President Skorton imparts 'things I've learned in Ithaca'

David Skorton
Robert Barker/University Photography
President David Skorton speaks at a breakfast gathering of service clubs at the Ithaca Rotary Club Nov. 19.

Eight-plus years in the greater Ithaca community taught an educator some grand lessons, a grateful Cornell President David J. Skorton told a breakfast gathering of local service clubs Nov. 19.

“University leadership is good only if it’s good for the community” was a key lesson for the president, who leaves Cornell next year to head the Smithsonian Institution.

“Nonprofits hold a community together and keep it strong,” Skorton said. His experiences here reinforced another lesson. During the last financial crisis, he said he learned a third lesson: “Transparency and consultation help in the tight spots.”

Hosted by the Ithaca Rotary Club (with participants from Ithaca Lions, Ithaca Kiwanis, Binghamton Noon Rotary, Ithaca Sunrise Rotary, Owego Rotary, Trumansburg Rotary and Dryden Rotary), the joint service clubs breakfast at the Ithaca Country Club was Skorton’s farewell summation to leaders of businesses and nonprofit agencies whom he had come to know.

Citing town-gown relationships with community entities (including Tompkins County Area Development, the Chamber of Commerce and the Collegetown Neighborhood Council), Skorton focused on an ad hoc group called Local Leaders of Color, offering the group his gratitude for helping him understand the area’s diversity. He particularly cherished chances to work with Marcia Fort ’79, the longtime head of the Greater Ithaca Activities Center, who retires next year.

New since his last address to service clubs is Rev, the downtown business incubator and entrepreneurial education center – launched in partnership with Ithaca College, Tompkins Cortland Community College, and state and local officials. “The result is a fantastic, exciting opportunity for the whole area and for anybody with a great business idea,” Skorton said.

Projects like Rev, Skorton said, “will determine our future in Tompkins County [and] whether we can think very carefully of new ways to come together with new business ideas.” He credited two Rev jump-starters: Tom Schryver, head of Cornell’s Center for Regional Economic Advancement, and Mary Opperman, Cornell vice president for human resources and safety services.

Opperman, whose responsibilities include economic development, was among Skorton’s leadership team at the breakfast, along with Vice President for University Relations Joel Malina, Vice President for Facilities Services KyuJung Whang, and Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development Charlie Phlegar.

During the Q-and-A session, Skorton thanked recently retired vice president for government relations, Rotarian Stephen P. Johnson, for helping lobby Washington lawmakers on immigration reform and to increase humanities funding. Federal science funding, however, will continue to come to a highly competitive Cornell, Skorton reassured Rotarian George Gull ’72, a recently retired Cornell astronomy researcher.

Skorton also told about his first visit to campus, for the 1995 inauguration of President Hunter Rawlings: “Walking across the Arts Quad, it took my breath away, the beauty of the campus.”

He recalled the chance to tour the other hills and gorges and downtown Ithaca: “I thought, man, what a fabulous place!”

Returning to Ithaca in 2006 to serve as president, Skorton made a discovery: “Linked to that visual beauty has been the beauty of the people and the beauty of all the things you guys have taught me, the hard-working, caring, creative people, and the fabulous community.

“The most important thing about the community is not that we have beautiful scenery,” Skorton concluded, “but the fact that we actually give a darn about each other … we will end every day as we start every day – being grateful for all we do together.”

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