Scope Winter 2006

WINTER 2006

WINTER 2006 volume 36, number 2

EDITOR

Susan Rosenberg srosenbe@skidmore.edu A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R

Maryann Teale Snell msnell@skidmore.edu CLASS NOTES EDITOR

Mary Monigan mmonigan@skidmore.edu WRITERS

Paul Dwyer ’83 Kathryn Gallien William Jones Peter MacDonald Barbara A. Melville Andrea Wise DESIGNER

Michael Malone EDITORIAL OFFICES

College Relations Skidmore College 815 North Broadway Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 phone: 518-580-5747 fax: 518-580-5748 online: www.skidmore.edu/scope SKIDMORE COLLEGE

Main number: 518-580-5000 Automated operator: 518-580-7400 Alumni Affairs and College Events: 518-580-5670 College Relations: 518-580-5733 Admissions: 518-580-5570 or 800-867-6007 Scope is published quarterly

by Skidmore College for alumni, parents, and friends.

Printed on recycled paper (10% postconsumer)

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C O N T E N TS

F E AT U R E S

1 0 DUELING Cover story: Politically minded students seek hard-hitting debate—and a comfort zone

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14 S O M E T H I N G ’ S

A F O OT Skidmore’s varsity athletes show, and tell, how they keep a step ahead of the game

2 2 IN

GEAR Skidmore’s ten-year plan, and the fundraising to pay for it, are rolling ahead

D E PA R T M E N T S

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OB S E RVAT I O N S 2 C A M P US S C E N E 4 C O N N EC T I O N S 2 5 W H O , W H AT, W H E N 2 8 C L A S S N OT ES 29 S A R ATO G A S I D E B A R 5 6

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ON THE COVER: Skidmore’s liberals and conservatives like to keep their conflicts strictly above board. (Illustration by James Steinberg)

observations P E R I S C O P E

Making the team

HAL MAYFORTH ’75

The NCAA recently announced a ban on most Native American–related mascots and images at its postseason sports tournaments, putting university teams like the Florida State Seminoles and Central Michigan Chippewas under pressure to change names. Probably a good idea; after all, mainstream US culture long ago scrapped images like Little Black Sambo and Chief Knockahoma, which were such an uneasy but pervasive presence in my childhood.

Although I love sports, the whole idea of team names is a bit beyond me.

Competing in sports requires the summoning up of a certain amount of hubris and chutzpah—hence the old standby Lions and Tigers and Bears. But why are so many nicknames so deflating and embarrassing? Some of my favorite mascots reflect the sociology of their areas: the University

of Nebraska Cornhuskers, Purdue Boilermakers, and North Carolina Tar Heels. But some of the worst names reflect the sociology of privilege and heritage at small, private colleges: the Ephs of Williams, the Lords of Kenyon, and the Battling Bishops of Ohio Wesleyan. And the crowning follies are their women’s-team monikers, like the Lady Ephs, forsooth, and—as if lifted from a cheeseball Monty Python comedy sketch—the Battling Lady Bishops. (Where are the politically correct lobbyists when women are ridiculed by sports nicknames? Maybe they’ll be the next to get their day in NCAA court.)

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Nonhuman animals make the best mascots, of course. The Florida Gators, NC State Wolfpack, Arkansas Razorbacks, Georgia Bulldogs, and even Michigan Wolverines sound like fun to play for or root for. (Which wasn’t the case with the name imposed by my teenage-league softball coach: the Vixens. She knew that foxes were fierce and quick, which sounded good, but she had no clue that “foxiness” and especially “vixens” carried an oversize steamer trunk of psychosexual baggage.

I lodged my objections, but to no avail.

Every game day my face was as red as our cherry-colored jerseys.)

At Skidmore the Wombats would have been delightful and funny, slyly and gently self-deprecating (wombats are plump, passive, emphatically nonathletic creatures), and truly distinctive.

They could have put the college in a class with the famed minor-league Toledo Mudhens and Albany River Rats. But Skidmore was suffering from a touch of identity crisis in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the Wombats were voted down; only a serious, noble mascot could bolster the self-esteem of shaky Skiddies. As it happened, the Thoroughbreds made an excellent Plan B—an animal totem of fiery athleticism and also a nice nod to the college’s Saratoga location.

For me, probably the most perplexing team name is a color, like the Harvard Crimson. Not only is it grammatically awkward for fans and sportswriters to talk about, but it can’t possibly conjure up images of physical prowess or skill. “Don’t miss the action when the Beige clashes with the Chartreuse!”just doesn’t cut it. And if a team can be a color, why not other sensory perceptions? Let’s cheer on the Salties, the Big Itch, or the Shrill Whine… And what’s with the Ohio State Buckeyes?

Except for falling to earth with a plop, they hardly suggest vigor and activity.

Perhaps vegetables and sports should never mix. I mean, even if it replaces an obnoxious nickname like the Redskins, I just can’t see myself cheering for the Mighty Soybeans. —SR

AD LIB Having “faith”…

4The word “faith” is now too loaded with politics and zealotry. It’s turned from a gentle yet powerful concept into a bludgeon for shaming others.

As a New England Unitarian now living in heavily Christian territory in rural Pennsylvania, I don’t often address the subject of faith with my neighbors, knowing that my way of thinking sometimes threatens them.

MOIE KIMBALL CRAWFORD ’69, organic farmer

•••

4The growing pressure to teach intelli-

gent design as an alternative to evolution seems to be an attempt to inject religious beliefs into the sciences.

But the two are incompatible: by definition, scientific theories are testable and faith-based arguments are not.

Yet I don’t believe science holds all the answers. Faith is an element of spirituality that is essential to keeping us human.

KIM MARSELLA, senior teaching associate in geosciences

•••

4Broadly, faith is that element of one’s

spiritual perspective that seeks engagement, internally and externally.

Faith shapes one’s understanding of how “the divine” animates one toward a righteous life. And it brings one into relationship with others—how one responds to the ethical demands of one’s god(s) and understands nature as part of a created order.

STEPHEN BUTLER MURRAY, college chaplain

•••

4Since I’m an agnostic, “faith” has no religious meaning for me. My mantra has always been the golden rule— even if it’s just saying something to a stranger and receiving a smile back.

I guess “hope” fits me better than “faith.” The older I grow, the more jaded I become about any honesty in politics or business. But I do find faith in nature—isn’t it a beauty!

FAITH HOPE BARNARD ’46

•••

4I’m often asked when a construction project will be finished. To answer, I must have faith that the people and processes I rely on will be as successful as I expect. As I get older (and hopefully smarter), I find my faith based more in knowledge and experience and less in intuition and hope.

LARRY KRISON, senior project manager in facilities services

L E T T E R S

Easy riders

by Alex Alsup ’07 and Andrew Bernstein ’07

Almost everyone on campus has seen Tiffany Dwight ’06 cruising around on what looks like a Harley chopper missing the engine. She says, “The two questions I always get asked are ‘Where’d you get it?’ and ‘Can I ride it?’”

Dwight says she was looking on eBay for a bike when she stumbled across a Web site for custom-built choppers, and “I was, like, I gotta get this thing.” So she did, without realizing she would have to assemble it when it arrived. But it was all worth it: “It’s like I’m a child again, riding a bike by myself for the first time.”

Around town, she adds, “when I’m riding down the street, people slow down next to me and shout, ‘Yeah, man!’”

Mongoose and its cobra. Perched atop his Mongoose bike and wearing a blue hoodie, Cyrus Lubin ’07 evokes childhood memories of everyone’s favorite alien, ET. The retro bike has, in fact, been in Lubin’s family almost since ET’s release: Lubin’s brother bought it sixteen years ago. “I fixed it up a little,” Lubin says. “I put on these sick white tires, and I set the gear chains on fire, which somehow took the rust off.”

Since then “it’s like the perfect bike.”

To thwart potential thieves, Lubin’s got the bike “on lock”—with a heavyduty chrome chain wrapped around the frame like poison ivy.

Burnh-ing rubber. Laura Burnham ’07 says she bought her “late ’60s or early ’70s” bicycle from a “really

sketchy man” in Beverly, Mass. “He would find bikes in junkyards and flea markets and sell them out of his backyard. He sold this one to me for ten bucks.”

The bike is pretty well corroded, although she spent a summer reviving the thing. “There was rust everywhere, and the brakes and gears didn’t work,” says Burnham. She pauses. “The brakes still don’t really work,” she admits. As in any relationship, Burnham and her bike have had some issues cooperating: A wobbly frame and thin tires mean the bike is “pretty hard to balance on, so I’ve definitely taken a few diggers.”

Rough rider. Not everyone bikes to get from point A to point B. Some do it to get from point A to point B faster than you…even if there are big rocks in the way. Tom Arnold ’07 rides a Trek Fuel EX 7 and is a member of the mountain and road-racing divisions of the Skidmore Cycling Club.

“The riding is really rugged, so stuff’s always breaking on the bike,” Arnold says disappointedly. Fortunately, local service shops have kept his bike running, even if Arnold has had more trouble keeping himself running. “I took a pretty nasty spill riding out around the stables the other day,” he says.

All I need is a miracle. “This says the bike’s got 1,353 miles on it,” reports Jeff Baker ’08, tapping the odometer’s foggy glass, “but there’s no way that’s right.” Baker pulled the Schwinn Traveler, which used to belong to his mother, out of his garage this summer. “It was definitely a workhorse. But right now it’s kind of out of commission,” he says. “I’m just leaving it here for now, hoping someone comes by and puts air in the tires.” For any angels out there: Baker’s bike is stationed at a lamppost outside Kimball Hall.

