Inaugural Ceremony Archive
Diana Chapman Walsh
President, Wellesley College
I am honored to be participating in this historic occasion in the life of Vassar College, an esteemed sister institution -- I think we can still call it one -- and one of the nation's oldest and finest liberal arts colleges. It's a pleasure to bring to Vassar the greetings of the Seven College Conference as you install Catharine "Cappy" Bond Hill, as your 10th president, and celebrate your great good fortune in having attracted her here.
Wellesley College has Vassar to thank for its very existence. Nine years before Wellesley was founded, Matthew Vassar opened a new era for women, in 1861, with his outlandish notion (which still, incomprehensibly is subject to occasional doubt) that women were the intellectual equals of men. His was a voice from "Young America," as he would say, an optimist of a confident age, and the college he founded then, like the one I lead now, was intended to offer intellectually-ambitious young women an excellent liberal education unsurpassed by that available at the best men's colleges of the day.
In subsequent years, Wellesley turned to Vassar alumnae for two of its 12 presidents: our seventh, Mildred McAfee Horton, Vassar class of 1920, and our 10th, Barbara Newell, graduated from Vassar in 1951.
And then our paths diverged as the tide of co-education in the Eastern men•s colleges threatened to sweep us away. Although Vassar took one road and Wellesley another, our historic ties remained strong. Then Vassar turned the tables, and hired a Wellesley alumna, Frances Fergusson, class of 1965, to be your most recent president. Fran served Vassar with distinction for an extraordinary 20 years, implementing a vision of true co-education that continues to be exceedingly rare. Now Vassar leads the way in higher education, as a college with feminist roots that celebrates strong women, and men who appreciate them.
And Vassar will surely continue to lead in new directions under the guidance of Cappy Hill, a proven leader with a sense of adventure and a sense of purpose. This is a powerful combination in these tumultuous times as an older and less certain America than Matthew Vassar's stands at a critical juncture, a flex-point in world history in which the educational legacy we share has never been more vital, and never, I think, more at odds with economic, social, and cultural forces moving at warp speed.
The world we are passing on to the next generation is far more troubled and volatile than it appeared to be even a mere five years ago, and far more so than we wish. Our students will surely face challenges beyond the limits of our imaginations. They will have to forge new collective visions of a world whose people can be safe from the ravages of violence, deprivation, and inequality. These are issues Cappy Hill has studied and addressed throughout her professional life -- in her work both in Africa, and here at home.
In the aspirations of Matthew Vassar, implanted in Vassar College, tended and nourished over decades in the rich and fertile soil here on this beautiful campus, and now embodied again in this exciting new leader, we can see the human intellect joined with the human spirit - tough and irrepressible - continuing to hope and to strive, and stubbornly to survive, even in the darkest seasons and against the most daunting odds.
So we herald you Vassar College, sibling that you are, on this momentous day. May you prosper always. Take good care of this splendid new president, support her, and honor her. And to my sister president, may you find joy and fulfillment here.