The Senate voted to repeal the Communist disclaimer clause in the program of federal loans for college students.  This clause had demanded that students renounce any communist affiliations before receiving federal loans for college.  In the Spring of 1960, Vassar, along with Harvard, Yale, and 29 other colleges and Universities in the country, refused to participate in the loan program on the grounds that the disclaimer clause was an invasion of the students’ personal rights.
When President Kennedy signed the bill into law in October, a three-year struggle in which he had been involved as a Senator, came to an end.