SKIDMORE VOLUNTEER AND FACULTY WEBINAR ARCHIVES

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Volunteer Webinars

The Office of Advancement is pleased to provide our volunteers with a series of Skidmore Volunteer Webinars. The webinars are designed with volunteers in mind and we hope they will give you insight into the important initiatives being undertaken on campus. We’ll be making all of our webinars available as archives, so if you can’t attend a live session, check this web page for links to past presentations.

Date	Topic	Speaker(s)
3/22/12	Career Transitions & Transformations	Dean of Student Affairs Rochelle Calhoun and Director of the Career Development Center Deborah Loffredo
Summary: Join Dean of Student Affairs W. Rochelle Calhoun and Director of the Career Development Center Deborah Loffredo for a presentation on the College's current Transitions and Transformations initiative, which will provide students with opportunities during their undergraduate careers that will prepare them for life after Skidmore.  Rochelle and Deb will give a select group of Skidmore volunteers insight into their plans for the relaunch of the Career Development Center and other ways they are working with students to enhance their post-college transition.

4/22/12	Skidmore's Financial Picture (no archive available)	Michael D. West, Vice President for Finance & Administration and Treasurer
Summary: In economic times that remain challenging, Michael will talk about how the College is balancing increasing demands for financial aid with the need to continue to attract and retain the best students, faculty and staff.  Michael will also provide an update on both recently completed and ongoing construction projects. He will also give you an inside look at the factors that drive our financial decisions, which have an impact on the quality of the Skidmore experience for our students.

6/21/12	Admissions at Skidmore	Mary Lou Bates, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid
Summary: Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, Mary Lou Bates, will lead a discussion about the Admissions Landscape in 2012 and the challenges Skidmore and other selective, high cost liberal arts colleges face.  She will share information about the incoming Class of 2016 and talk about some of the challenges, including changing demographics, cost vs perceived value and the economic climate.

4/4/13	Resonance Survey: Reactions & Implications	Michael Casey, The Collyer Vice President for Advancement
Summary: In 2012, acknowledging a need to do more to engage our alumni community in the life of the College, Skidmore undertook an extensive market research project in partnership with Resonance Insights. Resonance specializes in surveys that uncover unspoken emotions and motivations. In this case, the survey itself provoked very strong reactions (both positive and negative) while yielding valuable insights into what our alumni need and desire from their relationship with the College. Michael Casey, The Collyer Vice President for Advancement, will discuss these findings and the ways in which we have shifted our programming as a result.

4/26/13	Trends for Teaching in Higher Education	Beau Breslin, Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Summary: So much of the buzz about higher education, and in particular liberal education, points to its demise. "College is too expensive," some say. "It does not produce graduates who are adequately skilled for the twenty-first century workforce. It's not worth the investment."  In some sense that buzz has dominated the recent conversation; but is it accurate? As we think about the challenges facing Skidmore and, indeed all residential liberal arts colleges, we need to think differently about the ways in which we educate students, hire faculty and staff, integrate curricular and co-curricular experiences, and so on. In this webinar, we will explore several trends in higher education and the ways in which Skidmore is responding to them.

Faculty Webinars

The Office of Advancement is pleased to provide our alumni with a series of Skidmore Faculty Webinars. The webinars are designed to bring the excellence of Skidmore faculty to alumni across the country, and around the world. We’ll be making all of our webinars available as archives, so if you can’t attend a live session, check this web page for links to past presentations.

Date	Topic	Speaker(s)
7/24/12	The Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies	Jeff Segrave, Professor of Health and Exercise Sciences, and David H. Porter Endowed Chair
Summary: A noted sports historian and Olympics expert, Professor Segrave will deconstruct the opening ceremonies and show how they serve as a massive global ritual that encodes a powerful ideology. In his lecture, he will Introduce and give a brief history of the elements of the opening ceremony (flag, torch relay, rings, etc.). He will also identify several themes that characterize the opening ceremonies: the ceremonies as global ritual, as the embodiment of the internationalist aspirations of Olympism, as the embodiment of a fundamental Olympic paradox (internationalist aspirations vs. nationalist realities), and as religion.

10/3/12	Rich, Free, and Miserable: The Failure of Success in America (no archive available)	John Brueggemann, Professor of Sociology and Quadracci Professor in Social Responsiblility
Summary: Professor John Brueggemann will discuss his book, Rich, Free, and Miserable: The Failure of Success in America. The American economy has been wildly productive for many years, sustaining its main function, while at the same time creating pressures that undermine the coherence of our families and communities. During the recent meltdown, the economy has not even fulfilled its primary function and the recession has obscured the older, more fundamental problems in our culture. Growing pressures Americans feel to work, compete, and consume have undermined our engagement in meaningful relationships and resulted in a widespread moral crisis. Brueggemann will draw from new research, which focuses on the production and consumption of food, in thinking about how we might respond intelligently to this situation.