Vassar College
Encyclopedia
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college
in the town of Poughkeepsie
, New York
, in the United States
. The Vassar campus comprises over 1000 acres (4 km²) and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International, designed over the course of the college’s history by a range of prominent architects, including James Renwick Jr., Eero Saarinen
, Marcel Breuer
, and Cesar Pelli
. In a designated arboretum, the campus features more than 200 species of trees, a native plant preserve, and a 400 acres (1.6 km²) ecological preserve.
in 1861 and became coeducational in 1969.
Vassar was the first of the Seven Sisters
colleges, higher education schools then strictly for women, and historically sister institutions to the Ivy League
. It was founded by its namesake, brewer Matthew Vassar
, in 1861 in the Hudson Valley
, about 70 mi (115 km) north of New York City
. The first person appointed to the Vassar faculty was the astronomer
Maria Mitchell
, in 1865. Vassar adopted coeducation in 1969. However, immediately following World War II
, Vassar accepted a very small number of male students on the G.I. Bill. Because Vassar's charter prohibited male matriculants, the graduates were given diplomas via the University of the State of New York
. These were reissued under the Vassar title after the school formally became co-ed. The decision to formally become co-ed followed the rejection of its trustees to merge with Yale University
, its sibling institution, in the wave of mergers between the historically all-male colleges of the Ivy League and their Seven Sisters counterparts.
Vassar's campus, also an arboretum
, is 1,000 acres (4 km²) marked by period and modern buildings. The great majority of students live on campus. The renovated library has unusually large holdings for a college of its size. It includes special collections of Albert Einstein
, Mary McCarthy
, and Elizabeth Bishop
.
In its early years, Vassar was associated with the social elite of the Protestant establishment. E. Digby Baltzell
writes that "upper-class WASP
families educated their children at colleges such as Harvard
, Princeton
, Yale
, and Vassar." Before becoming President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a Trustee.
In recent freshman classes, minority students have composed up to 27% of matriculants. International students from over 45 countries compose 8% of the student body. In May 2007, falling in with its commitment to diverse and equitable education, Vassar returned to a need-blind admissions policy wherein students are admitted by their academic and personal qualities, without regard to financial status.
Roughly 2,400 students attend Vassar. About 60% come from public high schools, and 40% come from private schools (both independent and religious). The overall female-to-male ratio is about 60:40, slightly above the standard for a liberal arts college. More than 85% of graduates pursue advanced study within five years of graduation. They are taught by more than 270 faculty members, virtually all of whom hold terminal degrees in their fields.
Vassar president Frances D. Fergusson
served for two decades. She retired in the spring of 2006, and was succeeded by Catharine Bond Hill
, former provost at Williams College
.
degree in more than 50 majors, including the Independent Major, in which a student may design a major, as well as various interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary fields of study. Students also participate in such programs as the Self-Instructional Language Program (SILP) which offers courses in Hindi, Irish/Gaelic, Korean, Portuguese, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, and Yiddish. Vassar has a flexible curriculum intended to promote breadth in studies. While each field of study has specific requirements for majors, the only universal requirements for graduation are proficiency in a foreign language, a quantitative course, and a freshman writing course. Students are also strongly encouraged to study abroad
, which they typically do during one or two semesters of their junior year. Students (usually juniors) may apply for a year or a semester away either in the U.S. or abroad. Vassar sponsors programs in China, England, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Turkey, Mexico, Morocco, Spain and Russia; students may also join preapproved programs offered by other colleges. Students may also apply for approved programs at various U.S. institutions, including the historically Black colleges and members of the Twelve College Exchange.
All classes are taught by members of the faculty, and there are no graduate students or teachers' assistants. The most popular majors are English
, biology
, political science
, psychology
and economics
. Vassar also offers a variety of correlate sequences, or minors, for intensive study in many disciplines.
places Vassar in the top 10 of its ranking of best value liberal arts colleges in the United States.
In an article in The Christian Science Monitor
on the subject, Vassar's current president, Catharine Bond Hill
, argued that rankings "will always be limited in what they can tell consumers. Part of higher education's role about the rankings should be to remind students and their families that these are only one piece of information that they should take into account in deciding where to go to college. Intangibles will and should play a role in these decisions, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't also look at the tangibles".
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Vassar is home to one of the largest undergraduate library collections in the U.S. The library collection today - which actually encompasses eight libraries at Vassar - contains about 1 million volumes and 7,500 serial, periodical and newspaper titles, as well as an extensive collection of microfilm and microfiche. Vassar has been a Federal depository library for selected U.S. Government documents since 1943 and currently receives approximately 25% of the titles available through the Federal Depository Program. Since 1988, Vassar has been a New York State Reference Center, part of the New York Depository Program. The library also selectively purchases United Nations documents.
Vassar competes in Division III of the NCAA, as a member of the Liberty League
.
Vassar College currently offers the following varsity
athletics
: basketball
, baseball
, cross-country, fencing
, field hockey (women only), golf (women only), lacrosse
, rowing
, rugby, soccer
, squash
, swimming/diving, tennis, track, and volleyball. Club sports include Ultimate
(men's and women's), equestrian team (competes in IHSA
), polo team (USPA), cycling team (competes in ECCC), Quidditch, and co-ed USFSA synchronized skating team.
Basketball plays in Vassar's new Athletics and Fitness Center. Volleyball plays in Kenyon Hall, reopened in 2006. Soccer, baseball, field hockey and lacrosse all play at the Prentiss Fields, which have been completely renovated in 2007 to feature a lighted turf, four grass fields, a baseball field and a track surrounding the turf. Also in 2007, a varsity weight room was opened in the basement of Kenyon Hall, exclusively for the training of varsity athletes.
