“Thinking creatively, integrating varied perspectives, and communicating across difference are all critical for our stu- dents as they negotiate and shape the global environment they are entering,” says Breslin.
A focus on financial aid
No priority has been higher than helping more families af- ford a Skidmore education. As Glotzbach has said, “If we ex- pect to graduate students who value the common good, then Skidmore has to model this kind of behavior.” With applications hitting a record-shattering high of 8,300 this year, Skidmore has no trouble filling its freshman classes with strong students. But the College’s mission to ed- ucate a diverse cadre of skilled, broad-minded, and creative leaders means opening the doors for those with financial need. Even when the national economy soured in 2008, Skidmore tightened other budgets across campus to continue enlarging its aid resources and keep tuition in- creases to a minimum (1.9% in 2010). A decade ago, Skidmore’s financial
aid budget was $16 million, representing 15% of the overall operating budget. This year it stands at $39 million and 22% of the budget—a rise of 20% since 2003. Also the aver- age aid package has doubled, to $31,315 last year. But de- mand has been skyrocketing just as fast. Since 2007, the portion of applicants requesting aid went from 52% to 68%, and Skidmore could afford to offer aid to only 44%. “It’s in- credibly hard any time we can’t admit a compelling student because of limited aid,” says Mary Lou Bates, vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid. But she’s proud of Skidmore’s commitment to enrolling more socio-economi- cally and culturally diverse classes: “It’s palpable on campus that students are bringing more varied perspectives.” As long as financial aid remains a top priority, Bates says her staff will be able to populate Skidmore with a diverse, creative, capable student body, and still with a smaller bur- den of student-loan debt than the national average. She says, “Skidmore is seen as an increasingly strong institution.
We are competing successfully for top students with increas- ingly selective and well-funded colleges.”
Vibrancy and diversity in student life
As the campus community has grown significantly more di- verse in the Glotzbach years, Rochelle Calhoun, dean of stu- dents and vice president for student affairs, says Skidmore is “a particularly fine example of how to challenge young people to integrate their intellectual, emotional, and social selves and move forward with their whole lives.” One av- enue for this—which has swelled into a broad, busy thor- oughfare—is ethnic and cultural diversity, which, says Cal- houn, makes for “a very dynamic, stimulating environment of both rigor and curiosity.”
IN THE PAST DECADE, NO PRIORITY HAS BEEN HIGHER THAN HELPING
MORE FAMILIES AFFORD A SKIDMORE EDUCATION.
In the past decade, the percentage of domestic students of color nearly doubled, from 12% to 22%, and the percentage of international students has quintupled. New support services are helping with what Calhoun calls “navigating and celebrating the in- creased variety in our community.” A
full-time coordinator now assists students with learning, mobility, and other disability needs, and a faculty director of intercultural studies, a new academic program in inter- group relations, and enhanced orientation programs focus on bridging differences.
Calhoun says, “This generation wants to connect across all sorts of boundaries. Our goal is to help facilitate and or- ganize that, while also fostering students’ autonomy.” In her five years at Skidmore, she says, the College has height- ened its “attentiveness to the foundational and healthy val- ues that help our students become some of the most cre- ative human beings I know.”
Science’s big boom
One of the most transformative aspects of Skidmore’s aca- demic evolution during the Glotzbach presidency has been in the physical and life sciences. He has consistently stressed that science literacy is essential for every citizen and
g Launch of Saratoga Reads Inauguration
$200M campaign kicks off with Zankel I-beam signing
creation of FOSA 16 SCOPE FALL 2013
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