Excerpted with permission from the Skidmore News of September 29, 2005.

T IFFANY D WIGHT ’06 GETS AROUND CAMPUS CHOP- CHOP.

Life stories The fall issue of Scope brought back memories of my days at Skidmore.

Thank you especially for “Staff of Life”—the photos of staff members that make Skidmore the remarkable college it is. I worked with many of them for my work-study assignments, and it was cool seeing their faces and reading their interesting life stories before and at Skidmore.

Klara Fontaine ’03 Randallstown, Md. I loved the “Staff of Life” piece. It made the campus seem very human, very well-taken care of, very un-ivorytowerish. It put a soul behind people who might otherwise go invisible.

Jane Fowler Grau ’68 Charlotte, N.C.

Study-abroad help I’m glad to see [in the fall 2005 Scope] that so many Skidmore students are studying abroad. The article caught my eye in part because it cites a study by the Institute of International Education.

I have been working for IIE since 2000.

Founded in 1919, it operates a couple hundred programs, including the Fulbright program for the US Department of State.

A few other programs might be of interest to Scope readers: The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships, for US citizens receiving federal Pell Grant aid at a college or university, provide up to $5,000 to defray costs associated with studying abroad.

The National Security Education Program’s David L. Boren Undergraduate Scholarships offer aid for study of world regions critical to US interests.

Trough the Emerging Markets Development Advisers Program, students in (or recently out of) graduate school can provide management assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries.

For more information on these programs, visit www.iie.org.

Andrew Kohlhepp ’93 Washington, D.C.

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campus scene

Beyond bare bones

GARY GOLD

“This thigh bone,” says Pat Fehling, grasping a gleaming human femur she keeps on her desk, “is both a weightbearing column that can withstand impact and a lever that moves freely with us.” A dedicated runner and Skidmore exercise scientist, she knows how bones work structurally to keep us upright and ambulatory, but she’s also interested in their physiology—especially how their interactions with other tissues play a crucial role in fitness and well-being. “Nowadays we’re engineering so much inactivity into our lives, but from an evolutionary standpoint we were designed to be active.”

In fact, research shows that exercise helps keep bones strong, but why? And how? These questions have intrigued Fehling ever since her doctoral-study days at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, where she learned

E XERCISE

SCIENTIST

PAT F EHLING

AND HER

to operate an early bone densitometer.

Since then, Fehling has done thousands of bone scans, many on the DXA scanner in Skidmore’s Human Performance Lab. Widely used to diagnose osteoporosis, DXA (for dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) measures a cross-section of bone, including the mineral

materials like calcium and phosphorus distribution of bone and muscle mass that are stored in it, plus nearby muscle and how it works together.” and fat. Skidmore’s DXA has been used As a visiting professor in a large in faculty and student research into the Canadian training study in 2004, she effects of smokworked with bone “NOWADAYS WE’RE ENGINEERING SO specialists and ing on dancers’ MUCH INACTIVITY INTO OUR LIVES, physical therapists hip-bone density, stepping to investigate the BUT FROM AN EVOLUTIONARY exercises for benefits of balance STANDPOINT WE WERE DESIGNED female runners, training (such as TO BE ACTIVE.” and total-body tai chi and agility bone density in jockeys at Saratoga exercises) in reducing the falls and fracRace Course. tures that may follow strokes. Because Two years ago, Fehling spent a sabstrokes usually affect just one side of the batical semester mastering a new scanbody, the patients’ stroke-impaired sides ning technology called pQCT—periphcould be directly compared with their eral quantitative computed tomography. own healthy opposites, which served as CT scans have been medically useful built-in “controls.” Says Fehling, “We tools for decades, but applying CT expected to see that stroke-related weakimaging to study bone quality is new, nesses would be balanced by normal or and pQCT machines are so new they’re possibly increased strength on the currently used only in research. The healthy sides.” But surprisingly, scans of the study’s forty-two subjects turned up no significant differences. New hypothesis: “Because stroke patients become so much less active overall, their bones lose density and strength on both sides”—a finding that seems to underscore the benefits of post-stroke exercise.

Combining DXA and pQCT data is expanding the scope of research on populations at risk for osteoporosis and fracture, as the new tools reveal more about the physiology of the musclebone unit. “There’s an obvious anatomical link because muscles attach to bone,” explains Fehling, “but there’s also a synergy: in order to contract, muscles need to use the calcium stored in bones.” The exact nature of that physiological and functional relationship is still something of a mystery. For Fehling, “What’s so exciting about the BONY FRIEND RELAX ON THE DXA SCANNER . new pQCT technology is the glimpse it offers into how bones and muscles pQCT takes precise body-composition work together to build strength.” measurements in three dimensions Message to baby boomers: “All instead of DXA’s two, and it can pick kinds of good things happen when up bone-tissue changes in several weeks we’re strong and active,” Fehling says, rather than DXA’s eighteen months. setting the femur back in its place of Adds Fehling, “DXA can measure the honor on her desk. “We’re meant to amount of bone and muscle in a given move.” —BAM area, but pQCT can also measure the

MATTER OF FACT : THE SHANKS OF BONES ARE HARD AND MINERALIZED, TO RESIST BENDING; BONE TISSUE NEAR JOINTS IS MORE “ALIVE” AND ELASTIC.

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If you think you could fall asleep in one of Ron Seyb’s classes, you might practice at a pro play-off game. The fast-talking associate professor of government—who alternately stands in place with arms folded and paces in sneakers from one side of the classroom to another—projects his voice as if coaching a team spread out over a large playing field, and as if there are only a few seconds left in the game.

His enthusiasm is borne in the scuffs of chalk dust on his shirt and pants.

Seyb’s protégés appear mesmerized to the point of paralysis, but prove otherwise when they collectively twist around in their seats to see his chalkboard notes (there is nary an inch of blank space on the boards, which cover two walls of the room). Every now and then Seyb peppers his lectures with some relevant humor, which elicits smiles and chortles.

Seyb, who’s taught contemporary American politics (including “The United States Presidency,” “The Psychology of Politics,” and “The Virtual Republic”) at Skidmore since 1988, was the 2005

RON SEYB, NUTSHELLED MIKE LEVINE ’07: There’s a certain comfort in being in one of his classes. The bridge between him and his students is miraculously short—he has a great understanding of popular culture.

EMILY MARTIN ’06: As a freshman, I was prepared to meet horribly evil professors. But in Ron’s class, I found myself laughing. I loved his ability to keep the class entertained.

KENNY OLMSTEAD ’06: His lectures are engaging even when the material is less so (e.g., the federalist papers). His excitement about what he’s teaching is contagiouswhich is why going to class never feels like a chore.

JULIANNA KOCH ’06: What stands out is his ability to demand a lot from students without intimidation, in a way that you aren’t afraid to ask for help.

GARY GOLD

Wit, dedication, and chalk dust

TALKING

POLITICS WITH

R ON S EYB

IS JUST PART OF CLASS .

himself is winded, and his students are recipient of the college’s Ralph A. Cianoverwhelmed—in a good way.” cio Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Seyb accepted his Ciancio nominaHe is a proponent of lectures— tion with considerable hats-offs to his which he delivers in large part “to discolleagues, saying he was honored, abuse students of their pre- and misyes, but also very much aware that conceptions about American poliSkidmore is “infested with outstanding tics”—but he animates them with teachers.” He claims to have “bor“video clips, digressions, and questions rowed” many of their proven teaching designed as much to ensure that my techniques. (“I do not think I am even charges are sensate as to provoke disthe best teacher in my household,” he cussion.” If some students stay mum divulges. “My wife, throughout the “I HAVE SEEN RON WORK HIS [associate professor class, he doesn’t MAGIC IN THE CLASSROOM, of Spanish] Grace hold it against Burton, is the most them. “Experience AND IT IS REMARKABLE has taught me that WHAT HE CAN ACCOMPLISH talented, thoughtthere is not always ful, and creative IN FIFTY-FIVE MINUTES.” a strong correlation teacher I know.”) between student speaking and student Breslin, though, commends Seyb for engagement,” he says. the way he’s educated junior faculty “I have seen Ron work his magic in (including Breslin himself) over the the classroom, and it is remarkable years—on how to “overcome the many what he can accomplish in fifty-five pitfalls that can inevitably shake the minutes,” says government departconfidence” of a new professor, as well ment chair Beau Breslin. He refers to as what “strategies and tactics can imSeyb as a “model instructor” whose prove classroom performance. No one classes are rigorous yet collegial and has influenced my teaching more than egalitarian (“he walks up and down Ron.” Which just goes to show that the rows while teaching, giving stuwhatever Seyb has “borrowed” he passes dents the sense that he is learning along for others to do the same. —MTS alongside them”). He “exhorts them to think more subtly and deeply about political issues. By the end of class Ron

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campus scene

NOISE

PHIL SCALIA

8 JOYOUS Novel approach. Saratoga Reads—a Skidmore-Saratoga project to foster a communitywide reading experience—is warming up the winter. Says lead organizer Marie Glotzbach (Skidmore’s first lady and a lecturer in the theater department),“We invite all area residents, of all ages and interests, to participate in an extensive shared conversation.” Each fall the public nominates novels (easy to find, in English), then a vote picks the winning book. The entire community is encouraged to read the novel and participate in related activities at schools, libraries, and bookstores. This year’s choice is Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, by Gregory Maguire. Learn more at www.saratogareads.org.

Robert Boyers, English, saw his short story “Samantha”included in The Pushcart Prize (The Best of the Small Presses), fall 2005.

The story won the Cooper Prize when it appeared last year in The Ontario Review.