In 2008, the Vassar men's volleyball team made the school's first appearance in a national championship game, beating UC-Santa Cruz 3-0 in the semifinal before falling to Springfield in the championship game.
On April of 28th and 29th, the Vassar Cycling Team hosted the Eastern Conference Championships in Collegiate Cycling in Poughkeepsie and New Paltz, NY. The competition included a 98 miles (157.7 km) road race over the Gunks in New Paltz as well as a Criterium in Poughkeepsie just blocks from the school's campus.
In a controversial move, the Vassar Athletics Department decided to revoke the varsity status of the men's and women's rowing
team on November 5, 2009, choosing instead to investigate the option of a club team http://www.miscellanynews.com/2.1580/crew-to-transition-to-club-team-over-next-two-years-1.2052809.
The Vassar campus has several buildings of architectural interest. Main Building
, formerly housed the entire college, including classrooms, dormitories, museum, library, and dining halls. The building was designed by Smithsonian architect James Renwick Jr. and was completed in 1865. It was preceded on campus by the original observatory
. Both buildings are National Historic Landmark
s. The Rombout House
was purchased by the college in 1915 and added to the National Register of Historic Places
in 1982.
Many beautiful old brick
buildings are scattered throughout the campus, but there are also several modern and contemporary structures of architectural interest. Ferry House, a student cooperative, was designed by Marcel Breuer
in 1951. Noyes House was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen
. A good example of an attempt to use passive solar design can be seen in the Mudd Chemistry Building by Perry Dean Rogers. More recently, New Haven architect César Pelli
was asked to design the Lehman Loeb Art Center, which was completed in the early 1990s. In 2003, Pelli also worked on the renovation of Main Building Lobby and the conversion of the Avery Hall theater into the $25 million Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film, which preserved the original 1860s facade but was an entirely new structure.
paintings to be displayed in the Main Building. Referred to as the Magoon Collection, it continues to be one of the best in the nation for Hudson River School paintings. The Frances Lehman Loeb Gallery displays a selection of Vassar's 18,000 articles of art in the building designed by Cesar Pelli
(see Architecture). Today, the gallery's collection displays art from the ancient world up through contemporary works. The collection includes work by European masters such as Brueghel
, Doré
, Picasso, Balthus
, Bacon
, Vuillard, Cézanne, Braque and Bonnard
, as well as examples from leading twentieth-century American painters Jackson Pollock
, Agnes Martin
, Mark Rothko
, Marsden Hartley
, Georgia O'Keeffe
, Charles Sheeler
, and Ben Shahn
. The Loeb's works on paper represent a major collection in the United States, with prints by Rembrandt (including important impressions of the "Hundred Guilder Print
" and the "Three Trees") and Dürer
as well as photographs by Cindy Sherman
, Diane Arbus
, and others. Students at the college can act as liaisons between the art center and the wider college community through work on the Student Committee of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, to which incoming freshman can apply.
The interior and exterior of the Van Ingen Art Library was renovated from June 2008 - May 2009 in an effort to restore its original design and appearance. This was the library's first major renovation since its construction in 1937.
The school's bookstore, currently located on campus and operated by Barnes and Noble, was to be moved during the 2009-2010 school year to an off-campus location. The expanded bookstore was expected to carry a wider range of merchandise and will serve as a venue for appropriate entertainment. The relocation has been put on hold due to financial restrictions.
There are also preliminary plans for a new science building. Mudd, the chemistry building, may be demolished to make room for the new construction.
(1917), computer pioneer Grace Hopper
(1928), poet Elizabeth Bishop
(1934), physician Beatrix Hamburg
(1944), psychiatrist Bernadine P. Healy (1965), actress Meryl Streep
(1971), CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Chip Reid
(1977), television personality Andrew Zimmern
(1984), actress Lisa Kudrow
(1985), actress Hope Davis
(1986), musician Mark Ronson
, journalist Evan Wright
(1988), writer-director Noah Baumbach
(1991), Flickr founder Caterina Fake
(1991), What Not to Wear host Stacy London
(1991), Survivor: Africa winner Ethan Zohn
(1996), gallerist, art advisor, and Work of Art judge Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn (1989), writer Neil Strauss (author of The Game)].
Notable attendees who did not graduate from Vassar include First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
, president of the Ford Foundation
Susan Berresford
, actresses Jane Fonda
and Anne Hathaway
, actor Justin Long
, member of the Beastie Boys
Mike D and professional chef and television personality Anthony Bourdain
.
Notable Vassar faculty include pioneering female astronomer Maria Mitchell
and composer Richard Edward Wilson
.
Liberal arts colleges in the United States
Liberal arts colleges in the United States are certain undergraduate institutions of higher education in the United States. The Encyclopædia Britannica Concise offers a definition of the liberal arts as a "college or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general...
in the town of Poughkeepsie
Poughkeepsie (town), New York
Poughkeepsie is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 42,777 at the 2000 census. The name is derived from the native term, "Uppu-qui-ipis-in," which means "reed-covered hut by the water."...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The Vassar campus comprises over 1000 acres (4 km²) and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International, designed over the course of the college’s history by a range of prominent architects, including James Renwick Jr., Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.-Biography:Eero Saarinen shared the same birthday as his father,...
, Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
, and Cesar Pelli
César Pelli
César Pelli is an Argentine architect known for designing some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. In 1991, the American Institute of Architects listed Pelli among the ten most influential living American architects...
. In a designated arboretum, the campus features more than 200 species of trees, a native plant preserve, and a 400 acres (1.6 km²) ecological preserve.
