, J. M. Coetzee, Tzvetan Todorov, George Steiner, Orlando Patterson, Norman Manea, Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
, Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...
, Mary Gordon, Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
, Benjamin Barber
Benjamin Barber
Benjamin R. Barber is an American political theorist and author perhaps best known for his 1996 bestseller, Jihad vs. McWorld.-Career:...
, Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction...
, Richard Howard, Carolyn Forche
Carolyn Forché
Carolyn Forché is an American poet, editor, translator, and human rights advocate.-Life:Forché was born in Detroit, Michigan, on April 28, 1950, to Michael Joseph and Louise Nada Blackford Sidlosky. Forché earned a B.A...
, Martin Jay
Martin Jay
Martin Jay is the Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a renowned Intellectual Historian and his research interests have been groundbreaking in connecting history with other academic and intellectual activities, such as the Critical Theory of...
, and David Rieff are among the writers who have contributed to Salmagundi. Regular columnists include Benjamin Barber
Benjamin Barber
Benjamin R. Barber is an American political theorist and author perhaps best known for his 1996 bestseller, Jihad vs. McWorld.-Career:...
, Tzvetan Todorov, Martin Jay, Charles Molesworth, Marilynne Robinson, Carolyn Forché, and Mario Vargas Llosa
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...
.
The Skidmore News
The Skidmore News is the college's official student-run newspaper. Its staff is composed entirely of students, and it is published on a weekly basis during the academic year. In 2002, the Associated Collegiate PressAssociated Collegiate Press
The Associated Collegiate Press is the largest and oldest national membership organization for college student media in the United States. The ACP is a division of the National Scholastic Press Association...
awarded the newspaper first place for a four-year college weekly for special coverage of the community reaction to the September 11 attacks.
SkidTV
SkidTV is the college's official student run closed-circuit television station. The club is dedicated to promoting top quality programming while covering events on campus and in the surrounding area.WSPN
WSPNWSPN
WSPN is a non-commercial college radio station located at 91.1 MHz and broadcasts from Saratoga Springs, New York, USA. The station is located on the campus of Skidmore College and is made up of student and community DJs. Additionally, WSPN is one of the few college radio stations run entirely by...
91.1 FM is Skidmore's radio station. It is administered by a board of directors composed entirely of undergraduates. Students, college employees, and residents of the local community are eligible to host shows, but they must apply to the board in order to win timeslots. Competition for high-profile slots is fierce.
WSPN's staff strives to create a cutting-edge mix of musical programming and talk shows. Although it is a small station with a small broadcast area, it has built up a reputation for innovative programming. The Princeton Review consistently ranks it among the nation's top college radio stations, and its internet broadcast reaches listeners throughout the country.
National College Comedy Festival
The National College Comedy Festival is an annual not-for-profit festival of student sketch and improvisational comedy that takes place each winter on campus. The festival, which first was held in February 1990, includes professional workshops.Among the colleges and universities that regularly participate are Bard, Bates, Brandeis, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Emerson, George Washington, Haverford & Bryn Mawr, Kenyon, Manhattan, Marist, NYU, Oaksterdam University, School of Visual Arts, Skidmore, SUNY Binghamton, Swarthmore, Tufts, University of Arizona, University of Maryland, University of Southern California, USC, Vassar, Wesleyan, William & Mary, and Yale.
A Cappella
Skidmore currently has 5 a cappella groups: 1 all male, 2 co-ed, and 2 female. The Sonneteers, the first of the all female groups, are Skidmore's first and oldest a cappella group—they celebrated their 60th anniversary in 2007. The Bandersnatchers are the only all male a cappella group on campus. The Dynamics (Dynos) are Skidmore's oldest co-ed a cappella group (founded in 1995). The Drastic Measures (Drastics) are the newest co-ed a cappella group and are Skidmore's only charity a cappella group. The Accents are the final female a cappella group. All groups perform on and off campus throughout the semester, holding auditions at the beginning of each semester and concluding each semester with a "Jam".In addition to the A Cappella groups, Lift Every Voice, Skidmore's Gospel Choir was established in 2008 and chartered in 2009 as an official club. The Treblemakers, chartered in 2010, is the colleges first and only all-inclusive A Cappella group.
