2022-23 academic year
The Racial Justice Initiative, now in its fourth year, continues to be a major priority
for Skidmore as the College focuses its commitments to racial justice, diversity,
and inclusivity throughout our community.
Throughout 2022-23, Skidmore鈥檚 efforts included:
- supporting such key projects as Wyckoff Center programming, including the Natural Hair Festival;
- offering multiple trainings in such areas as inclusive hiring practices, transgender support, and conflict resolution;
- continuing national leadership in the LACRELA (Liberal Arts Colleges Racial Equity Leadership Alliance) consortium;
- furthering Board of Trustees DEI committee work;
- continuing funding for the Racial Justice Initiative Teaching Challenge;
- hosting In It 7 programming, including a conversation with University of Maryland, Baltimore County President Emeritus Freeman A. Hrabowski and a program on Confronting Antisemitism;
- maintaining an ongoing partnership with MLK-Saratoga, especially for the MLK week events;
- hosting the Speech and Expression on College Campuses Symposium, with speakers including Danielle Allen; James Bryant Conant University Professor and Director of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University; Wesleyan University President鈥疢ichael Roth; and New York Times columnist, author, and commentator David Brooks;
- welcoming Commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient Mary Schmidt Campbell, Spelman College president emerita;
- supporting a visit by Aaron Dworkin, renowned arts leader, MacArthur Fellow, and Obama appointee, who shared his personal story of social entrepreneurship in the program 鈥淭hrowing the Dice: Creativity, Arts Entrepreneurship and Inclusion鈥�;
- supporting the Department of English in welcoming three-time National Poet Laureate Joy Harjo as the inaugural guest in the Identity, Race, and the Global Imagination reading series;
- supporting the Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies program in welcoming Ilan Stavans, Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American, and Latino Culture at Amherst College, in presenting the lecture 鈥淛ews and Latinos: Unlikely Partners;
- supporting a Congress to Campus program that invited former Reps. William Flores (R-TX) and Bill Enyart (D-TX) to Skidmore to share their bipartisan experiences in government and discuss a range of topics with a particular focus on fostering dialogue and reducing polarization.