Overview
Vassar was founded as a women's collegeWomen's college
Women's colleges in higher education are undergraduate, bachelor's degree-granting institutions, often liberal arts colleges, whose student populations are composed exclusively or almost exclusively of women...
in 1861 and became coeducational in 1969.
Vassar was the first of the Seven Sisters
Seven Sisters (colleges)
The Seven Sisters are seven liberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States that are historically women's colleges. They are Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, Radcliffe College, Smith College, Vassar College, and Wellesley College. All were founded between 1837 and...
colleges, higher education schools then strictly for women, and historically sister institutions to the Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
. It was founded by its namesake, brewer Matthew Vassar
Matthew Vassar
Matthew Vassar was an English-born American brewer and merchant. He founded the eponymous Vassar College in 1861.He was a cousin of John Ellison Vassar.-Background:...
, in 1861 in the Hudson Valley
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...
, about 70 mi (115 km) north of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The first person appointed to the Vassar faculty was the astronomer
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
Maria Mitchell
Maria Mitchell
Maria Mitchell was an American astronomer, who in 1847, by using a telescope, discovered a comet which as a result became known as the "Miss Mitchell's Comet". She won a gold medal prize for her discovery which was presented to her by King Frederick VII of Denmark. The medal said “Not in vain do...
, in 1865. Vassar adopted coeducation in 1969. However, immediately following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Vassar accepted a very small number of male students on the G.I. Bill. Because Vassar's charter prohibited male matriculants, the graduates were given diplomas via the University of the State of New York
University of the State of New York
The University of the State of New York is the State of New York's governmental umbrella organization responsible for most institutions and people in any way connected with formal educational functions, public and private, in New York State...
. These were reissued under the Vassar title after the school formally became co-ed. The decision to formally become co-ed followed the rejection of its trustees to merge with Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, its sibling institution, in the wave of mergers between the historically all-male colleges of the Ivy League and their Seven Sisters counterparts.
Vassar's campus, also an arboretum
Arboretum
An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
, is 1,000 acres (4 km²) marked by period and modern buildings. The great majority of students live on campus. The renovated library has unusually large holdings for a college of its size. It includes special collections of Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
, Mary McCarthy
Mary McCarthy (author)
Mary Therese McCarthy was an American author, critic and political activist.- Early life :Born in Seattle, Washington, to Roy Winfield McCarthy and his wife, the former Therese Preston, McCarthy was orphaned at the age of six when both her parents died in the great flu epidemic of 1918...
, and Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop was an American poet and short-story writer. She was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 1949 to 1950, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1956 and a National Book Award Winner for Poetry in 1970. Elizabeth Bishop House is an artists' retreat in Great Village, Nova Scotia...
.
In its early years, Vassar was associated with the social elite of the Protestant establishment. E. Digby Baltzell
E. Digby Baltzell
Edward Digby Baltzell was an American sociologist, academic and author.-Life and career:Baltzell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a wealthy Episcopalian family. "Digby" attended St. Paul's School, an Episcopal boarding school in New Hampshire. He attended the University of Pennsylvania,...
writes that "upper-class WASP
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or WASP is an informal term, often derogatory or disparaging, for a closed group of high-status Americans mostly of British Protestant ancestry. The group supposedly wields disproportionate financial and social power. When it appears in writing, it is usually used to...
families educated their children at colleges such as Harvard
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
, Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, Yale
Yale College
Yale College was the official name of Yale University from 1718 to 1887. The name now refers to the undergraduate part of the university. Each undergraduate student is assigned to one of 12 residential colleges.-Residential colleges:...
, and Vassar." Before becoming President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a Trustee.
In recent freshman classes, minority students have composed up to 27% of matriculants. International students from over 45 countries compose 8% of the student body. In May 2007, falling in with its commitment to diverse and equitable education, Vassar returned to a need-blind admissions policy wherein students are admitted by their academic and personal qualities, without regard to financial status.
Roughly 2,400 students attend Vassar. About 60% come from public high schools, and 40% come from private schools (both independent and religious). The overall female-to-male ratio is about 60:40, slightly above the standard for a liberal arts college. More than 85% of graduates pursue advanced study within five years of graduation. They are taught by more than 270 faculty members, virtually all of whom hold terminal degrees in their fields.
Vassar president Frances D. Fergusson
Frances D. Fergusson
Frances Daly Fergusson served as president of Vassar College from 1986 to 2006. A graduate of Wellesley College, Fergusson earned her A.M. and Ph.D...
served for two decades. She retired in the spring of 2006, and was succeeded by Catharine Bond Hill
Catharine Bond Hill
Catharine "Cappy" Bond Hill is the current president of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. She began in 2006, after former president Frances D. Fergusson retired. Before coming to Vassar, Hill was provost at Williams College.-Biography:...
, former provost at Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
.
Academics
Vassar confers the B. A.Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in more than 50 majors, including the Independent Major, in which a student may design a major, as well as various interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary fields of study. Students also participate in such programs as the Self-Instructional Language Program (SILP) which offers courses in Hindi, Irish/Gaelic, Korean, Portuguese, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, and Yiddish. Vassar has a flexible curriculum intended to promote breadth in studies. While each field of study has specific requirements for majors, the only universal requirements for graduation are proficiency in a foreign language, a quantitative course, and a freshman writing course. Students are also strongly encouraged to study abroad
Study abroad
Studying abroad is the act of a student pursuing educational opportunities in a country other than one's own. This can include primary, secondary and post-secondary students...
