PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE Where the world can enter
One thing we do not want for our new campus and that is walls or gates, for we want the world to enter. These students would not and should not have isolation from the immediacy of current problems, however dire. Their con- cerns will reach out far beyond the campus to others everywhere; for awareness will be a virtue in this place. —“Charge to the Architects and Planners” by Josephine Young Case, 1961
In 1961, when the architects were designing what we still refer to as Skid- more’s “new campus,” board chair Josephine Young Case presciently en- couraged them to make it a place that would be open to the world. The campus she envisioned was not a refuge but a place that would open horizons and encourage students to engage, in the broadest way, with the key concerns of the day. And as this issue of Scope re- veals, today we are work- ing hard to advance that mandate.
The process of opening Skidmore to the world begins first with the indi- viduals—faculty mem- bers and students— whom we invite to join our community. It is not
as the international af- fairs program that we launched in 2004. We’ve done it through our re- vamped program of off- campus study and ex- changes, which is among the most extensive of any college in the country. And we’ve done it by making focused and ag- gressive efforts to seek out talented professors and students from around the world.
Many Skidmore faculty members also pursue research agendas during summers and sabbati- cals in locales stretching around the globe from Central America to Afri - ca, Europe, and Asia. These shifts in Skid-
SKIDMORE PRESIDENT PHILIP A. GLOTZBACH
THE RHETORIC ABOUT THE GROWTH OF THE “GLOBAL VILLAGE”
REFLECTS THE REALITY OF OUR GRADUATES’ LIVES, EVEN AMIDST
THE STRIFE AFFLICTING NUMEROUS COUNTRIES AND REGIONS.
an accident that the class of first-year students that will enter Skidmore this coming fall will be the most geographi- cally and culturally diverse in our histo- ry. That statement is remarkable in and of itself, but even more notable is that it could have been said for every class we’ve admitted for the past decade. Dur- ing that time, we have made a concert- ed, and in many ways remarkable, effort to make the Skidmore community dra- matically more reflective of and connect- ed to the wider world. We’ve done this through many curricular initiatives, such
A decade ago we enrolled only four in- ternational students. Today, we enroll nearly 250—roughly 10% of our entire student body—and nearly a quarter of our applications come from students outside the United States, representing some 120 countries. In the past decade we’ve also hired more than 25 interna- tional faculty members—16 in the past four years alone—and they now consti- tute a notable pres- ence within our ten - ured and tenure-track faculty.
These individuals bring to the commu- nity and their classes a rich mix of experi- ences, seasoned by the myriad cultural
influences that have helped to shape their lives before arriving at Skidmore. That richness benefits them and also their colleagues and classmates who have grown up in the United States and come to us from all parts of the country. An even larger contingent of students, over 60% (more than 400 this past year) participate in off-campus study. Taking advantage of programs that range from several weeks to an entire year, they ex- pand upon their Skidmore experience by studying at colleges and universities in roughly 40 countries around the world.
more’s demographics and curriculum are in- creasingly reflected in the career and life paths followed by our alumni
(a number of whom are profiled in this issue). More than 1,300 now live and work in more than 100 countries, pursu- ing careers ranging from government and journalism to manufacturing and finan- cial services. This past year alone we held alumni gatherings in Hong Kong, Shen- zhen, London, Geneva, and Bangkok. And that’s as it should be. The rhetoric about the growth of the “global village” reflects the reality of our graduates’ lives, even amidst all of the strife afflicting nu- merous countries and regions. And, if anything, the latter speaks even more powerfully to the importance of prepar- ing our students to truly function as global citizens.
This past fall, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of our very productive part- nership with the Davis United World College Scholars Program. That partner- ship brings us 40 international students each year from countries around the world. It is a remarkable program and we were proud to honor one of its founders, Shelby Davis, with an honorary degree for his foresight to launch such a proj- ect. In his remarks, he noted that “the world needs dreamers, and the world needs doers, but most of all the world needs dreamers who do.” I’d like to think that our former board chair Mrs. Case would agree that the Skidmore of today continues to share her dream and works to make that dream a reality.
SPRING 2015 SCOPE 3
MARK MC CARTY
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