Gove Effinger, mathematics, is the co-author of “Integers and Polynomials: Comparing the Close Cousins Z and Fq[x],” in the spring 2005 Mathematical Intelligencer.

Mark Huibregtse, mathematics, has had an article on the “multigraded Hilbert scheme of points” accepted by the Pacific Journal of Mathematics.

Joanna Zangrando, American studies, won the 2005 Mary C. Turpie prize from the American Studies Association, honoring her teaching, advising, and program direction.

READ ON. Check up on your favorite professor’s work at www.skidmore.edu/intercom.

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ound artist and performer Pamela Z lights up the Tang Museum’s fifth anniversary party in late October. Along with her installation/performance and tours of ongoing fall exhibitions—quirky ceramic sculpture, twentieth-century war propaganda, and the work of two modern-art trailblazers—the weekend included family fun, from costumes to “pumpkin carving as art.” Some provocative artists from prior Tang shows were also on hand to discuss their work and debate notions of “art as public space.” The Tang celebration will be capped by a conference organized by visiting artist Fred Wilson.

“The College Museum: A Collision of Disciplines, A Laboratory of Perception,“ to be held April 7–8, will feature internationally recognized scholars, artists, museum directors, and curators.

On that note…

“Contrary to what people think, musicians—especially classical ones—do have a sense of humor,” says Peter Schickele, host of the syndicated radio show Schickele Mix. During a six-day campus residency in November, the Grammy-winning musicologist—who “discovered” the fictitious P.D.Q. Bach nearly fifty years ago and has since amused audiences with compositions like The Short-Tempered Clavier and My Bonnie Lass She Smelleth—gave a public talk, coached Skidmore’s choral and orchestral groups, and presented a sold-out concert.

At his standing-room only lecture, “What’s So Funny About Music?” Schickele cracked a few jokes (“What’s the difference between a viola and a violin? A viola burns PETER SCHAAF

GARY GOLD

PROFESSORIAT3

WINTER 2006

longer.”) and then played several music clips, demonstrating that a lot of classical pieces really are quite funny, if you listen carefully—for “quotations” (did Tchaikovsky borrow phrases from “Yankee Doodle Dandy”?), “funny sounds” (comedic moments à la Spike Jones, who was an early influence on Schickele), “inappropriate juxtapositions” (a slightly off-key bagpiper soloing with an orchestra), and “exaggerations” (a really bad soprano who misses nearly every high note).

For all his humor, Schickele is a legit and well-regarded composer whose serious works have been performed widely by premier orchestras in this country and abroad. —MTS

Home economics Forty-six State Street in Saratoga Springs can almost pass as a fraternity house: seven male college students live there, among mismatched furniture, frayed draperies, a 52-inch television, and a Brunswick pool table.

One rainy Monday night, the housemates are eating burritos at the dinner table, vaguely catching bits of a football game blaring from the living room, and taking turns picking on— with their mouths full—the designated cook of the night about his undercooked peas. But before you can dismiss them as a bunch of sophomoric college jocks, three of them start talking about mortgages and real estate and plumbing and Sheetrock with such fluidity and expertise that it almost sounds like they’re speaking another language.

Why are Newton Oldfather ’06, Scott Schnipper ’06, and Cory Sylvester ’06 so wise in the ways of the home? Because they own the one they’re living in. They share a deed to the house and a bank account, and they collect rentfrom their housemates during the school year and from track-goers in the summer.

It all started three years ago, when a casual idea turned serious. Oldfather, a government major, and Schnipper, a business and economics double-major, knew the real-estate market in Saratoga Springs was thriving. They also knew they wanted to live off-campus,

JOSH GERRITSEN ’06

8 RISING

and it seemed foolish to throw money away on rent when they could be investing it. They teamed up with Sylvester, an economics major they say is “a genius when it comes to finance.”

After looking at a dozen houses, the three decided on 46 State: it needed

They moved in in May 2004 and started renovations right away—with their own hands. “We had a base knowledge,” explains Oldfather, who has done construction work. “We got how-to books at Borders; we went to the hardware store and asked questions,” adds Schnipper.

And when an inspector showed up, he complimented them on a job well done.

Of course there were small disasters—like having to redo a hardwood floor they’d laid (“we spend at least an hour freaking out” when something goes wrong, Oldfather admits). But the freshly painted, cleaned-up seven-bedroom house is a big improvement over what it had been: H OUSE - PROUD : O LDFATHER , S CHNIPPER , AND SYLVESTER a five-bedroom with a “terrible attic,” deteriorating floors, work, but not so much that it would and “hideous wallpaper.” overwhelm them; the location was And there’s something to be said for perfect—close to campus and town; having friends as landlords and tenand the neighborhood felt familial. ants. Among these housemates, They scraped together a down pay“there’s no friction,” says Schnipper. ment (from summer-job incomes and “Our biggest fight is probably over small inheritances), got a mortgage, ‘Why didn’t you clean your dish?’ and and purchased the 1886 house for it stops there.” $425,000. “We didn’t have any idea Adapted from a story by Michelle Kim what we were doing,” says Oldfather. ’06 in the October 7 Skidmore News.

But “we learned very quickly.”

FAST

Skidmore’s Northwoods Apartments complex is quickly taking shape. After clearing the site and creating storm-water holding ponds, builders hurried to erect, and enclose, all ten buildings before the snow flew. Also, seventy 400-foot-deep wells for the geothermal heating and air-conditioning system were drilled, and walkways and parking lots were paved. This winter the workers are busy indoors installing wires, pipes, walls, and floors. The 100 threeand four-bedroom apartments—each featuring multiple Internet connections, full kitchens, and at least two bathrooms—are slated to open for seniors next fall. —SR

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campus scene

Home team welcome ished second in the NCAA Division III national championships. Under coach Tim Brown, the players were Mike Porter ’96, Tom Gilbert ’97, Matt Major ’97, Bryan Martin ’98, Matt Garry ’98, and David Wronowski ’99.

Brion After ’94 was a four-time AllAmerican, and the Skidmore golf program’s first All-America Scholar, earning the award in 1993 and 1994. After finished among the top three in seventeen tournaments and was the winner seven times.

Mike Cornell ’92, a prolific playmaker and scorer, finished his hockey career with 65 goals and 110 assists, which still ranks third on the college’s all-time scoring list.

As a graduate, he helped found the annual Hiller-First Memorial Alumni Hockey Game.

The 1990 equestrian team topped an undefeated season by winning the regional championships and then claiming Skidmore’s first IHSA national team title. Coach Sara Hufstader Strauss led riders Katie Ryan ’93, Jen Rossire ’92, Stacie Fluke ’90, Dawn Gilbert ’91, Jennifer Chang ’92, Natalie LaBouchere ’92, Todd O’Brien ’90, and Jeanne Vagell ’93.

Julie Greene ’58, an avid student sportswoman, became an international name in amateur golf. The longtime college PE teacher and administrator captured Rhode Island’s statewide amateur championship eleven times over four decades—more than any other man or woman in tournament history. She continues to compete in the Canadian, Irish, and British senior golf tours.

Jane Misurelli Kuk joined Skidmore’s PE department right out of college in 1960 and spent the next thirty-five years advancing the athletics programs, helping several develop from club to varsity status. She coached the women’s lacrosse and field hockey teams, and was assistant director of athletics for more than ten years. —MM, SR RICK GARGIULO/SARATOGIAN

Skidmore’s hall-of-famers may be in a league of their own, but now they have a place of their own as well.

This year’s honorees were inducted at Saratoga’s City Center, but the very next day the construction dust and drop cloths were whisked away from the official Skidmore Hall of Fame, which was duly dedicated in the Sports Center lobby before a large crowd partaking in Celebration Weekend. The dramatic, rounded Hall of Fame gallery was a gift from trustee (and lacrosse fanatic) Lee Peyser ’81 and his wife, Cathy. Capping the event was another Sports Center cele-

bration: the opening of a new training room, made possible by trustee Dale Conron Ahearn ’75 and her family.

This year’s Hall of Famers: Soccer goalie Lindsay Litchfield ’98 was a two-time All-American, leading her team to NCAA tournament appearances in 1994 and 1996. She holds Skidmore’s career-shutout record, with thirty-seven, and had a 0.65 goalsagainst average.

In 1996 and 1997 Courtney Phibbs Boyd ’97 was the regional high-point open-division rider and won the national championship in the individual open over-fences class. She also led Skidmore’s equestrians to the national IHSA team championship in 1996.

With a 183-11 record—a .940 winning percentage—the 1995–96 golf team was lauded by Golfweek magazine and the Golf Coaches Association of America. The team hosted and fin-

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BOOKS 4Losing Our Heads: Beheadings in Literature and Culture

by Regina Janes, professor of English New York University Press, 2005 Delving into a grim topic, Regina Janes explores in both artistic and cultural context the role of the chopped-off head. She asks why the practice of decapitation was once so widespread, why it has diminished, and why humans find it so peculiarly repulsive that we use it as a principal marker to separate ourselves from a more “barbaric” or “primitive” past.

Janes argues that the human ability to create meaning from the body motivates the practice of decapitation, its diminution, the impossibility of its extirpation, and its continuing fascination.

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4Costs of Economic Liberalization in Turkey

by Mehmet Odekon, associate professor of economics Lehigh University Press, 2005 How policies in Turkey created a system that made the rich richer and the poor poorer

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4Crafting Qualitative Research: Working in the Postpositivist Traditions

by Pushkala Prasad, Zankel Professor in Management for Liberal Arts Students M. E. Sharpe Inc., 2005 A detailed guide with examples and applications specifically designed for the field of management

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4Charlotte’s Garden

by Charlotte Corry Partin ’58 E & E Publishing, 2005 Poetry of the seasons, illustrated with pressed-flower art

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4Mainliner Denver:

The Bombing of Flight 629

by Andrew Field ’86 Johnson Books, 2005 The story of the investigation into the first act of sabotage against a US commercial aircraft

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GET BOOKED. Alumni authors are urged to send copies of their books, publisher’s notes, or reviews, so that Scope can make note of their work in the “Books” column.