, which they typically do during one or two semesters of their junior year. Students (usually juniors) may apply for a year or a semester away either in the U.S. or abroad. Vassar sponsors programs in China, England, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Turkey, Mexico, Morocco, Spain and Russia; students may also join preapproved programs offered by other colleges. Students may also apply for approved programs at various U.S. institutions, including the historically Black colleges and members of the Twelve College Exchange.
All classes are taught by members of the faculty, and there are no graduate students or teachers' assistants. The most popular majors are English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
, biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
, psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
and economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
. Vassar also offers a variety of correlate sequences, or minors, for intensive study in many disciplines.
Rankings
Vassar is highly selective. The annual ranking of U.S.News & World Report places it in the top 25 liberal arts colleges in the nation and categorizes it as 'most selective'. Forbes Magazine places Vassar in the top 25 of its "America's Best Colleges" ranking which includes military academies, national universities, and liberal arts colleges. Kiplinger's Personal FinanceKiplinger's Personal Finance
Kiplinger's Personal Finance is a magazine that has been continuously published, on a monthly basis, from 1947 to the present day. It was the nation's first personal finance magazine, and claims to deliver "sound, unbiased advice in clear, concise language"...
places Vassar in the top 10 of its ranking of best value liberal arts colleges in the United States.
In an article in The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...
on the subject, Vassar's current president, Catharine Bond Hill
Catharine Bond Hill
Catharine "Cappy" Bond Hill is the current president of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. She began in 2006, after former president Frances D. Fergusson retired. Before coming to Vassar, Hill was provost at Williams College.-Biography:...
, argued that rankings "will always be limited in what they can tell consumers. Part of higher education's role about the rankings should be to remind students and their families that these are only one piece of information that they should take into account in deciding where to go to college. Intangibles will and should play a role in these decisions, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't also look at the tangibles".
Libraries
Vassar is home to one of the largest undergraduate library collections in the U.S. The library collection today - which actually encompasses eight libraries at Vassar - contains about 1 million volumes and 7,500 serial, periodical and newspaper titles, as well as an extensive collection of microfilm and microfiche. Vassar has been a Federal depository library for selected U.S. Government documents since 1943 and currently receives approximately 25% of the titles available through the Federal Depository Program. Since 1988, Vassar has been a New York State Reference Center, part of the New York Depository Program. The library also selectively purchases United Nations documents.
Athletics
Vassar competes in Division III of the NCAA, as a member of the Liberty League
Liberty League
The Liberty League is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA’s Division III. Originally founded in 1995 as the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association, was renamed during the summer of 2004 to the current name...
.
Vassar College currently offers the following varsity
Varsity team
In the United States and Canada, varsity sports teams are the principal athletic teams representing a college, university, high school or other secondary school. Such teams compete against the principal athletic teams at other colleges/universities, or in the case of secondary schools, against...
athletics
College athletics
College athletics refers primarily to sports and athletic competition organized and funded by institutions of tertiary education . In the United States, college athletics is a two-tiered system. The first tier includes the sports that are sanctioned by one of the collegiate sport governing bodies...
: basketball
College basketball
College basketball most often refers to the USA basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III....
, baseball
College baseball
College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. Compared to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a less significant contribution to cultivating professional players, as the minor leagues primarily...
, cross-country, fencing
Collegiate fencing
Collegiate fencing has existed for a long time. Some of the earliest programs in the US came from the Ivy League schools, but now there are over 100 fencing programs in the US. Both clubs and varsity teams participate in the sport, however only the varsity teams may participate in the NCAA...
, field hockey (women only), golf (women only), lacrosse
College lacrosse
College lacrosse refers to lacrosse played by student athletes at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. In both countries, men's field lacrosse and women's lacrosse are played in both the varsity and club levels...
, rowing
College rowing (United States)
Rowing is one of the oldest intercollegiate sports in the United States. However, rowers comprise only 2.2% of total college athletes. This may be in part because of the status of rowing as an amateur sport and because not all universities have access to suitable bodies of water. In the 2002-03...
, rugby, soccer
College soccer
College soccer is a term used to describe association football played by teams who are operated by colleges and universities as opposed to a professional league operated for exclusively financial purposes...
, squash
Squash (sport)
Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...
, swimming/diving, tennis, track, and volleyball. Club sports include Ultimate
Ultimate (sport)
Ultimate is a sport played with a 175 gram flying disc. The object of the game is to score points by passing the disc to a player in the opposing end zone, similar to an end zone in American football or rugby...
(men's and women's), equestrian team (competes in IHSA
IHSA
IHSA can refer to:*Illinois High School Association*Intercollegiate Horse Show Association...
), polo team (USPA), cycling team (competes in ECCC), Quidditch, and co-ed USFSA synchronized skating team.
Basketball plays in Vassar's new Athletics and Fitness Center. Volleyball plays in Kenyon Hall, reopened in 2006. Soccer, baseball, field hockey and lacrosse all play at the Prentiss Fields, which have been completely renovated in 2007 to feature a lighted turf, four grass fields, a baseball field and a track surrounding the turf. Also in 2007, a varsity weight room was opened in the basement of Kenyon Hall, exclusively for the training of varsity athletes.
In 2008, the Vassar men's volleyball team made the school's first appearance in a national championship game, beating UC-Santa Cruz 3-0 in the semifinal before falling to Springfield in the championship game.
On April of 28th and 29th, the Vassar Cycling Team hosted the Eastern Conference Championships in Collegiate Cycling in Poughkeepsie and New Paltz, NY. The competition included a 98 miles (157.7 km) road race over the Gunks in New Paltz as well as a Criterium in Poughkeepsie just blocks from the school's campus.
