The education at Skidmore is absolutely geared toward learning for its own sake. While everyone must declare a major, the essence of the liberal arts program is to give students the opportunity to explore a variety of different topics so they acquire vast amounts of knowledge, regardless of whether they pursue all of the fields they study.
Most classes at Skidmore are about 17 students... so yes, professors know your name and class participation is required. I find that students study when necessary but it is not the sort of campus that has people in the library 24/7 .. or even more than they need to be there. The kids are not competitive and even if they are, their motivation is geared toward personal sucess - not cheating someone else in order to get in the lead.
There are a lot of requirements at Skidmore, but that is really what a liberal arts education is all about. Once again, Skidmore is trying to stress the importance of global knowledge - not career based.