8GOOD PLAY 4SPORTSWRAP

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Coaching roster changes.

Ice-hockey coach Paul Dion, a twenty-four-year veteran, resigned last fall. Replacing him is Neil Sinclair, an All-American at Middlebury in the early 1990s and head coach of the Williams College women’s hockey team for two years. Men’s lacrosse coach Terry Corcoran also left Skidmore, for Elizabethtown College. His successor is Jack Sandler, who was assistant men’s lacrosse coach at Smith College. Kelly Schwarz, the new softball coach and intramurals coordinator, is also from Smith, where she was assistant coach since 2003. With the arrival of Gail Cummings-Danson as athletics director, Jeff Segrave has returned to coaching women’s tennis. And thanks to an NCAA grant to promote gender and ethnic diversity at Division III colleges, Megan Buchanan is Skidmore’s new assistant athletics director; she held similar posts at SUNY-Albany.

Autumn joy. Field hockey. At 15-6 (6-1 in Liberty League play), Skidmore earned a return trip to the NCAA Division III championships, where it shut out New England College in the first round, then lost to Rowan in the semifinals. Eight T’breds (including Katie Weber ’07, at right) made the league All-Academic team.

Golf. Skidmore won four of its six fall tournaments, taking its tenth Liberty League title in eleven years.

Soccer. The men went 9-6-2, and the women 13-5-1. Both teams made it to the Liberty League tournament, where both lost to Union in the semifinals.

Morgan Cadwell ’06 ended her career by breaking Skidmore’s scoring record, with 54 goals and 22 assists.

T’BRED HOTLINE. For all teams’ schedules and scores, call 518-580-5393 anytime or go to www.skidmore.edu and click “athletics.”

BOB EWELL

T’BRED SARAH RUSSELL-SMITH ’08 COMES DOWN HARD ON A VASSAR COLLEGE OPPONENT.

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JAMES STEINBERG

I S S K I D M O R E A FAT L I B E R A L B A S T I O N U N D E R AT TA C K

BY F E D - U P C O N S E R VAT I V E S ? O N LY I F Y O U C O U N T A L L T H E P I Z Z A S H A R E D A C R O S S T H E D E B AT E TA B L E .

BY B A R B A R A M E LV I L L E

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t has been said that politics is our alternative to bashing each other over the head with clubs. Woodrow Wilson had a kinder take: “Politics…is something we owe to each other to understand and discuss with absolute frankness.” Good thoughts to keep in mind as the country negotiates the red-state/bluestate divide and debates continue about liberal bias on college campuses.

The idea of rampantly liberal campuses has been around “at least since the congressional investigations in the late 1940s into Communist Party activities in the United States,” the journal Academe reports, “and surely since the publication of William F. Buckley’s God and Man at Yale in 1951.” Conservatives say left-wing academic brainwashing

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is stifling independent thought, moral values, and free expression. (Liberals counter that the nation's politically dominant conservatives want not to balance academe’s traditional liberal spirit but to wipe it out.) The right contends that liberal faculty too often promote their own politics in the classroom, disparage conservative or religious students,

refuse to fund their speakers and events, and punish them co-president. When faced with liberal views assumed to be with unjustly low grades. Conservative watchdogs, blogs, accepted classroom-wide, co-president Laura Renz ’06 says, and Web sites avidly tally offenses at elite institutions like “You finally have to raise your hand and say, ‘Actually, Duke and Columbia and demand “better balanced” course that’s not my view.’” Then once you do, she adds, you offerings, reading lists, and campus speakers. often become the token defender for all things Republican, Conservatives chart data showing that 72 percent of which quickly wears thin. Adam Peresman ’06 contends, American college faculty consider themselves liberal. To “Liberal students at liberal colleges aren’t getting as well counter that influence, activist and college-circuit speaker educated in how to defend their positions, because they’re David Horowitz advocates an Academic Bill of Rights, under not getting challenged the way conservative students are.” consideration in some state and federal offices, that recomSometimes it feels more like disregard than challenge. mends a concerted effort to hire conservative faculty in Renz says she dropped a sociology class after her dissenting greater numbers. In response, cultural-studies scholar views—objecting to a professor’s list of seven Republican Michael Berube warns of “a national campaign on the part attitudes against same-sex marriage—were dismissed with of conservative activists to get state legislatures directly the comment “Perhaps you didn’t understand what I mean.” involved in academic oversight.”

And several students have heard a story like the one PeresPrivate colleges are also being taken to task for liberal man tells. He took “a neutral stand” when students in his bias. Skidmore gets a yellow “caution” rating from the conreligion class condemned the conversion tactics of Chrisservative Web site FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in tian missionaries who “bribed” Africans with schools and Education) for affirmative-action– hospitals. “When I said it based racial and gender protections was just cultural change, deemed too extensive and specific. neither good nor bad,” he “BEING OFFENDED REQUIRES BEING Well, is Skidmore heavily liberal? reports, his professor told DETACHED FROM YOUR REASON AND Of course. Founded in 1903 by the class that his arguan idealistic and progressive ment “was not cogent” INTELLIGENCE. THAT DOESN'T USUALLY church lady to educate Saratoga’s and then moved on withHAPPEN WITH PEOPLE AT SKIDMORE.” working-class girls, Skidmore is libout rebutting it. eral both in the political sense— Renz and Peresman there are far more self-identified acknowledge that such Democrats than Republicans on campus—and in the dicincidents aren’t malicious or even intentional. Certainly tionary sense—it prides itself on an open-minded and tol“it’s not typical at Skidmore,” Peresman says, “and the proerant atmosphere. “Almost everyone I know here is a liberfessor didn’t grade me unfairly.” When Republicans air al,” says Pat Oles, dean of student affairs. “What I don’t complaints like these, even sympathetic Democrats someknow is what relevance that has to teaching or the educatimes wonder if they have a “martyr complex.” As one stutional experience.” dent put it, “I wish I could tell them, ‘Hey, guys, no one’s Students in campus political clubs have plenty of anout to get you!’” swers for him. They run the full ideological gamut: Skidmore Democrats, the Skidmore Young Republican Assembly kidmore’s political students clearly love the zest and (SYRA), Skidmore Progressives, and Students on the Fence sting of debate even more than spicy pizza. They plunge (whose mission is to bring all sides together in civil disinto argument nimbly and nonstop, challenging weak argucourse). Given a chance to gather for “politics and pizza,” ments and sloppy generalizations with both passion and they dive into conversation that is surprising, complex, civility. Stem-cell research? All are for it—even the Republisometimes poignant, and always exhilarating. cans, with a few restrictions. Civil unions for same-sex cou“It’s a bunch of baloney that conservatives here are ples? Again, all are for it, although Tom Qualtere defines penalized for being Republican,” declares Josh Gerritsen ’06, marriage as strictly “a sacrament for a man and a woman.” president of the campus Democratic club. He adds, “I’ve Teaching intelligent design in schools provokes a split withnever seen faculty impose their values in class.” But conserin party lines: “Absolutely we should teach it,”says Qualvative students insist the campus atmosphere is permeated tere, causing Peresman to sputter, “Are you kidding me?” by the assumption that “we’re all liberals here,” which genThey all join the fray: faces redden, voices rise, everyone erates a low-level but steady stream of offhand comments, leans in to make points. “Wait, wait,” says Progressive Eli bumper stickers, door posters, jokes, and downright insults.

Turkel ’08. “Let Adam talk; he’s smart.” They all chuckle, “If I hear one more time that George Bush is a moron…” yield, and let Adam talk. Asked if they ever fear offending fumes one student. each other, they laugh out loud. Student on the Fence Ken During class discussions, “as the only conservative stuOlmstead ’06 says, “Being offended requires being detached dent, I have felt isolated and intimidated by openly liberal from your reason and intelligence. That doesn’t usually professors,” admits the outspoken Tom Qualtere ’08, SYRA’s happen with people at Skidmore.” continued

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That’s not to say that it never happens. In the past three At his 2005 talk Horowitz was once again peppered with years, civility has occasionally been pushed to its limits. left-leaning questions, but he made a point of noting that Item: In fall 2003, during Saratoga’s hotly contested Skidmore President Philip Glotzbach had attended both the mayoral race, Republican poll-watchers challenged Demolecture and the dinner beforehand—only the second time cratic students voting in Case Center and warned of severe he’d seen that gesture of respect from a college president. penalties for voting illegally. (In Saratoga Springs, a predominantly Republican city that takes its politics seriously, or students talking politics over pizza, the issues that so Skidmore’s 650 registered voters—mostly Democrats—can fire the national debate can be as nitty-gritty as classswing an election.) That year the Democratic incumbent room do’s and don’ts. For example, should faculty anmayor lost by eighty votes. Both before and after that elecnounce their own political beliefs in class or post them on tion, the Republican city council tried to move the Skidtheir office doors? No, say the Republicans. “The second a more district’s polling place off campus, and the controverteacher takes a side, it makes somebody in class uncomfortsy (which was later resolved cooperatively) garnered wideable,” says Qualtere. spread press coverage and on-campus argument.

