Centennial reflections

Lucy's Values Still Shape Skidmore Culture

大学百年纪念活动是怀旧的机会，也是学习的好机会 from the past. While there are obvious differences between the infant Young Women’s Industrial Club of 1903 and the established Skidmore College of 2003, a close look 追溯到1903年的根源显示了当今大学的三个重要特征 commitment to diversity, its ethic of service and its willingness to take risks in 为了实现其最高目标——这些目标直接源于其创始人的理念， Lucy Skidmore Scribner.

1903年，在萨拉托加斯普林斯——实际上是整个美国——妇女被剥夺了公民权， denied reproductive freedom and expected to focus primarily on domestic roles; they could legally be refused jobs, equitable pay and access to education. People of color 被系统地剥夺公民权利，宗教歧视都是合法的 and commonplace. At the same time there were some progressive believers in civil rights and a fairer society, and they included Lucy Scribner.

露西和她的董事会大胆地声明，青年妇女工业俱乐部 将“向所有品行良好的女孩和妇女开放，新教徒或天主教徒，白人， Negro or Indian.” They were committed not only to giving unmarried women the skills to support themselves (and to helping married women improve their lives as well), 但他们也通过邀请进步派演讲者来宣扬新思想 such as Judge Ben Lindsey, who developed the first juvenile courts in the country, 还有简·亚当斯，她不仅是赫尔之家的创始人，一个模范移民之家 in Chicago, but also a founder of the NAACP.

然而，在许多方面，基督教青年会是那个时代的产物——例如，即使是在有阶级的时候 对所有种族开放，合唱团可以拒绝一个非裔美国人吗 applicant because of her color. In the 1930s and early 1940s, Skidmore discreetly but firmly discouraged the enrollment of African-American students; it also considered 对犹太学生的入学实行配额，但是(不像其他一些学校) colleges) it never explicitly adhered to such a quota. After the ’40s the college 转而采取一种更接近露西·斯克里布纳的政策，事实上，很快就开始积极行动 recruit students of color.

Today pluralism and variety in the student body remain paramount college values. Students now come from 44 U.S. states or territories and 25 foreign countries, some 40 percent receive financial aid and more come from public than from private schools. In 1971, 当学生们举行静坐示威，要求加大对少数族裔的招生力度时，学生们 of color accounted for less than 10 percent of the student body; in 2003, the figure was 14 percent. Each year, student clubs and the Intercultural Center sponsor campus 庆祝黑人历史、西班牙传统、亚洲文化和各种宗教 traditions. Most college leaders feel more diversity is still needed, including among 教师和2002年的战略计划将增加校园多样性作为关键 goal.

YWIC的成立反映了露西·斯克里布纳自己对社区服务的承诺， which had been her response to deep personal loss. As a young woman she began teaching 在教会的教会学校做针线活，她丧偶后还做过志愿者 at a home for blind and aged women. For her, social problems existed to be solved, and those who had the resources to improve society had a moral obligation to do so.

露西和她的同事们努力传递他们的组织能力和慈善精神 对基督教青年会的女孩们产生了冲动，鼓励她们成立自己的小俱乐部 自己，他们可能会学习议会程序，记录会议记录和财务记录， which they would find useful as grown women leading organizations of their own.

And Skidmore has continued the tradition of community service. When America entered 第一次世界大战期间，所有火博体育的学生，教职员工和管理人员都加入了学校的 红十字会分会，为士兵编织保暖服装，为军队卷绷带 hospitals and aid families of servicemen. During the Great Depression, sociology students surveyed Saratoga’s unemployed and tried to convince local employers to hire more workers. During World War II, all students were required to perform “community service” (cleaning dorms and serving meals to replace college employees who had found work 在国防工业)和支持战争的一切努力，从工作 in victory gardens to scanning the skies for enemy planes. Skidmore students have regularly volunteered in local schools, hospitals and social-service agencies.

今天的学生服务项目，通常是通过学生社团benefit - action来协调的， include tutoring at-risk children, helping staff the local soup kitchen, building homes with Habitat for Humanity and cleaning up area parks and cemeteries. Some courses now include “service learning” components in their academic content. Lucy wanted her 学生用他们的才能和技能来改善他们的社区，她会 surely applaud the efforts of today’s Skidmore volunteers.

