The New York Times has been all-aflutter (publishing two articles in just as many days) with ways colleges across the nation have been saving money while faced with dwindling endowments.

An article from last Friday highlighted the little ways colleges are cutting back, including relaxing housekeeping schedules, which saved Oberlin College $22,300, and eliminating faculty landlines, which saves University of Washington about 1,100 dollars each month. Skidmore, no doubt, is extertaining similar economies: free HBO—a luxury we enjoy—was cut at Dickenson College for a savings of 75,000. Programs similar to Sustainable Skidmore’s “Skidmore Unplugged” challenge are also cited as being major cost cutters for colleges as electric and heating costs rise.  In fact, many of the programs mentioned in the article are already commonplace at Skidmore: our trayless dining, energy-saving light bulbs and (extremely) low-flow shower heads suggest we are ahead of the frugal curve.

This week The Times brings us another piece about thrifty schools: this time about how colleges are finding funds by hosting summer camps, academic programs, conferences and the like during the summer season. Skidmore’s relatively unused facilities are our summertime cash cow as groups pay premium prices to relax in our spacious window seats and practice on our supine grassy fields.

“The overall landscape now is one in which you’ve got to become leaner and meaner and more competitive, and that means trying to find more sources of revenue,” said Tim Kelly, a college spokesman. “Summer is an important piece of the puzzle.”

There is a marketing upside, too, in maintaining a busy campus in summer, administrators say. On campus tours, prospective students and their parents respond better to a vibrant environment. And a high school student who takes, say, a three-week screenwriting workshop might remember that institution when applying to college.”

Thanks mostly to the draw of downtown Saratoga’s summertime pulse Skidmore has hosted several summer camps, academic programs, and summer conferences in the past, but don’t be surprised if more strangers crowd the dining hall as the weather gets nicer.

Skidmore has also teamed up with 5 other upstate liberal arts colleges in an effort to share services and cut costs. Dubbing themselves The New York Six Consortium (don’t they know it is uncool to give yourself a nickname) Hamilton College, Colgate University, Hobart and William Smith, Skidmore, Union, and St Lawrence University are hoping to take advantage of economies of scale* and save some money on larger purchases. Thanks to a grant from some dude named Mellon The Six are looking to save money by banding together to pay for insurance, dining, energy, printing, technology and team up when applying for federal grants. This relationship could also lead to academic integration.

*see Professor Muhammad I was paying attention.