In a controversial move, the Vassar Athletics Department decided to revoke the varsity status of the men's and women's rowing
College rowing (United States)
Rowing is one of the oldest intercollegiate sports in the United States. However, rowers comprise only 2.2% of total college athletes. This may be in part because of the status of rowing as an amateur sport and because not all universities have access to suitable bodies of water. In the 2002-03...
team on November 5, 2009, choosing instead to investigate the option of a club team http://www.miscellanynews.com/2.1580/crew-to-transition-to-club-team-over-next-two-years-1.2052809.
Extra-curricular organizations
- The Vassar Student Association (VSA) includes all students as its members, and is headed by the VSA Council. As the legislative body of the student government, the Council certifies and provides funds to all student organizations on campus. The VSA Executive Board oversees the VSA system and advocates on behalf of students. Students elected via the VSA election process take active roles in governance by participating on College committees.
- The Miscellany News, founded in 1866, is the oldest publication of Vassar College, and one of the oldest college weekly newspapers in the United States. Known as 'The Misc' among students, the paper comes out each Thursday. The paper has twice won the Pacemaker Award given by the Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
School of JournalismColumbia University Graduate School of JournalismThe Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is one of Columbia's graduate and professional schools. It offers three degree programs: Master of Science in journalism , Master of Arts in journalism and a Ph.D. in communications...
. - The College has multiple political clubs, including the Vassar College Democrats and the Moderate, Independent, Conservative Alliance (MICA).
- The Vassar Night Owls, founded in 1942, is the oldest continuing female a cappella group in the US. They arrange, rehearse, perform and record concerts at Vassar, other colleges, the US and abroad. The Night Owls were invited to sing at both of Pres. Clinton’s inaugurations, and have been featured on Comedy Central. Membership is by audition.
- Matthew's Minstrels, founded in 1978, was Vassar's first co-ed a cappellaA cappellaA cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
group. The Minstrels repertoire includes a large variety of songs, including from doo-wop of the 1950s, pop songs from the 80s, and today's chart topping hits. In 1990, Matthew's Mintsrels were featured on MTV's Head of the Charles weekend special. - The Philaletheis Society is the oldest theater group on campus, which was founded in 1865 as a literary society. It has now become a completely student run theater group. Others include Unbound, Woodshed, Idlewild (an all-female ensemble), Future Watistaff of America (for musical theater), and two Shakespeare-specific troupes. Performances are done all over campus including in the Susan Stein Shiva Theater, which is an all student run black box theater. The college also hosts the Powerhouse Summer Theater workshop series.
- ViCE (Vassar College Entertainment) books outside entertainers for on-campus performances, with the College Campus Activities staff acting as facilitators. In recent years, ViCE has brought acts like Wyclef JeanWyclef JeanWyclef Jean is a Haitian musician, record producer, and politician. At age nine, Jean moved to the United States with his family and has spent much of his life in the country...
, M.I.A.M.I.A. (artist)Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam , better known by her stage name M.I.A. , is an English singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, painter and director of Sri Lankan Tamil descent. Her compositions combine elements of hip hop, electronica, dance, alternative and world music. M.I.A...
, Vampire WeekendVampire WeekendVampire Weekend is an American indie rock band from New York City that formed in 2006 and signed to XL Recordings. The Band has four members: Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Tomson, and Chris Baio. The band released its first album Vampire Weekend in 2008, which produced the singles "Mansard...
, TV on the RadioTV on the RadioTV on the Radio is an American art rock band formed in 2001 in Brooklyn, New York, whose music spans numerous diverse genres, from post-punk to electro and free jazz to soul music....
, Girl TalkGirl Talk (musician)Gregg Michael Gillis , better known by his stage name Girl Talk, is an American musician specializing in mashups and digital sampling. Gillis has released five LPs on the record label Illegal Art and EPs on 333 and 12 Apostles....
, Passion PitPassion PitPassion Pit is an American electropop band from Cambridge, Massachusetts. The group, which formed in 2007, consists of Michael Angelakos , Ian Hultquist , Ayad Al Adhamy , Jeff Apruzzese and Nate Donmoyer...
, BeirutBeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, The Flaming LipsThe Flaming LipsThe Flaming Lips are an American alternative rock band, formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983.Melodically, their sound contains lush, multi-layered, psychedelic rock arrangements, but lyrically their compositions show elements of space rock, including unusual song and album titles—such as "What...
, Beach HouseBeach HouseBeach House is a dream pop duo formed in 2004 in Baltimore, Maryland, consisting of French-born Victoria Legrand and Baltimore native Alex Scally. Their self-titled debut, Beach House, released in 2006, was critically acclaimed. This was followed by their second release, Devotion, in 2008...
, and Broken Social SceneBroken Social SceneBroken Social Scene is a Canadian indie rock band, a musical collective including as few as six and as many as nineteen members, formed in 1999 by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. Most of its members currently play in various other groups and solo projects, mainly based around the city of Toronto...
to campus. During the late 1990s, talks were briefly in the works to bring Extreme Championship WrestlingExtreme Championship WrestlingExtreme Championship Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1992 by Tod Gordon and closed when his successor, Paul Heyman, declared bankruptcy in April 2001...
to the Walker Field House, but the company opted instead to remain at the nearby Mid-Hudson Civic Center. - AirCappella is an all-whistling a cappellaA cappellaA cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
group. Since its conception in 2005, AirCappella has played outside the College, having represented Vassar at the 2007 and 2009 International Whistlers Convention in Louisburg, North Carolina. Advil pharmaceutical hired the group to whistle "Eye of the TigerEye of the Tiger"Eye of the Tiger" is a single by American rock band Survivor, from their third album Eye of the Tiger. It was released as a single on May 29, 1982, the same year as the album. It was written at the request of actor Sylvester Stallone, who was unable to get permission for Queen's "Another One Bites...
