Image taken from Skidmore College
This semester, Skidmore has signified its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), by launching a new hub on campus to house these conversations and related offices. Located at the heart of campus, on the second floor of Case Center, The Center opened its doors to the Skidmore public on Friday, September 24th. In the spirit of its name, The Center aims to be a welcoming space on campus to inspire collaboration amongst Skidmore’s student body, faculty, staff and administration in the pursuit of thinking creatively about DEI work. Although only in its beginning operational stages this semester, The Center is currently focused on receiving the Skidmore community’s input to determine its development of programming moving forward.
Outlined in Skidmore’s Strategic Plan (2015-2025) Programming is the College’s core value of ensuring equal access to educational and emotional well-being resources for all of its students. Additionally, Skidmore’s Racial Justice Initiative, a series of DEI projects launched by President Conner in the summer of 2020, offers the similar sentiment of building community structures, skills, and experiences that will uplift all voices. With its multi-functional space, The Center is working to prioritize these exact overarching principles. In fact, integral to The Center’s driving policy manual is the idea of inclusive excellence. Deputy Chief Diversity Officer and Director of The Center, Anita Jack-Davies, who came to Skidmore this past spring with 20 years of previous experience in DEI-related work in higher institutions, writes that inclusive excellence “ensures that students from a wide range of backgrounds are provided with equal access and opportunities in all areas of the College experience.” Given its intention of functioning as both a social hub and collaborative space for Skidmore and Saratoga community members of diverse backgrounds, The Center is dedicated to providing access to its meaningful programming to the constituents it serves.
Alongside inclusive excellence, The Center has four other guiding values referenced in its manual: collaboration, authenticity, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and engagement. All together, these values set up a transparent code of conduct for The Center and the use of its space, affirming the variety in the identities of students, staff, and faculty at Skidmore, as well as highlighting the importance of DEI initiatives.
The argument for a space such as The Center has been present throughout Skidmore’s history. Notably, it has been the voices of minority BIPOC students leading this charge, citing their lived experiences at this predominantly-white institution (PWI). In an interview with The Skidmore News, Jack-Davies mentioned that “there has been quite a history of student activism to think and strategize about a new space for diversity, equity, and inclusion.” She continued, “Although the language surrounding this conversation may have changed, for example students in the 1990s were asking for a multicultural center, we’re still asking for a space for minority students, BIPOC students, students who have been historically underserved.”
It is from these historical and current movements of activism for a safe academic and recreational space for students from marginalized backgrounds that The Center is blossoming. Jack-Davies was clear that The Center has brought to life a combination of student thoughts, ideas and visions for how the space could meet their needs, since the time that the project was conceptualized. “Student feedback created The Center. We have put our resources into expanding the idea of the InterCultural Center (ICC), to what it is today as The Center,” she said. In addition, the work and contributions of Jack-Davies, Joshua Woodfork, Vice President for Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity, and Mariel Martin, Associate Dean of Student Affairs, has been intrinsic to bringing The Center into fruition.
With its construction, The Center has reimagined the InterCultural Lounge (ICL) and the Class of 1972 InterCultural Center (ICC). Its physical space offers a vibrant location for events, including a main stage, with a large central video wall facing a seating area, a fireplace, and a seminar room. The multipurpose space has the potential to host a variety of events, such as classes, conferences, workshops, performances, or informal discussions. In its primary location within Case Center, The Center will serve as the meeting place for many campus stakeholders. “I see our work on campus as work that is rooted in partnership,” Jack-Davies pronounced. These partnerships will also extend into the larger Saratoga community, engaging city community members in relevant conversations happening on campus.
Jack-Davies shared that she has been inundated with positive student and community responses to The Center since it welcomed its first visitors in September. She told Skidmore News that The Center’s kickoff event attracted a high amount of foot traffic and featured a “beautiful moment” between visitors and student performers Tshering Yoezer ‘22 and Sarah Choi ‘22. Jack-Davies also stated, “When I came into this position, a lot of people reached out to me to say that they were so happy I was hired and were very excited for the new space.” She added, “The response has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Throughout the month of October, The Center also invited community members to open house tours of the space. They also had three student engagement sessions planned for the week of November 15th, inviting students to come and brainstorm possible DEI initiatives that they believe will be beneficial for the larger Skidmore community. However, to continue this momentum of its first opening months, The Center is looking for three student assistants to help with their DEI programming. Jack-Davies explained, “I need support to keep The Center up and running. We are still figuring out what is and isn’t working and until I have that additional support, we’re not able to provide the extra hours at The Center that students may need, but that’s in flux.” She was clear that if there are any students interested in these DEI assistant positions that they can reach out to her directly.
As a space already working actively to bring together community partners for productive collaboration and discussion, The Center is making steps towards Skidmore’s larger mission of increasing diversity and equity across campus. At the conclusion of her interview with Skidmore News, Jack-Davies communicated her strong desire for Skidmore students, staff and faculty to visit The Center if they have not already done so. Even more, The Center’s doors are always open for student feedback on how to cater its programming to better the Skidmore community. “I’m building the plane as I’m flying it,” Jack-Davies expressed, “[and] I don’t want to be creating programming for students, I want to create programming with students.”
Taken from The Center’s Policy Manual:
The Center is open to students, staff, faculty, alumni, and guests of Skidmore College to use its facilities during its available hours. A valid ID card is needed to access the space. The Center is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Save for special occasions, The Center is closed on weekends. These hours are temporary and additional evening and weekend hours are being determined. To reserve space within The Center for scheduled events, please contact the Director, Anita Jack-Davies, at ajdavies@skidmore.edu.