Vassar Quarterly - Spring/Summer 2017 - 2

President's Page

The Road to Understanding
and Valuing All

y A comprehensive campus climate assessment leading to
improvements in how we organize student support services
y A STEM retention and success initiative
y Extension of Diving into Research, a summer research experience
for pre-matriculated students interested in the social sciences,
arts, and humanities
y Expansion and enhanced support for our Transitions program
for first-generation college students
y Enriched residential life and co-curricular programming to
promote student engagement across differences
y Curriculum innovation and faculty development for inclusive
pedagogies and high-impact practices
y Campus-wide training and capacity-building to foster a sense
of belonging and empowerment
Incoming President Elizabeth Bradley provided input on the
grant proposal prior to its submission. Her ideas, shaped by her
experience as Head of Yale's Branford College, helped us sharpen our
thinking about the role of the residential houses and dining facilities
as places for exploring and practicing what it means to belong to and
2

SPRING/SuMMER 2017

thrive in a diverse living and learning community.
We look forward to her input as we embark on
this initiative under her leadership.
The Mellon grant will help move our college
in a critically important direction. The face of
Vassar increasingly reflects the face of our nation.
Among the first-year students for 2016/2017, one
in three identify as U.S. people of color. One in
four are recipients of federal Pell Grants, usually
accorded to students from families with incomes
less than $40,000. Approximately three dozen
students are U.S. military veterans recruited
through our innovative partnership with the
Posse Foundation. These changes enrich the
college immeasurably. With this project, we seek
to cultivate an environment that accords to
every person, regardless of background, the
sense that they belong here and can succeed at Vassar. If we can
empower students to reach past their immediate differences, and
strengthen their ability to collaborate and thrive in diverse communities, their lives and contributions to others will be enriched.
We strive to ensure that Vassar is a college of high aspirations,
seeking to prepare students to be engaged and effective members of
society. If you think of your alma mater through its long history-
from its incarnation as the nation's first women's college, through
two world wars and the brief post-war inclusion of men (our first vets!),
to the social upheaval of the 1960s and '70s and the move to coeducation, through to today-we see a constantly transforming community
that at key moments has rallied for greater justice and equity in our
society. Change can be accompanied by setbacks-times when we
fall short of our aspiration to be an affirming community for all our
members. We learn from these setbacks and they help us to understand and address the continuing challenge of creating a climate of
engaged pluralism, where we are strengthened, not divided, by our
differences. Our new president brings with her an abiding commitment to inclusion, diversity, and empowerment. I know that our
students, and our community, will thrive under her leadership.
Jonathan Chenette,
Interim President

John Abbott

am delighted to announce that we have
received an $800,000 grant from the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support
our Engaged Pluralism: Belonging and
Thriving at Vassar College initiative. Engaged
Pluralism promotes a climate that moves beyond
tolerance of differences to a deep understanding
and valuing of differences of all kinds within
the community. With engaged pluralism,
diversity is viewed as the root of the community's strength and vitality. The initiative seeks to
nurture a climate of dialogue in which we strive
to understand and engage with each other in
order to build a stronger and more supportive
campus community where all members feel
they belong and can thrive.
Funding will help support, among other
efforts:

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vassar Quarterly - Spring/Summer 2017