" at their annual sales meeting in Atlanta in January 2008. - Vassar Filmmakers, one of the newest extra-curricular organizations, offers film and video equipment to any film or non-film major with a proposed idea and brings guest lectures by filmmakers such as Eugene JareckiEugene JareckiEugene Jarecki is an author and a dramatic and documentary filmmaker based in New York.His works include Why We Fight, which won the 2005 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, The Trials of Henry Kissinger, Reagan, Freakonomics , Quest of the Carib Canoe, and Season of the...
, Albert MayslesAlbert and David MayslesAlbert and David Maysles were a documentary filmmaking team whose cinéma vérité works include Salesman , Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens . Their 1964 film on The Beatles forms the backbone of the DVD, The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit...
and J. J. Murphy. - Vassar Quidditch: Vassar College also boasts a successful quidditch team, the Butterbeer Brewers. Established in 2007, the Brewers won second place at the 2008 US College Quidditch Cup held at Middlebury College. Quidditch practices are open to any member of the Vassar community and often receive a mixture of confusion and admiration from bystanders.
- The Barefoot Monkeys is Vassar's Circus Arts, Firespinning, and Juggling Club. Most frequently found at 'playtime' on the quad, or indoors in Main building or UpCDC during the winter, The Monkeys perform on and off campus and strive to bring the fun of circus arts to the Vassar community.
- The Vassar Greens is Vassar's environmental group. This group strives to create real and lasting change on campus and in the greater Poughkeepsie community through initiatives like banning bottled water, on campus composting, and encourage local policy makers to adopt more sustainable waste management practices. Recently, the group opened the 'Free Market' on campus. This a store that students can donate to and take from freely to promote recycling and reduce waste.
Campus Publications
- The Vassar Chronicle is the College's only political journal, published monthly by the Moderate, Independent, Conservative Alliance (MICA), which seeks to expand the breadth of political dialogue on campus by publishing long-form opinion columns. The Chronicle is the revivification of a student publication that appeared from 1944-1959 and during the 70s; the modern-day Chronicle has been published since 2010 and currently has a 1,000-copy circulation.
- The Miscellany News, has been the weekly paper of the College since 1866, making it one of the oldest college weeklies in the United States. It is available for free most Thursdays when school is in session. In 2008-09, it became one of the only college newspapers in the country to begin updating its Web site daily.
- Mads Vassar is an unofficial student-run blog, created in 2007. The site is updated with posts about news, current events, and campus culture at Vassar. Since its inception, the site has received over 800,000 visits. For two consecutive years, the U.S. News and World Report's "Paper Trail" nominated Mads for Best Alternative Media Outlet. The site is on hiatus as of August 2011.
- Helicon is an annual literary and art magazine featuring works (fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, artwork, photography, essays, etc.) by Vassar students. It is the oldest student-run literary publication in the college's history. Its purpose is to serve the needs and expand the creative voice of Vassar’s literary and art community. Helicon also orchestrates events and activities garnered towards the enrichment of Vassar’s writers community. Some past events have included regularly scheduled Writing Workshops and Writer’s Nights in the Cafe as well as the sponsoring of various relevant speakers brought by other organizations.
- Squirm "is a submissions-based [Erotic] magazine about sex and sexuality. Squirm seeks to create a sex-positive forum on campus for the artistic, literary, and creative exploration of sex." The magazine, published annually since 1999, typically runs around 60 pages and is only distributed to the campus-community.
- The Vassar Spectator (defunct) long-running campus publication of opinion and commentary, published quarterly. During the 60s and 70s it acquired a conservative editorial bent, and came into controversy with campus activists of the time.
Architecture
Main Building (Vassar College)
Main Building is on the Vassar College campus in Poughkeepsie, New York. It was built by James Renwick Jr. in the Second Empire style in 1861, the second building in the history of what was one of America's first women's colleges. At the time, it housed the entire college, including dormitories,...
, formerly housed the entire college, including classrooms, dormitories, museum, library, and dining halls. The building was designed by Smithsonian architect James Renwick Jr. and was completed in 1865. It was preceded on campus by the original observatory
Vassar College Observatory
The Vassar College Observatory is located near the eastern edge of the Poughkeepsie, New York college's campus. Finished in 1865, it was the first building on the college's campus, older even than the Main Building, with which it shares the status of National Historic Landmark...
. Both buildings are National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
s. The Rombout House
Rombout House
Rombout House is a historic home located at Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York. It was built about 1854 and is a -story, three-bay-wide, Bracketed Style dwelling. It sits on a raised basement and features a central pavilion. It has been owned by Vassar College since 1915.It was added to the...
was purchased by the college in 1915 and added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1982.
Many beautiful old brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
buildings are scattered throughout the campus, but there are also several modern and contemporary structures of architectural interest. Ferry House, a student cooperative, was designed by Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
in 1951. Noyes House was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.-Biography:Eero Saarinen shared the same birthday as his father,...
. A good example of an attempt to use passive solar design can be seen in the Mudd Chemistry Building by Perry Dean Rogers. More recently, New Haven architect César Pelli
César Pelli
César Pelli is an Argentine architect known for designing some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. In 1991, the American Institute of Architects listed Pelli among the ten most influential living American architects...
was asked to design the Lehman Loeb Art Center, which was completed in the early 1990s. In 2003, Pelli also worked on the renovation of Main Building Lobby and the conversion of the Avery Hall theater into the $25 million Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film, which preserved the original 1860s facade but was an entirely new structure.