“But little offhand remarks don’t influence you, do Item: In fall 2004, after George W. Bush was returned to they?” asks Turkel. “Have you changed your mind because the White House, crestfallen campus Dems arriving at their of them? Of course not. They’re not trying to brainwash “Post-Election Blues” event in Gannett Auditorium found flyyou.” Still, Republicans protest, some students will be ers reading “W is for Winner” on every chair and “Get over affected by them. “If so,” Turkel shoots back, “they’re not it, losers!” on the chalkboard. Psychology professor Sheldon qualified to be studying at Skidmore!”

Solomon, one of two invited faculty speakers, presented acaJumping in equably, Peresman restates the case: “Politics demic research comparing has no place in most classes.

Bush administration tactics How can the war in Iraq poswith those used by the fascist sibly relate to nineteenth-cenregimes of Hitler, Mussolini, tury Romantic literature? Or “INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE CAN ONLY and Pinochet. In closing, chemistry?” Well, replies TurOCCUR WHEN PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO Solomon says, he jokingly kel, a professor might find the EXPOSE THEMSELVES TO IDEAS THEY thanked “the Future Fascists Iraq war relevant in a class on DO NOT ALREADY AGREE WITH.” of America for decorating the war poetry, or religion and hall this evening.” research ethics might be raised At least Solomon thought in a science class. Telling fac“people understood I was ulty what ideas they can joking,” but student Republicans heard the remark as outshare, what intellectual links they can or cannot make in rageous. Perhaps unfamiliar with the Future Farmers of their teaching, strikes On the Fencer Lauren Masterson ’06 as America organization, they may have missed the wordplay a restriction of freedom of speech. On the other hand, she meant to lighten the wisecrack. In the aftermath, Solomon says, “Calling George Bush a moron is just rude.” Indeed all offered twice to meet with SYRA members and talk over agree that gratuitous conservative-bashing “jabs,” as Turkel issues “in the spirit of civil disagreement,” but they dedubs them, are always inappropriate—and “bad teaching.” clined, he says. A registered Independent who has voted for Would students choose a course with a teacher who both parties, Solomon says, “Intelligent dialogue can only openly holds views that contrast with their own? “Not if I’d occur when people are willing to expose themselves to ideas have to defend my opinions constantly,” says Qualtere. they do not already agree with.”

“Not worth the hassle.” Renz fears worse than that: “If I Item: In response to the “Post-Election Blues” incident, know a professor disagrees with my views, I worry about SYRA organized a spring 2005 “Conservative Challenge,” a that next paper I write for him. Will I be graded fairly?“ At week of discussions and guest lectures that drew large the very least she believes that one paper, because it concrowds and warm praise from campus politicals of every tained conservative views, drew extra scrutiny from a liberal stripe and station. “The point was to challenge people to professor. Another Republican adds passionately, “I should think about what it’s like to be a conservative on campus,” not have to be made uncomfortable for my beliefs.” said SYRA president Drew Farrell ’05. The week’s highlight Do students have an academic right not to be uncomwas a talk by David Horowitz. fortable?

Frank Towers ’94 was among the small but active NationFor student-affairs dean Pat Oles, “Discomfort is a very al College Republicans club that arranged a Horowitz enlow bar, if by ‘uncomfortable’ students mean that faculty gagement at Skidmore in 1993. He recalls that after the lecbring up ideas that challenge their worldview. Do you go to ture the very first question began with “Your comments are college to not question or be questioned?” No one knows of so ridiculous that I don’t know where to start”—not the best any conservative students who’ve brought grievances to the example of fair and courteous debate, Towers says ruefully. college’s Committee on Academic Freedom and Rights—

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possibly because most students don’t know they can, or dent political clubs. It helps too that many of the members because, as in Peresman’s case, his professor graded him are fellow government majors, friends, and practiced defairly and the dismissive comment was “not typical of bate buddies. Campus liberals like Gerritsen applaud the Skidmore.” newly energized SYRA: “They bring good speakers to cam“If there is no active discrimination on the basis of pus, and they give us a loyal opposition,” he says. “Liberals political beliefs, there is no bias—it’s a matter of people love to have us on the other side,” grins Qualtere. Progresexercising their First Amendment rights,” maintains Anne sive Turkel, who once spent an hour at a party debating Levy Wexler ’51. A nationally respected Democrat with her Republican Peresman, says, “Talking politics is so much own bipartisan lobbying firm based in Washington, D.C., fun. It’s entertaining—it’s sparring.”

Wexler says, no matter what your politics, “the most important political role is protecting the First Amendment. o bring on the challenge, but ratchet up the courtesy We hope the dialogue will be civil, but even if it isn’t, so level. And along with adversarial debate, Renz suggests, what? If some voices are louder than others, so be it.”

“Can we ask people on both sides of difficult issues, ‘What “I’m not sure how much of the conservatives’ feeling do we both want and how can we compromise to get it?’ I comes from just being in the minority,” says Turkel. “How want political discourse to be more policy-oriented, more can we make them comfortable 100 percent of the time? I ‘Here’s what we can do.’” don’t know what they want to see happen.”

Students on the Fence takes exactly that approach. Last All they ask is a measure of courtesy and respect for their year they attracted bipartisan audiences for a Cato Instibeliefs, say campus conservatives. They say they’re willing tute expert and a panel of Iraq and Afghan war veterans; to debate but resent having their views dismissed without this year they’re contemplating biweekly discussion meetserious consideration, let alone mocked or belittled. Liberalings on topics to be named by each club in turn. And club majority students “don’t members do show up realize it,” notes Frank at others’ events, from Towers, “but the rhetoa Patriot Act discussion “IF YOU LOOK AT STUDENTS HERE, YOU ric hurts.” As SYRA’s to a visit by a DemoMIGHT THINK THAT A MORE BIPARTISAN AND Chris Bendann ’07 told cratic challenger for the Skidmore News last Congress to an inforFLEXIBLE GOVERNMENT IS POSSIBLE.” spring, “What I want is mal panel on environfor people to be aware mental policies. of the things they say.“ Can students like And government professor Ron Seyb adds, “We do need to Seyb’s and Turner’s, trained in a small-class setting to debate take our conservative students’ concerns seriously. We do critically but fairly with opponents they respect, one day need to, as John Adams said to Thomas Jefferson at the end spearhead a swing back to more moderate political discourse of their lives, ‘explain ourselves to each other.’” in America? Qualtere thinks so. “Across the country, people In fact, where conservative students seem to feel most are sitting at tables together and talking. Change is comcomfortable is in their government and history classes, ing—a move to the center.” Dean Pat Oles admits, “If you where “when we talk politics, it’s usually from a theoretilook at students here, you might think that a more bipartical perspective,” explains government professor Bob Turnsan and flexible government is possible.” er. Despite being known as a diehard Democrat, he was Of course, the zing of politics is found at its extremes. asked to be SYRA’s original faculty advisor a few years This spring SYRA hopes to arrange a talk by conservative back. “I asked if they really wanted someone who had a firebrand Ann Coulter. With bestsellers like Treason: Liberal Hillary Clinton bumper sticker on his car”—but they did, Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism and and he served. Turner routinely invites Democratic and How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must) on her résumé, CoulRepublican legislators into his state-politics class, “because ter will pack Gannett Auditorium, promises Qualtere. But when you meet people face to face, it’s harder to demonize isn’t she more likely to throw flames than bridge gaps? them” as political opponents.

Sure, he answers. “But people like Horowitz and Coulter In any case, with college students, “there’s more differcreate an energy and electricity on campus. After they ence among individuals within the parties than between leave, there’s still that buzz. That’s where change will hapthe parties,” observes Democrat Josh Gerritsen. Several pen.” And besides, he adds, “My liberal friends can’t wait SYRA members describe themselves as fiscally conservative for Ann Coulter’s talk.” There will be no bashing, of and socially liberal, picking their issues across party lines, course. Just good clean politics. cafeteria-style: gay rights and job training from column D, limited government and a strong military from column R. Editor’s note: For some intriguing conservative, centrist, Such issue-swapping, with its safe areas of overlap, may and liberal Web sites, check out Professor Bob Turner’s help promote the genuine camaraderie among all four stulinks at www.skidmore.edu/~bturner/my_favorites.htm.

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ATHLETE’S FOOT Photos by Gary Gold

“No hoof, no horse” holds true for the human Thoroughbreds too. The speed, skills, and power of Skidmore athletes on all nineteen varsity teams are eloquently expressed in their feet and footgear.

Stuart Drahota ’07 Hometown: Fort Collins, Colo.

Major: Business Hook: My family belonged to a country club, and I played some tennis.

Then I picked up golf at age ten or eleven and got serious about it in junior high. Specialty: Putting Game face: I’ve totally fallen in love with golf. It’s more mental than any other sport I’ve played. I like to compete, and I like that golf is so individual—you’re out there on your own. Still, the Skidmore team is great because we support each other a lot.

Other sports: Downhill skiing

“Golf is almost a spiritual game.

It’s all about you; you really have to know yourself.”

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Emily Martin ’06 Hometown: Granville, Ohio Major: French and government Hook: I played football when I was really young, but I started soccer at age five. We played in a rec league where we designed our own T-shirts and our parents were coaches. Then I joined a traveling team when I was thirteen. Specialty: Center midfield Game face: It’s been amazing to watch the soccer program expand. My sophomore year we won only six games; this fall we had thirteen wins and five losses. The hard work of the players and the coaching staff has really paid off.

Other sports: Basketball, softball, and track in high school

“I’ve met such hard-working players; they’d give everything they had just to play the game.”

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Evan McNamara ’06 Hometown: Milton, Mass.