多样性和社区服务——火博体育社区有思想的成员会这么做 object to these? But another central theme in Skidmore’s history is fraught with a certain amount of peril: The college’s tendency to take risks, some of which seem for a time to endanger its very survival. And this Skidmore trait too is traceable all the way back to Lucy Scribner herself.

When she moved to Saratoga Springs, Lucy had a personal fortune somewhat in excess of $1 million (worth approximately $18–20 million today). This was hardly in the Rockefeller league, but she was more than merely comfortable—she was rich. From the very beginning, 她动用个人资金购买大楼，弥补预算赤字 of the YWIC and later the Skidmore School of Arts. In 1910, for example, when the club’s budget was about $18,300, her deficit contribution was $5,600.

Between 1916 and 1922, Lucy Scribner transferred about 85 percent of her personal fortune to the infant college: $400,000 worth of buildings and $450,000 in stocks and bonds, which comprised the institution’s first endowment. When she died in 1931, 她100万美元的财产已经减少到15.6万美元——不是因为大萧条，而是 by her gifts to Skidmore, which was also the principal heir to her estate. At his inauguration, President Philip Glotzbach promised to ask donors not just to give, but to give until it hurts. Lucy Scribner would know all about that—she gave her entire fortune to develop a fledgling girls’ club into a viable full-scale college. If Skidmore had failed, all her resources would have gone for nothing.

露西代表她所热爱的大学勇于承担风险，这一点得到了其他领导的支持 of Skidmore. President Charles Henry Keyes took an enormous professional risk in undertaking 把一所兼职学生的小型进修学校变成一所真正的大学 less than 10 years. He faced huge difficulties—an uncertain market for women’s colleges, 最少的资源，反应迟钝的国家官僚机构——但他成功地建立了 Skidmore College in 1922.

火博体育的第三任校长瓦尔·威尔逊(Val Wilson)和富有远见的捐赠者埃里克·琼森(Erik Jonsson) a momentous gamble in 1961: Skidmore would relocate from its downtown buildings to a new campus that would be built from scratch. He also increased the size of the institution, 面对紧缺的合格教授，微薄的捐赠和竞争 from other colleges that were also expanding to accommodate the baby boomers. It was 这是一个相当大的风险，但如果没有它，火博体育很可能会有同样的命运 dozens of U.S. colleges that closed in the 1970s.

也许帕拉蒙特最大的风险就是接受总统的职位 new campus was well underway, yet the money to complete it was nowhere in sight. Nevertheless 1968年，他和他的教务长埃德温·莫斯利，以及一代 年轻的教师领导，他接受了开发全新课程的挑战. 不久之后，随着对女子学院的兴趣在全国范围内逐渐减少，帕拉蒙特说服了 火博体育的校董会成员和校友们接受了学院性质的重大改变 and adopt coeducation.

在20世纪70年代的过渡时期，火博体育经历了一段非常艰难的时期 the college’s accountants!) wondered if Palamountain’s risks were worth taking, but 最后，一笔惊人的赤字得以偿还，预算得以平衡，新校区也得以建成 built. And more and more potential students began applying to Skidmore.

Palamountain’s successors continued with bold steps of their own. A major fundraising 由大卫·波特校长领导的运动帮助他实现了学术卓越的愿景， 支持特聘教授，师生合作研究，创新 Honors Forum and the ambitious new Tang Museum. A stalwart commitment to financial 即使在巨大的预算压力下，援助也帮助引进了越来越多的人才 多元化的学生群体，使火博体育成为一个更丰富、更有活力的学习环境.

如果露西今天去拜访火博体育，她的口信大概是这样的:“求你了 care tenderly for my college. See that it holds open its doors to all manner of worthy 学生们，鼓励社区的所有成员相互服务，为世界服务， and never avoid a course of action merely because it entails a daunting risk. Carry forwad the Skidmore heritage through both generosity and enterprise."

Mary C. Lynn, professor of American studies, is the author of Make No Small Plans: A History of Skidmore College.