‘ATM’ college? Ex Skidmore pres. explains
BUT FIRST: Were you seen downtown by Seen in Saratoga? And other Friday news.
Happy Friday, friends!
Wednesday’s post was the most viewed ever in Dispatch history.
Noted!
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TGIF, Dispatchers.
— Abby
📸 Were you seen by Seen in Saratoga?
Dogs on Broadway, people waiting outside at Sweet Mimi’s, short jackets instead of long sleeping bag coats…remember those illyllic days between the weeks-long freeze and more snow? As we gear up for even more of the latter, our favorite anonymous photographer — Seen in Saratoga — takes a look back at Feb. 16, when Downtown was hopping.
For more of Seen in Saratoga’s photos, visit Instagram.
📰 IN BRIEF
Dual honors for Saratoga’s cb20 firm
When asked “What keeps you up at night?” during a recent Chamber event, Arrow Bank President and CEO David DeMarco said “the big battle” with cybersecurity, with the fraudsters getting better with new technology.
Now cb20, a tech firm headquartered in Saratoga Springs, has been ranked No. 1 on the Albany Business Review’s 2026 list of the Capital Region’s largest cybersecurity firms, underscoring the company’s rapid growth and demonstrated leadership in security-first IT and audio visual solutions.
In addition, the company was named to CRN’s 2026 Security 100 list, a national recognition highlighting top security-focused technology providers as demand for cybersecurity solutions continues to surge.
This news was brought to you by…
From cybersecurity to circuitry
Saratogian author Molly Dunn and her book The Circuitry We Share will be at Northshire tonight at 6 p.m. She’ll sit down with Camille Daniels to dig into Dunn’s psychological thriller that explores “the magnetic pull between people wired to feel deeply and those who only mirror emotion.”
For more info and to buy the book, visit northshire.com.
Keep reading!
Owner of former Sperry’s looking to sell
Man, it’s been rough finding the right person to take over what was once a major Caroline Street institution. Now the Albany Business Review reports that two years in, Louis Lazzinnaro “intends to put his properties up for sale this year.” The former home to the iconic Sperry’s received planning and design approvals last year, the outlet says, for a mixed-use building that includes 39 apartments.
Big changes in the Democratic committee
The Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee (SSDC) has made some awaited changes, the organization announced yesterday, in time to stare down the important 2026 election. Longtime committee leader Otis Maxwell has stepped down, eight new “aspiring District Leaders” were introduced, and Executive Committee member Minita Sanghvi — former Commissioner of Finance and current Supervisor — resigned her committee post.
Former mayor Ron Kim was unanimously elected as the interim chair.
Former Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran left his position as an At Large Executive Committee member and will focus on the Supervisor races via his role on the county’s Executive Board. He also told me that Jenny Clifton is in place as first Vice Chair (someone had to reside over the meeting where Kim was elected), and Jim Thompson is Treasurer.
Keep reading!
‘ATM’ college? Ex Skidmore pres. explains
Got a kid heading to college? Philip Glotzbach, Skidmore College President Emeritus, says your budding academic might want an ‘ATM’ experience. (Hint: it’s what it sounds like, and it isn’t good).
Philip A. Glotzbach, Skidmore College President Emeritus, says that students often arrive at college with a simple expectation: pay tuition, complete the requirements, leave with a credential.
And that “transactional culture” must be changed.
“It’s produced what I call the ATM model of college,” he told members of the Saratoga Torch Club and Saratoga AI during the inaugural episode of Torch Radio (the public is invited). “You spend four years making deposits into the slot, and then four years later you withdraw a certificate. That’s a pretty thin view of what college can be all about.”
Soberingly, says Glitzbach, who retired from Skidmore in 2020 after 17 years as its president, “ATM performs its function efficiently, but no one expects it to shape their character.”
Ouch.
“The real question of college, then,” reads an article about the talk, “is not simply what students learn, but what they learn about themselves while learning it.”
Glotzbach has written down his thoughts in a new book, Embrace Your Freedom. He covers all kinds of modern issues in the world of academia (hot topic alert) and how it must prepare students for the real, complicated world of the digital age.
“Earning a degree is like earning a black belt,” he said. “It doesn’t mean you’ve finished learning. It means you’re finally ready to begin.”
Creating new urgency on this front: tech.
“The danger isn’t that technology exists,” he said. “The danger is that we stop doing the thinking ourselves.
“If you outsource the work of thinking, eventually you lose the ability to evaluate what you’re given.”
To read the full event coverage and find out about the next ones, visit torchclub.org. To buy Glotzbach’s book, visit northshire.com.
📌 ICYMI…
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