By PHILIP A. GLOTZBACH

Published Tuesday, May 5, 2009
The Saratogian

As president of Skidmore, I take very seriously the college’s obligations to the Saratoga Springs community.  Moreover, it is central to our educational mission that we help our students develop the capacity to act as informed, responsible citizens — both now and throughout their lives.  Over the past several years, we have initiated a number of efforts to realize these goals. We created a task force to identify ways in which we can make responsible citizenship an even more prominent focus of the student experience. Our Office of Community Relations is charged with ensuring that the college meets its obligations as an “institutional citizen” of Saratoga Springs, and our Office of Campus Sustainability helps us function even more responsibly with regard to the environment. Moreover, we support our students’ efforts to contribute to the community through Benef-Action, a campus-based community outreach program, and numerous other volunteer initiatives.

Because of Skidmore’s position in the city of Saratoga Springs, it is appropriate for community members to hold the college accountable when our institutional behavior appears to fall short of reasonable expectations. Accordingly, I both acknowledge and understand the concerns of those in our community who feel that we did not respond appropriately on April 20, and I accept the responsibility to ask whether we might have done better. Having inquired into how we responded in this case, I have concluded that our campus safety officials – who monitored the site regularly throughout the day following protocols that are widely accepted within the broader law enforcement community — did indeed act responsibly.

But this conclusion does not eliminate our obligation to always improve our performance. Accordingly, we will review our internal protocols to determine how we might respond differently to an event like “420” in the future. Furthermore, in a message last week to our students, Dean of Student Affairs Rochelle Calhoun and I reminded them that they are not exempt from the laws that govern the larger community and that the college does not tolerate illegal drug use, including smoking marijuana. In many ways, our present policies and practices dealing with alcohol and other drugs are exemplary, combining enforcement of regulations with systematic efforts to provide our students the information necessary for them to make healthy choices leading to sustainable lives. Nevertheless, I have charged Dean Calhoun to undertake a thorough review of those policies and practices to see where they, too, might be improved.

I believe it is now incumbent upon all of us, as responsible citizens, to turn our attention to the underlying concern at the heart of this recent controversy: the pervasive presence of drugs and alcohol in our schools and colleges. As we all know, this challenge is not confined to Skidmore alone, but rather affects virtually all colleges, schools and communities everywhere. The recent report by the Saratoga County Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention Council provides statistics about the local use of marijuana and alcohol that correlate with national trends reported by the Harvard School of Public Health. In short, drugs and alcohol present challenges across all segments of our society, and so we all must work together to meet those challenges.

Skidmore is eager to work with the Saratoga Springs community to address these issues from both educational and law enforcement perspectives. That is why we joined with District Attorney James A. Murphy III this past week to host a meeting with representatives from the Saratoga Springs Police Department, the New York State Police, the superintendent of the Saratoga Springs City School District and the Prevention Coalition to map out ways in which we can build upon our existing partnerships to do even more to support the health and well-being of young people in our communities. 

I am proud of the many ways in which Skidmore contributes to the welfare of Saratoga Springs and the region, and I am grateful in turn for the benefits we enjoy by being a part of this vibrant community. We have strong partnerships that we can make even stronger. The college is listening, and we are ready and willing to collaborate with the Saratoga community to be agents of positive change.

Philip A. Glotzbach is the president of Skidmore College.