Vassar Quarterly - Fall/Winter 2019 - 45

Sally Dayton Clement | '71
I cherish Vassar's spirited culture of
intellectual curiosity and of civic and
cultural engagement, combined with a
capacity to evolve in concert with our
always-changing world. It is just this
culture that drew me to choose Vassar
when I graduated from high school in
1967.
As a student, I experienced every
step of Vassar's move toward coeducation, from the 1967 decision not to
merge with Yale, to the 1968 decision
to develop the Twelve-College
Exchange Program, to the decision to
admit a coeducational class in 1970. I

participated in the Twelve-College Exchange Program
by spending the second semester of my sophomore
year at Trinity College. The experience of being one of
only a dozen women on this heretofore all-male
campus was eye-opening, and while two of my
friends opted for transfer there permanently, I was
glad to return to Vassar's version of coequal coeducation and intellectual engagement. My months away
from Vassar also highlighted my appreciation of
Vassar students' involvement with events beyond
Main Gate. Among these were our outrage and political
activism surrounding the ongoing war in Vietnam; our
excitement at the liberating experience of the Civil
Rights and Women's Movements, and the promise
these held for our future dreams; and our determination to engage with the burgeoning environmental
movement. Writing this reflection now, in the fall of
2019, it is sobering to reflect back on how exhilaratingly permanent we felt these cultural shifts to be.
So what has coeducation at Vassar meant to me?
I feel privileged to have attended Vassar at a time of
enormous change, both on campus and in the world,
and know that growing up then shaped my drive to
actively engage. On an even more personal level, I am
grateful to have witnessed Vassar's evolution from
the college chosen by my mother, Mary Lee Lowe
Dayton '46, in the 1940s, to the college chosen by my

THE EXPERIENCE OF
BEING ONE OF ONLY A
DOZEN WOMEN ON
[AN] ALL-MALE CAMPUS
[DURING AN EXCHANGE
PROGRAM] WAS EYEOPENING.

son, Winston Wallace Clement '09, and
his wife, Elizabeth Greenstein Clement
'09, in the first decade of the 21st
century. I also feel heartened to know
that generations of curious, determined,
edgy students will carry on Vassar's
tradition of promoting cultural engagement and change.
Sally Dayton Clement, a practicing child
and adult psychoanalyst in New York City,
was a member of the Vassar Board of
Trustees from 2001 until 2013, and now
serves as Co-Chair of the Pyramid
Society, Vassar's organization of former
members of the Board of Trustees.

Missie Rennie Taylor | '68
My favorite Miscellany News headline in the fall of
1967: Vassar Beats Williams in Rugby! Not a surprising
headline for students today, but in 1967 neither
Vassar nor Williams were coed, so the Vassar women
played the Williams men. I must admit there was a bit
of tinkering with the rules, but Vassar won!
And then there were men the following year. It
seemed so simple, so natural. Campus rules were
changing, the mix of students was changing, and the
men were an addition. One of my favorite questions
on campus these days is: What dorm do you live in?
What are the characteristics of that dorm for you?
Same answers as 1968. So in some ways, nothing has
changed and everything has changed.
For me, it has been the male friendships added to
the female friendships, both with students and with
alums, that have been so powerful. I cannot imagine
all these years that I have volunteered for Vassar
without the power of both to confer with, to have
friendships with, and to work alongside. And I have
been challenged by the other views ... but they

represent the different decades as
well as the additional populations on
campus. And the irony is knowing that
Vassar Rugby is still winning ... although
secretly I am always routing for the
tennis team (as a former member).
And I have come to appreciate
others' strong feelings about the
Vassar Experience. I sat in a meeting
recently and a Vassar alumnus had
tears in his eyes as he recounted his
walk around the campus that afternoon.
Okay, I do get nostalgic, but he did too
and he is much, much younger than
I and part of that population who
appeared 50 years ago.
Missie Rennie Taylor is a former CBS
News Executive Producer. She served as
President of the AAVC Board from 2014
to 2018 and is currently a member of
Vassar's Board of Trustees.

VA S S A R Q U A R T E R LY

Vassar Quarterly - Fall/Winter 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vassar Quarterly - Fall/Winter 2019