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
Matthew Vassar was known for declaring that "art should stand boldly forth as an educational force." The art collection at Vassar dates to the founding of the College, when Vassar provided an extensive collection of Hudson River SchoolHudson River school
The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism...
paintings to be displayed in the Main Building. Referred to as the Magoon Collection, it continues to be one of the best in the nation for Hudson River School paintings. The Frances Lehman Loeb Gallery displays a selection of Vassar's 18,000 articles of art in the building designed by Cesar Pelli
César Pelli
César Pelli is an Argentine architect known for designing some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. In 1991, the American Institute of Architects listed Pelli among the ten most influential living American architects...
(see Architecture). Today, the gallery's collection displays art from the ancient world up through contemporary works. The collection includes work by European masters such as Brueghel
Brueghel
Brueghel or Bruegel was the name of several Dutch/Flemish painters from the same family line:* Pieter Bruegel the Elder — The most famous member of the family and the only one to sign his paintings as 'Bruegel' without the H....
, Doré
Dore
Dore is a village in South Yorkshire, England. The village lies on a hill above the River Sheaf, and until 1934 was part of Derbyshire, but it is now a suburb of Sheffield. It is served by Dore and Totley railway station on the Hope Valley Line...
, Picasso, Balthus
Balthus
Balthasar Klossowski de Rola , best known as Balthus, was an esteemed but controversial Polish-French modern artist....
, Bacon
Francis Bacon (painter)
Francis Bacon , was an Irish-born British figurative painter known for his bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw imagery. Bacon's painterly but abstract figures typically appear isolated in glass or steel geometrical cages set against flat, nondescript backgrounds...
, Vuillard, Cézanne, Braque and Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard was a French painter and printmaker, as well as a founding member of Les Nabis.-Biography:...
, as well as examples from leading twentieth-century American painters Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
, Agnes Martin
Agnes Martin
Agnes Bernice Martin was an American abstract painter, often referred to as a minimalist; Martin considered herself an abstract expressionist.She won a National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1998....
, Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz , was a Russian-born American painter. He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted classification as an "abstract painter".- Childhood :Mark Rothko was born in Dvinsk, Vitebsk Province, Russian...
, Marsden Hartley
Marsden Hartley
Marsden Hartley was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist.-Early life and education:Hartley was born in Lewiston, Maine, where his English parents had settled. He was the youngest of nine children. His mother died when he was eight, and his father remarried four years later to Martha...
, Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist.Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916, several decades before women had gained access to art training in America’s colleges and universities, and before any of its women artists...
, Charles Sheeler
Charles Sheeler
Charles Rettew Sheeler, Jr. was an American artist. He is recognized as one of the founders of American modernism and one of the master photographers of the 20th century.-Early life and career:...
, and Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as The Shape of Content.-Biography:...
. The Loeb's works on paper represent a major collection in the United States, with prints by Rembrandt (including important impressions of the "Hundred Guilder Print
Hundred Guilder Print
The Hundred Guilder Print is an etching by Rembrandt. The etching's popular name derives from the large sum of money supposedly once paid for an impression...
" and the "Three Trees") and Dürer
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...
as well as photographs by Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman is an American photographer and film director, best known for her conceptual portraits. Sherman currently lives and works in New York City. In 1995, she was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. She is represented by Sprüth Magers Berlin London in and Metro Pictures gallery in...
, Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971) was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal." A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid.....
, and others. Students at the college can act as liaisons between the art center and the wider college community through work on the Student Committee of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, to which incoming freshman can apply.
After Vassar
Over 85% of Vassar graduates plan to pursue advanced study within 5 years of graduation; seventy percent of graduates actually do. Of the seniors who applied to medical school, 75% were accepted. Of the seniors who applied to law school, 82% were accepted. Vassar offers a database of 3,000 volunteer alumni where students may seek career advice and opportunities.Future
Davison, one of Vassar's nine residence houses, was renovated during the 2008-2009 school year. The dorm went offline for that year and its residents were absorbed into the college's remaining residence houses. This is the second dorm to be renovated as part of the school's master plan to renovate all dorms, following Jewett a few years earlier. Lathrop was scheduled to be renovated during the 2010-2011 school year, but renovation has been put off indefinitely due to the economic downturn.The interior and exterior of the Van Ingen Art Library was renovated from June 2008 - May 2009 in an effort to restore its original design and appearance. This was the library's first major renovation since its construction in 1937.
The school's bookstore, currently located on campus and operated by Barnes and Noble, was to be moved during the 2009-2010 school year to an off-campus location. The expanded bookstore was expected to carry a wider range of merchandise and will serve as a venue for appropriate entertainment. The relocation has been put on hold due to financial restrictions.
There are also preliminary plans for a new science building. Mudd, the chemistry building, may be demolished to make room for the new construction.
Notable faculty and alumni
Notable Vassar alumni include poet Edna St. Vincent MillayEdna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet, playwright and feminist. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and was known for her activism and her many love affairs. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work...
(1917), computer pioneer Grace Hopper
Grace Hopper
Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper was an American computer scientist and United States Navy officer. A pioneer in the field, she was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, and developed the first compiler for a computer programming language...
(1928), poet Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop was an American poet and short-story writer. She was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 1949 to 1950, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1956 and a National Book Award Winner for Poetry in 1970. Elizabeth Bishop House is an artists' retreat in Great Village, Nova Scotia...
(1934), physician Beatrix Hamburg
Beatrix Hamburg
Beatrix Hamburg is an American psychiatrist whose long career in academic medicine advanced the field of child and adolescent psychiatry. Hamburg was the first African-American to attend Vassar College, and was also the first African-American woman to attend Yale Medical School. Hamburg held...
