Vassar Quarterly - Summer 2018 - 49

Letter from the President of the AAVC
Reliable sources tell me that my great-grandmother attended every
single one of her Vassar class of 1906 reunions. Her love for Vassar
appears to be an inherited trait, animating five generations of Vassar
daughters and sons. I approach the AAVC President job with all of
the excitement and pride that comes with this 112-year lineage. Along
with the nearly 40,000 other Vassar alums, each of us, in our own way,
epitomizes Vassar per vitam-Vassar for a lifetime.
Speaking of Reunion ... "You haven't changed a bit!" was a happy
refrain I heard all weekend. Members of classes ending with 3s and
8s returned to campus to reunite, rekindle, and renew with each
other and the college. Vassar never looked better-fresh landscaping
around the Quad dorms, a gleaming Bridge for Laboratory Sciences,
and stunning fireworks over Sunset Lake. The Athletics and Fitness
Center was electric with excitement and packed with alums ranging
from the classes of 1948/49 to 2013. The weekend was filled with
programming on timely and provocative subjects. Kudos to the
professionals in the Office of Alumnae/i Affairs and Development
(OAAD) for the hard work and long hours that went into the pictureperfect weekend.
Our new leader, Elizabeth Bradley, captivated a full house in the
Chapel. She spoke in depth about her first year at the helm and her
exciting plans, which include the Mellon-funded Engaged Pluralism
Initiative (EPI), collaborations with Hudson Valley communities, and
projects to examine Vassar's place as an innovator in higher education
as well as the importance of liberal-arts education in our rapidly
changing world.
AAVC Awards were bestowed upon Susan Donahue Kuretsky and
Sally Lyman Rheinfrank-both from the venerable class of 1963.
Susan Kuretsky, Professor of Art on the Sarah Gibson Blanding Chair,
who taught her last class in the spring and will retire at the end of
2018, is well known to many after more than 40 years (!) of extraordinary teaching and service. (I can still summon her spellbinding
explanation of the symbols in The Arnolfini Portrait.) She received the
2018 Outstanding Faculty or Staff Award. Sally Rheinfrank received
the Outstanding Service to Vassar Award for her 55 years of service
to Vassar-from her early days at the Kansas City Vassar Club to her
years as college trustee and inveterate campaign fund-raiser. We are
indebted to them both.

We welcome Tim Kane as VP of OAAD as well as many new volunteers
to the AAVC Board. (Read more about our new members at the
beginning of Class Notes.) We are already hard at work on initiatives-
including diversity and inclusion, career networking, admissions,
class and club structures-that emerged from careful, strategic
visioning over the past several years.
And last but not least, I invite you to engage actively with Vassar.
We, the nearly 40,000 Vassar alums around the globe, are a formidable
force. Great things happen when we engage. Whether interviewing
prospective students, hiring recent (or not so recent) alums, welcoming new families at one of our summer send-off parties, or attending
a lecture by a visiting Vassar professor, you will be rewarded by your
involvement.
I look forward to getting to know as many of you as I can. Until then,
salve and go Brewers!

Steve Hankins '85, P'13, '17
President, AAVC

Lisa Keating

What does it mean to belong in the Vassar community? This is the
important query explored by the excellent Buildings and Belonging
project launched this year by the African American Alumnae/i of
Vassar College (AAAVC) in collaboration with faculty and student
researchers. I highly recommend that you take the tour-with docents
or via Vassar's self-guided print or web guide-the next time you are
on campus. Thirteen buildings and sites are featured with notations
about African American contributions to the physical, cultural,
academic, and sociological history and development of the college.

We bid adieu to several dedicated AAVC colleagues, but two deserve
special mention here: Missie Rennie Taylor '68, who completed her
term as President of the AAVC, and Cathy Baer, who led the Development Office, later the Office of Alumnae/i Affairs and Development
(OAAD), for 19 wonderful years.

VA S S A r Q u A r T E r LY

49



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vassar Quarterly - Summer 2018

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