Major: Business (economics minor) Hook: I’ve played baseball since I was little, starting with T-ball. I enjoyed the action of playing third base and catcher. In baseball more than other sports, I like the individual pressure— the accomplishments that each player makes to help the team. Position: First base (and a little pitching) Game face: Last year we really started winning, and nothing could stop us—we went all the way to NCAA regional playoffs. It was the best experience I’ve ever had in baseball.

Other sports: Football and hockey in high school

“In the spring, we chip ice off the field —it’s depressing, but it’s good team-building.”

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Shardae Gonsalves ’07 Hometown: New Bedford, Mass.

Major: Graphic design Hook: I’ve played basketball since I was five. I would go to school early and play in the schoolyard before the bell rang. My dad and sister played too—my dad’s actually a coach at UC-Berkeley. Position: Guard Game face: At the varsity level, you have competitors who take the sport as seriously as you do and make you a better player. And my Skidmore teammates— we pull each other through the rough practices or hard sprints. They know exactly what I’m going through and why I love it. Other sports: Varsity lacrosse

“With so many practices and games, I have no time to procrastinate.

It keeps me very disciplined.”

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Ashley Woodhouse ’07 and Milky Way Hometown: Minneapolis, Minn.

Major: Business (plus pre-veterinary studies) Hook: I was six when I got my first pony, a pinto named Peaches. Now, about twenty horses later, I’m competing at Grand Prix with my Belgian warmblood; we’ve qualified for the Junior Olympics this summer. Specialty: Show jumping (and equitation at Skidmore) Game face: Competing for Skidmore—riding different horses, with different levels of training—has made me a more versatile rider. Also the coaching, and watching my teammates, has taught me a lot; the team experience is so rewarding.

Other sports: Skidmore polo

“I stick with show-jumping. I once rode the Rolex course in Kentucky, and it scared me to death.”

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Karin Brudvig ’07 Hometown: Hamden, Conn.

Major: American studies Hook: I started swimming to be like my older brother. I was four. Within a year I started swimming competitively and loved it instantly. I didn’t have a world-class swimming role model back then, but today I look up to Aaron Peirsol. Specialty: Backstroke Game face: This year the team has the depth to break a couple of school relay records. We race each other in practice, and it’s satisfying to know that everyone is working their butt off. When I’m not in the pool I hang out with swimmers and divers all the time. They’re a great bunch of people.

Other sports: Varsity crew

“Being ahead of the competition, touching someone out at the wall, getting my best time—it’s a huge rush.”

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Mike Bannon ’06 Hometown: Downers Grove, Ill. Major: Business (international affairs minor) Hook: When I was seven, I saw hockey on TV and it sucked me in, especially because it was on ice. My mom tried to discourage me from wanting to play. She finally said OK, but I had to borrow my sister’s white figure skates for my first lesson.

Position: Defenseman Game face: There’s a very good sense of “team” this year. We all look out for each other. We hang out a lot outside of the rink, too, which is fun. Guys on the team are some of my best friends, and will continue to be after college.

Other sports: Lacrosse in high school

“You do get checked a lot, but as the last man back you can quarterback the play.”

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Stephanie Reed ’09 Hometown: Barker, N.Y. Major: Undecided Hook: At my high school, field hockey was about the only girls’ sport we had. (I’d been a swimmer, but I wrecked my shoulder doing the butterfly.) Position: Goalkeeper Game face: I came in thinking I’d be a backup goalie, but in my very first Skidmore game our starter pulled a groin muscle and I had to go in. I like the action—and the pressure —as the last line of defense. And I like artificial turf; it makes me mad when a shot gets by me after bouncing off a grass rut. Other sports: Swimming in high school

“It costs about $1,000 to outfit me.

How fast can I run in these pads?

You’d be surprised.”

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E D U C AT I N G E N G A G E D , N I M B L E T H I N K E R S F O R T H E 2 1 S T C E N T U R Y :

Skidmore has a plan— and a price tag

BY S U S A N R O S E N B E R G Stepping from rock to rock in a rushing woodland stream, Adam Wallace ’06 captures digital images of splash, shadow, clarity, and color. His camera may also capture a rusted fence post at water’s edge, a human footprint (his own?), or the red glint of nearby tail-lights. “Artistic, even abstract photography,” he says, “is a way for me to interpret my feelings about environmental issues. But I want my images to be visually appealing so that they’ll engage people in thinking about the subject.”

Wallace, a senior environmental-studies major and art minor, is shaping his capstone project, to photograph the Kayaderosseras Creek watershed and its relationship with the humans who inhabit it. It’s part of the ES program’s new Water Resources Initiative, featuring service learning and

Goals and resources Whatever its study topic, WRI seems to exemplify “engaged liberal learning”—the title of the strategic plan endorsed last year by Skidmore’s trustees. Produced by President Phil Glotzbach with faculty and all-college advisory groups, the plan (see page 24) is both idealistic and practical.

Outlining major goals like heightened academic engagement, intercultural understanding, and responsible citizenship, it speaks inspirationally of “an intellectually rigorous, transformative” education that can “awaken previously unrecognized interests and talents, suggesting new possibilities to students who have not yet…risen to their potential.” The plan bills itself as “a promissory note issued to every new student upon matriculation.” Next, that promise is organized into no fewer than seventy-five specific tasks (and those are just for the coming year), several of them already assigned to particular staff members or budgets.

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community-based research on issues of local watershed management, from drinking-water chemistry to land valuation. WRI provides a “true interdisciplinary immersion,” says ES director Karen Kellogg. In fact Wallace’s background reading for his project included sociological work done last summer by Allison Stafford ’06, Erin Black ’06, and Skidmore anthropologist Michael EnnisMcMillan. (Stafford says this hands-on work with a real-world problem was particularly valuable for revealing to her just how much politics affects environmental questions.) For Wallace, the team’s attitudinal surveys highlighted complex emotions and ideas he could explore, such as some residents’ “very strong generational attachments to Saratoga Lake, but little personal feeling for Loughberry Lake.”

And budgets are crucial to this far-reaching, ambitious plan. Like many Skidmore programs, WRI costs more to deliver than tuition and fees can provide. WRI research, equipment, and other costs are substantially funded by grants from the Rathmann Family Foundation and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. To keep such programs going, and to launch the new ones envisioned in the plan, Skidmore began a comprehensive fundraising campaign (see page 24) in 2004–05. Now in its second year (of a six-year effort), “Creative Thought, Bold Promise” aims to bring in $200 million—including more foundation grants as well as individual donations for construction or other projects, unrestricted-use gifts to the general endowment, annual-fund giving, trusts and bequests, and even gifts-in-kind.

Response so far has been record-breaking. Gifts and pledges —many of them from Skidmore trustees, including campaign co-chairs John Howley ’80, Sara Lubin Schupf ’62, Susan Ket-

Cleveland, Dayton, and Cincinnati with tuition help, mentering Williamson ’59, and Billie Stein Tisch ’48—stood at toring, and skills coaching—the same recipe for success that $80 million in December 2005. (That’s more than the total of makes Skidmore’s HEOP a widely acknowledged star among the previous campaign, in the 1990s.) The largest gift so far is such programs. The Ohio version—expanding on Skidmore’s $15 million-plus, from the estate of trustee emeritus Arthur modest Academic Opportunity Program for out-of-staters— Zankel (see sidebar). will bring more AOP students like Marquette Jeffcoat ’08.

The earliest campaign commitment, of $1 million, came “Without AOP,” she says, “I might have gone to a two-year from trustee Polly Skogsberg Kisiel ’62. She says, “Skidmore’s technical college, where my experience vision is well expressed and exciting.

RESPONSE SO FAR HAS BEEN would have been very different.” A CharlesThere are so many worthy students RECORD-BREAKING. GIFTS ton, S.C., resident who was steered toward seeking help, and so many terrific Skidmore by her high-school English projects with such compelling needs, AND PLEDGES STOOD AT $80 teacher, Andrew HaLevi ’88, she is thriving that my only problem is deciding my MILLION IN DECEMBER 2005. at Skidmore thanks to AOP’s intensive pregift designation.” Fellow trustee Susan freshman summer seminar, a four-year aid package that even Gottlieb Beckerman ’67 is leaving her $1 million unrestricthelps cover travel costs between Charleston and Saratoga, ed, “as a vote of confidence,” she says, “in the people who and especially “a lot of close relationships that make up for make decisions at Skidmore. They steward our assets well. I missing my close-knit family back home.”At the same time, know that life is full of unexpected occurrences, and with an her membership in the campus community enlarges the unrestricted gift nobody’s hands are tied.” She’s directed prediversity of perspectives and experience being explored by all vious gifts toward financial aid and special student-project students at the college. funds, but she notes that in a broad campaign, even “paying Or take Bud Morten, self-described “soccer dad” to Jessica for pens and paper clips is an important foundation for oth’08. Skidmore’s “pluralistic community dedicated to discovery ers who want to designate gifts to specific programs.” and engagement in all realms of human endeavor” inspired Among those others is Sue Kettering Williamson ’59. Her him and wife Liz to support the realm of athletics. Sports, he many past donations, from both personal funds and her famsays, “appeal to universal human needs for identity and stimily’s Ohio-based Kettering Foundation, often focused on ulation.” Responding to Skidmore’s goal of enhancing athletfinancial aid—long a college priority and again a major goal ics and recreation as elements of a vibrant community life, of the current campaign. She has now arranged to extend the the Mortens have issued a sporting challenge: they will kind of assistance provided by New York State’s Highter Edumatch the total of others’ gifts toward the purchase of up-tocation Opportunity Program to students coming from out of date video recording technology for game reviews, player state. A $5 million Kettering Foundation grant will permakinetics analyses, and other team needs. nently endow the Skidmore-Ohio Student Achievement ProThen there’s Howard Silverman ’75. A founding director of gram, providing disadvantaged students from schools in

Historic gift makes sweet music THE PHILANTHROPY OF New York City financier Arthur Zankel supported arts and education from Carnegie Hall to Columbia University, and it recently made history at Skidmore. As a trustee and father of Kenny ’82 and Jimmy ’92 (as well as uncle of Harun ’01 and father-inlaw of Pia Scala Zankel ’92), Zankel underwrote many Skidmore programs, including the Boys Choir of Harlem residency and an endowed professorship in management and liberal arts. Then in late 2005, just a few months after his death, word came that Skidmore was the largest recipient of his estate’s charitable giving. The bequest—in an amount still to be finalized but expected to substantially exceed Skidmore’s previous record of $15 million for a single donation—will lead off the fundraising for a much-needed new music building that will also serve as a gateway to the campus.