Comedy
Skidmore plays host to many comedy groups on campus, including the Ad-Liberal Artists (short form and long form improv), the Sketchies (filmed and live sketch), and Skidomedy (sketch). The youtubeYouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
sitcoms College is HARD and Don't Question It are also based at Skidmore.
Sustainability
Skidmore's Strategic Plan reflects the college's commitment to sustainability and includes a pledge to deepen connections with the local community, emphasize planning for sustainable operation, and reduce the college's environmental footprint. Three of Skidmore's buildings have geothermal heating and cooling systems, and the college has recently hired a sustainability coordinator to assist with efforts to "green" the campus. Skidmore received a grade of "B" on the Sustainable Endowment Institute's "College Sustainability Report Card 2010." Transportation planning and sustainable investment priorities helped the college to earn this relatively high mark.Alcohol
Skidmore's main campus residential halls are substance free, however Scribner Village and the Northwoods Apartments – upperclassmen housing – are not substance free and those who are of legal age may consume and keep alcohol in their residence.Athletics
Skidmore's Athletic Department currently funds and supports 19 Varsity teams ranging from Basketball to Riding, Rowing to Ice Hockey. The intercollegiate athletics program offered by Skidmore College is considered to be one of the nation's top sports opportunities for student-athletes. In 2003–2004, players from twelve Thoroughbred teams qualified for regional or national team and individual honors, and more than 95 Skidmore athletes earned league honors. Currently lead by Athletic Director is Gail Cummings-Danson Skidmore is a member of the Liberty LeagueLiberty League
The Liberty League is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA’s Division III. Originally founded in 1995 as the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association, was renamed during the summer of 2004 to the current name...
and run out of the recently dedicated Williamson Sports Center.
In 1998 the Women's Tennis Team won the Division III National Title and have been ranked in the Division III top 25 and competed in the NCAA Tournament since 2006. In 2005 the Skidmore Men's Baseball and Lacrosse teams won their conference championships and appeared for the first time in the NCAA Tournament. In 2008 the Women's Crew team was invited to the Eastern Collegiate Athletics Conference in Massachusetts and the Women's Varsity Eight finished the season ranked 10th in the nation. The women's Field Hockey team is a three time Liberty League Champion (2008, 2009 and 2010) and has appeared in the NCAA tournament 10 times.
Notable alumni and faculty
- Actress Lake BellLake Bell-Early life:Bell was born in New York City, the daughter of Robin Bell, owner of the design firm Robin Bell Design, Inc. in New York, and Harvey Siegel. Her father is Jewish and her mother is Protestant, and Bell has stated that she was raised in a "comically dysfunctional family".Bell attended The...
- Sociology Professor Benjamin BolgerBenjamin BolgerBenjamin Bradley Bolger is a perpetual student who claims to be the second most credentialed person in modern history after Michael W. Nicholson, who has 27 degrees. Like Nicholson, Bolger hails from Michigan...
- New York State Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno
- Former Miss America Tawny Godin
- Musician Julia NunesJulia NunesJulia Nunes is a singer and songwriter from Fairport, New York. Her career has progressed online through her videos of pop songs on YouTube in which she sings harmony with herself and plays acoustic instruments, primarily the ukulele, guitar, melodica and piano.-Biography:Nunes was born into a...
- Members of RatatatRatatatRatatat is a New York City electronic music duo consisting of Mike Stroud and producer Evan Mast .-History:Evan Mast and Mike Stroud first met as students at Skidmore College, but they did not work together until 2001, when they recorded several songs under the name "Cherry"...
- Paranormal Activity star Micah SloatMicah SloatMicah Sloat is an American theatre actor and musician, largely unknown before his leading role as Micah in the 2007 hit horror film, Paranormal Activity. He appeared in the horror prequel in 2010, Paranormal Activity 2.-Life and career:...
- Sheldon SolomonSheldon SolomonSheldon Solomon is a professor of psychology who teaches at Skidmore College. He earned his B.A. from Franklin and Marshall College and his doctoral degree from the University of Kansas...
, Professor of Psychology - Lobbyist Anne WexlerAnne WexlerAnne L. Wexler was an American influential Democratic political consultant, public policy advisor and later, the first woman to head a leading lobbying firm in Washington.-Early life and education:...