(1944), psychiatrist Bernadine P. Healy (1965), actress Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
(1971), CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Chip Reid
Chip Reid
Charles "Chip" Reid was named CBS News National correspondent in June 2011. Prior to his current position, he was the Chief White House Correspondent for CBS News. He assumed that position on January 5, 2009. Previously, Reid was the network's congressional correspondent...
(1977), television personality Andrew Zimmern
Andrew Zimmern
Andrew Zimmern is a James Beard Award-winning TV personality, chef, food writer, and teacher. As the co-creator, host, and consulting producer of Travel Channel's series Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern and Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre World, he travels the world exploring food in its own native...
(1984), actress Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Valerie Kudrow is an American actress, best known for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the television sitcom Friends, for which she received many accolades including an Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards...
(1985), actress Hope Davis
Hope Davis
Hope Davis is an American actress. She has starred in more than 20 feature films, including About Schmidt, Arlington Road, Flatliners, Mumford, American Splendor, The Lodger and Next Stop Wonderland....
(1986), musician Mark Ronson
Mark Ronson
Mark Daniel Ronson is an English DJ, guitarist, music producer, artist and co-founder of Allido Records. He currently works with his band under the music alias of Mark Ronson & The Business Intl....
, journalist Evan Wright
Evan Wright
Evan Wright is an American writer, journalist, author and television writer and producer. He has reported extensively on subcultures for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. His latest work is American Desperado, a book he co-wrote with Jon Roberts, who was featured in the documentary the Cocaine...
(1988), writer-director Noah Baumbach
Noah Baumbach
Noah Baumbach is an American writer, director and independent filmmaker.-Background and education:Baumbach was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of novelist/film critic Jonathan Baumbach and Village Voice critic Georgia Brown. He graduated from Brooklyn's Midwood High School in 1987 and ...
(1991), Flickr founder Caterina Fake
Caterina Fake
Caterina Fake is an American businesswoman and internet entrepreneur.Fake was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall, attended Smith College, and graduated from Vassar College in 1991....
(1991), What Not to Wear host Stacy London
Stacy London
Stacy London is an American fashion consultant and media personality known primarily for her role as co-host on What Not to Wear, a reality program that features makeovers. After graduating from Vassar College, London started her career as a fashion editor at Vogue and transitioned into being a...
(1991), Survivor: Africa winner Ethan Zohn
Ethan Zohn
Ethan Zohn is an American reality television series contestant who won $1,000,000 on Survivor: Africa, the third season of the reality TV series Survivor. He also appeared on the All-Stars edition of the show. After winning Survivor he co-founded Grassroot Soccer, which uses soccer to raise money...
(1996), gallerist, art advisor, and Work of Art judge Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn (1989), writer Neil Strauss (author of The Game)].
Notable attendees who did not graduate from Vassar include First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier "Jackie" Kennedy Onassis was the wife of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and served as First Lady of the United States during his presidency from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Five years later she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle...
, president of the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
Susan Berresford
Susan Berresford
Susan Vail Berresford is an American foundation executive. She was the president of the Ford Foundation from 1996-2007. Since November 2008 she has worked as a philanthropy consultant out of the offices of The New York Community Trust....
, actresses Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
and Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway (actress)
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries...
, actor Justin Long
Justin Long
Justin Jacob Long is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his roles in the Hollywood films Galaxy Quest, Jeepers Creepers, Dodgeball, Live Free or Die Hard, He's Just Not That into You, Drag Me to Hell, and Youth in Revolt, and his personification of a Mac in Apple's "Get a...
, member of the Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
Mike D and professional chef and television personality Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Michael "Tony" Bourdain is an American chef, author and television personality. He is well known for his 2000 book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, and is the host of Travel Channel's culinary and cultural adventure program Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.A...
.
Notable Vassar faculty include pioneering female astronomer Maria Mitchell
Maria Mitchell
Maria Mitchell was an American astronomer, who in 1847, by using a telescope, discovered a comet which as a result became known as the "Miss Mitchell's Comet". She won a gold medal prize for her discovery which was presented to her by King Frederick VII of Denmark. The medal said “Not in vain do...
and composer Richard Edward Wilson
Richard Edward Wilson
Richard Edward Wilson is an American composer of orchestral, operatic, instrumental, and chamber music. Wilson was born in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was at a young age drawn to the concerts of George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra...
.
Presidents of Vassar College
| Name | Dates |
|---|---|
| Milo P. Jewett | 1861–1864 |
| John H. Raymond | 1864–1878 |
| Samuel L. Caldwell | 1878–1885 |
| James Monroe Taylor | 1886–1914 |
| Henry Noble MacCracken | 1915–1946 |
| Sarah Gibson Blanding Sarah Gibson Blanding Sarah Gibson Blanding was an American educator and academic administrator who served as Vassar’s sixth president and its first female president... |
1946–1964 |
| Alan Simpson | 1964–1977 |
| Virginia B. Smith Virginia B. Smith Virginia Beatrice Smith was an American lawyer, economist, educator, and eighth president of Vassar College. Smith is the namesake of the Virginia B... |
1977–1986 |
| Frances D. Fergusson Frances D. Fergusson Frances Daly Fergusson served as president of Vassar College from 1986 to 2006. A graduate of Wellesley College, Fergusson earned her A.M. and Ph.D... |
1986–2006 |
| Catharine "Cappy" Bond Hill Catharine Bond Hill Catharine "Cappy" Bond Hill is the current president of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. She began in 2006, after former president Frances D. Fergusson retired. Before coming to Vassar, Hill was provost at Williams College.-Biography:... |
2006— |