The building will feature a large concert hall, recital and practice spaces, offices, and classrooms. Supporting both music study and public performances, the facility is a priority item on Skidmore’s agenda.

“Art Zankel was one of a very special few… His impact on the college was truly transformational,” said trustee chair Suzanne Corbet Thomas ’62 at the announcement ceremony, a gala celebration in Zankel’s memory held at Carnegie Hall in December. (The crowd of about 1,000 friends, colleagues, and beneficiaries included dozens of Skidmore trustees, faculty, and staff.) President Philip Glotzbach promised, “We are committed to using this gift to honor Arthur’s memory and assure his remarkable legacy at Skidmore.”

Watch future Scopes for details of music-building developments and Zankel family support.

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Intrinsiq Research, a leading provider of oncology data to the pharmaceutical industry and Wall Street, he has directed $100,000 toward faculty development in informatics—the study of data collection, processing, and use. For example, “data mining,” an aspect of informatics used in scientific and marketing research, seeks “meaningful patterns in sets of data that are too huge to fit in the memory of even a supercomputer,” says Skidmore computer scientist Tom O’Connell.

With Silverman’s support, O’Connell is now on sabbatical to learn more about informatics and its potential to widen the scope and appeal of science education, another major goal of the strategic plan. According to Silverman, “Success is found at the intersections of knowledge,” which is where informatics operates—in the case of Intrinsiq, it’s the junction of medicine, business, law, and software engineering.

Add art to just about any intersection of knowledge, and the Tang Museum will put a roof over it. It’s no surprise the Tang’s eclectic programs fostering interactive and interdisciplinary learning are slated for growth in the strategic plan.

And that’s where Michele Dunkerley ’80 has put her campaign (and twenty-fifth reunion) gift: with $150,000, she’s underwriting five years’ worth of the “dialogue” series, public discussions with artists and curators of Tang exhibitions.

“Most of my close friends at Skidmore were artists, and I always enjoy the Tang when I return to campus,” recalls Dunkerley, an American studies major. “This series of discussions puts art in a broader context, appealing to those of us who are not art purists.”

Sweet spot Campaign director Tracy Barlok is “delighted and awed” by these and other early gifts, but admits that $200 million is a daunting goal. Items in the strategic plan that still await funding include a “science enrichment and awareness” program to foster exploration of pressing public issues in science

CREATIVE THOUGHT, BOLD PROMISE FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN

1. Ongoing strength and independence $ 60 million Gifts to the annual fund Unrestricted and endowment gifts 2. Academic engagement $ 50 million Faculty and academic programs, first-year experience Support for the Tang Museum Support for special-programs offerings Strengthening of sciences $ 50 million 3. Access, diversity, and achievement Increased financial aid Expansion of HEOP/AOP services $ 40 million 4. Campus environment New music building/gateway Creation of social, performance, and study space Support for athletics, health, and wellness Enhanced residential facilities and dining hall TOTAL:

$ 200 million

More information: www.skidmore.edu/support, or 800-584-0115

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and technology; a new music building that will serve as a campus gateway; a director of “culture-centered inquiry” to help integrate multicultural discourse into curricula across the college; and more opportunities for study abroad, especially beyond Western Europe.

It’s a full docket, but it’s all focused on getting Skidmore students tuned in and turned on to learning as never before.

For President Phil Glotzbach it’s a matter of some urgency.

“Skidmore is at a unique juncture in its history—a sweet spot, if you will—where great potential for growth and change meets with institutional maturity and capacity. It’s a tremendous opportunity.” And it’s crucial to seize it, he adds, because “the world needs Skidmore.” The twenty-first century, he says, demands educated citizens “with the rare ability to imagine creative solutions that others have not seen and with the will to bring their ideas into the world and harness them in service to others.” Step by step, student by student, he intends to produce those citizens.

ENGAGED LIBERAL LEARNING PLAN FOR SKIDMORE COLLEGE, 2005–2015

1. Student engagement and achievement • Enrichment of the first-year experience, with new seminars, residential learning, faculty mentoring • Faculty support for research and creativity • New music building • Integration of Tang Museum offerings into wider curricula • Building the sciences: faculty growth, more student majors, academic and public programs on science and society • Integration of special-programs offerings with regular curriculum 2. Intercultural and global understanding • Expansion of student-body diversity through recruiting, financial aid, a new multicultural-affairs director • Expansion of faculty diversity, and a director of culture-centered inquiry • More study abroad 3. Informed, responsible citizenship • Recruitment of students with strong citizenship and service backgrounds • More service-learning and volunteer opportunities • Enhancement of residential learning, through firstyear experience and increasing number of students who live on campus • Improvement of athletics, fitness, and wellness opportunities 4. Financial strength and independence • Enhanced relationships in wider college community (with alumni, parents) and in higher education marketplace (prospective students, peer institutions) • Competitive salaries to recruit and retain best faculty • Maintenance of physical plant, and adoption of new campus master plan The full plan: www.skidmore.edu/planning.

connections I N T E R C O N N E C T I O N S

Alumni planners Ever wonder what the alumni association’s board of directors is all about? Charged with developing, supporting, and enhancing the relationship between Skidmore alumni and the college itself, we’re a team of volunteers that represents many different classes and parts of the country (from San Francisco to Portland, Maine). Three times a year we meet on campus to work on programs that connect alums to each other and to the institution. These connections are fostered in class programs, affinity groups, and regional clubs. We partner with volunteers in each of these areas to provide guidance and support through the college’s alumni affairs office.

Here’s a very small sample of programs we’re working on this year: Bill Ladd ’83, chair of reunions, has contacted many alums to encourage them to attend class reunions. He’s also working to set up a mini-reunion for riding alumni, including the polo and equestrian teams.

Davis Bradford ’96, chair of young alumni giving, is strengthening annual-fund

participation among the youngest classes through the Porter Associates (a giving society recognizing generous donors in the most recent ten classes) and through employer matching-gift programs.

Ellen Hannan ’78, chair of career and professional development, works with New York City–area alums on an initiative called SkidBiz, connecting graduates working in business, finance, marketing, public relations, consulting, and related fields. It’s at www.skidmore.edu/alumni/sbn.

Angel Perez ’98, chair of diversity, is working with Michele Forté ’90, chair of alumni clubs, on regional events featuring Skidmore faculty whose interests and research relate to cultural, social, racial, or gender diversity.

You can meet all of us on the board at www.skidmore.edu/alumni/association. Drop us a line—we’re here for you!

Deborah Sehl Coons ’72, Alumni Association President

JEFF FITLOW

8 CLUB CONNECTION: HOUSTON, TEXAS

JOIN THE CLUB Michele Forté ’90, the alumni board’s chair of alumni clubs, serves as liaison among regional club officers, the alumni board, and the college.

To get involved or find out more about club activities in your area, contact her at 415-441-9783 or send an e-mail to mmforte@sbcglobal.net.

“Generous pourings” of red (Huntington Merlot, 14 Hands Cabernet, Black Chook Shiraz) and white (Deutz Champagne, Buehler Chardonnay) “create instant friendships” at The Tasting Room in Houston’s Uptown Park. That according to Emily Pavlovic Chiles ’74, who gathered with a dozen Skidmore alumni and spouses to sample the grape. This was no “swish and spit” event. In fact, says Steve Bitteker ’88, attendees employed “a Texas approach: full glasses, nothing discarded!” He reports, “Our sommelier was quite knowledgeable about each vineyard and possessed a versatile vocabulary that entertained some of us and confused others. She explained that terms like ‘mint overtones with a creamy finish’ are a user-friendly way of describing various chemical reactions… and that different types of barrels create almost a universal result based on whether they’re made from American oak or French oak and how long they’ve been in production.” The most expensive bottle the group sampled, Bitteker adds, came with a screw cap rather than a cork. —MTS

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connections

Go ask Alice

Among volunteers receiving thanks and support at Celebration Weekend were Maria Klink ’97 and Melanie Lee ’83.

Winner of the Porter Award for Alumni Service, Klink is copresident of Skidmore’s New York City club, whose social and service events have been drawing record attendance, particularly among young alumni.

Lee is the alumni board’s chair of diversity, but she was honored for her twenty years as an admissions contact; she’s been a stalwart at college fairs and newstudent send-off parties around New York City.

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JOSH GERRITSEN ’06

CITED FOR SERVICE

played a role in her career choice. “I wanted As a freshman in a class on autobiographito be Tom Hanks,” she recalled. “I wanted to cal memory, Alice Wilder ’88 got her profesbe the adult in the corporate board room sor’s attention because of the questions she who thought like a kid, who could say, asked.

‘What’s so fun about this?’”

Twenty years later, as director of research, Blue’s Clues is fun, as well as effective, producer, and writer for the phenomenally because Wilder and her colleagues pretest successful Blue’s Clues kids’ show on Nickeach episode with kids. The shows feature a elodeon’s Nick Jr., she is still asking queslive host—cleverly integrated into Blue’s anitions. Says Wilder, “The only way to undermated world—who asks viewers to help him stand what children are capable of doing, find clues to the day’s question and involves what appeals to them, and what they know them in educational activities along the way. is to ask them!”

Episodes are carefully paced to wait for the Since its debut in 1995, Blue’s Clues has young viewers’ reactions, as Wilder demondrawn an enormous following and spawned strated with a split-screen video of program an empire of books, videos, consumer prodsegments and children watching them. ucts, and the literacy-based spin-off Blue’s Wilder advised the Periclean inductees Room. In fact, a floppy stuffed toy of Blue and other students to “create your own misherself was on hand when “Dr. Alice” was sion statement,” explaining that all of her honored as Skidmore’s 2005 Alumni Periwork must answer to hers: “to create, develclean Scholar during Celebration Weekend in October.

(Each fall Skidmore’s academic honor society, Periclean, celebrates its induction of new members by also naming an alumni Periclean honoree whose work reflects the society’s ideals of active and continuing engagement in the life of the mind. The alumni Periclean returns to campus and serves as a featured speaker at the induction B LUE AND A LICE W ILDER ’88 COLLABORATE TO ENCHANT AND EDUCATE KIDS . ceremony.) op, and research ‘products’ for kids—with Psychology professor Mary Ann Foley kids as my advisors—that are educational, introduced her former student, recalling that entertaining, interesting, and relevant to Wilder “had always been single-minded their lives.” about making a difference in children’s One look at the kids watching Blue’s Clues lives.” It was Foley who recruited the quesis all it takes to see that mission fulfilled, no tioning freshman to work in her memory question about it. —KG and cognition lab—where a career was born.

Wilder went on to earn an EdD in educational psychology at Columbia University Teachers College and found her niche in research and development for children’s television.

With an infectious smile, Wilder told the Skidmore audience how the movie Big

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Tickled

SOUNDS

David Porter, president emeritus, received a heartfelt token of appreciation from the board of trustees in October. Trustee Billie Stein Tisch ’48 read the citation for the 2005 Denis B. Kemball-Cook Award, honoring Porter’s “passionate commitment to the liberal arts”—including his promotion of the Honors Forum, studentfaculty collaborative research, library and science-center expansions, and the Journey Campaign that funded several endowed faculty chairs, the Tang Teaching Museum, and other initiatives.

With “the compelling discourse of a gifted teacher,” Tisch said, Porter “elevated our deliberations with his intellect, energy, and great love for Skidmore.” Now a visiting professor at Williams College, Porter still occasionally participates in musical and academic events at Skidmore. —SR

Shakin’ it up, Sinem Varoglu ’01 takes a turn soloing during the Skidmore Dynamics’ tenth reunion last fall. The campus gathering, which was organized by Jonathan Whitton ’02 and drew about thirty alumni from across the country, hit the same high notes that took the group to the international collegiate a cappella championships in 2002.

Capping their weekend of remembering, reliving, reconnecting—and rehearsing—student and alumni Dynos took to the Bernhard Theater stage, offering a public concert of rock and pop numbers with their usual high-energy delivery. As founding member Rena Strober ’98 put it, “The Dynamics found a new voice and a new way of performing. I’m proud that it’s grown into such an important group.”—SR

Join the crowd.

There’s no telling what will happen.

REUNION 2006 June 1–4 Have a blast • Hug your long-lost friends Go back to class • Picnic on the green Join the parade • Go out on the town Dig the fireworks • Stay up ’til all hours For news, details, and who’s attending, visit www.skidmore.edu, choose “alumni,” then click “Reunion 2006.”

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PHIL HAGGERTY

JOSH GERRITSEN ’06

8 DYNAMIC

GEORGE S. BOLSTER COLLECTION

W H O, W H AT, WH E N

HORSEPOWER? Are these Skiddies late for class, or running a race? Where and when? Did you ever do something this fun (and risky) in your day? If you have an answer, tell us the story at 518-580-5747, srosenbe@skidmore.edu, or Scope c/o Skidmore College. We’ll report answers, and run a new quiz, in the upcoming Scope.

FROM LAST TIME

ERIC E. MITCHELL

Factory floor? Zach Nagle ’00 and others thought they recognized the fiber room in Saisselin Art Building. “I learned to weave in that room,” he says, “and look at me now, a Milliken fabric designer in South Carolina.” Actually, this scene is the second floor of Clark Street Studio on the old campus.

Ellie McKeefe ’66 (with many others) remembers, “Eunice Pardon, on the right, taught us to weave there. It was a refuge where creativity and individuality were encouraged.” Ann Coleman ’77 also loved its “many nooks and crannies to tuck oneself into and get lost in ‘the now,’ as well as the interesting junk and ‘found objects’ kicking around for inspiration.” Katie Sneve ’76 adds that the building “was supposedly the old carriage house of Diamond Jim Brady (but I’m not sure that’s true).”

The scene reminded Cynthia Richter ’81 of a story: “Eunice Pardon asked me what I planned to do with a weaving I was 28

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making, and I said I thought I’d like it as a wall hanging. Her husband, Skidmore metal artist Earl Pardon, said I should make a chair out of it and he’d show me how to weld one.

One day I heard them arguing about a wall hanging or a chair… Mrs. Pardon won: I now have the piece hanging on my dining-room wall.

They were amazing people, and by far my favorite professors.”

Brece Honeycutt ’83 agrees: “It was a treat to work with Eunice Pardon.

I fondly recall her gracious southern manners coupled with her directness and incredible style.”

She adds that the large loom in the far-left corner “is an old Ani Albers loom and the one that I used to weave on.”

Readers report that the student in the photograph may be (Shirley) Joyce McAvoy ’77…or Sally Johnson ’77…or not.

THIS

THE MIGHTY TANG MUSEUM, SNOW-CAPPED BUT NOT SNOWED IN

JOSH GERRITSEN ’06

8PICTURE

GEORGE S. BOLSTER COLLECTION

S A R AT O G A S I D E B A R

T HE S ARATOGA

BATH EXPERIENCE IN AN EARLIER HEYDAY

QUEEN FOR HALF A DAY gleaming Bubbles gently rose and fizzed on the surface of a tiny white hallbeer-colored sea, while every movement launched waves of way to a warmth beneath. The air was fragrant with eucalyptus and comfortable private room with a massage table and white grapefruit, a whisper of lavender, a hint of ginger. Pleasantly porcelain bathtub. He poured the herbal mix into my bath, innocuous music meandered in the background, punctuatand as soon as he left I poured myself into the buoying, ed periodically by the distant clunk and whoosh of tubs body-temperature water. draining.

After the bath, I settled under the comfy sheets and blanI was neck-deep in Saratoga’s famous mineral water for a kets for an hourlong Swedish massage. The grapeseed, apritwenty-minute infusion that was just the beginning of my cot, and sesame massage gel gave out the most delicate frahalf-day “Washington Revitalizer” at the Roosevelt Baths. grance—as did all the products used at Roosevelt—a pleasant The larger of the two bath houses in the Saratoga Spa State relief for someone easily overwhelmed by strong perfumes.

Park (the other is the venerable Lincoln Baths), the RooseNext stop was the facial studio, where I was treated to a velt recently underwent a thorough renovation at a cost of mini-version of the classic European facial—with cleansing, $5 million. My personal renovation cost $180 and was thortoning, massage, steaming, exfoliation, fortification, and ough enough for a spa neophyte like me. I had visited the moisturizing, but without the “painful extractions” (whew!). baths once before, decades ago, and what lingered in my Finally, in the manicurist’s lair, I enjoyed beautiful classical memory was a dreary sanatorium with rusty pipes and music as my hands were soaked, massaged, and then softscratchy blankets. But the spa experience has come a long ened in warm paraffin. The finishing touches on my expertway since then, and Americans have learned to embrace the ly shaped nails were a strengthener, two coats of polish, and benefits of mineral bathing long revered in Europe. a clear finish.

Those benefits, according to information from the RooseIf you go: Bring plenty of folding money for tips, shower velt spa, include increased blood flow and elimination of first (you won’t want to wash off those delicately scented gels toxins from the body, stimulation of the immune and digestive systems, therapy for skin diseases, and improved physiand creams), leave your cell phone home, and don’t plan too cal and psychological well-being due to high amounts of much for the rest of the day. There are several package deals negative ions in the water. Ions or no, everything about the and dozens of treatments available—from hot stone massage experience helped my well-being. to craniosacral therapy, algae wrap to sugar I arrived for my appointment early, as scrub. There is a pregnancy massage and a FIND OUT MORE advised. After filling out a brief health gentleman’s facial, body waxing and hair Visit www.saratogaspaform, I chose the Cold and Flu herbal bath styling, fitness center memberships, and the statepark.org and click “park additives, passing up tempters like Minty delightfully oxymoronic “back facial.” attractions,” or call the Roosevelt Muscle, Tension Tamer, and Grapefruit Or just have a plain mineral bath ($18) at 800-732-1560.

Energizer. The attendant led me down a and soak in a bit of Saratoga history. —KG 56

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COURTESY OF EWING COLE ARCHITECTS

COURTESY OF EWING COLE ARCHITECTS

From a dream and a plan, Skidmore’s new music building took a giant step toward realization, thanks to a history-making gift from the estate of trustee Arthur Zankel. See page 23.

Skidmore College 815 North Broadway Saratoga Springs, NY 12866-1632

Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage

PAID Skidmore College