Reunion 2026: An Hour With The President
Saturday, June 6, 2026
by Elizabeth H. Bradley, President
We come together today at a sobering moment in American history—when we face federal policies and political rhetoric that are hostile to higher education and the values we hold so dear. These values include reliance on primary sources, critical thinking, freedom of expression, and a belief that liberal arts—that which liberates the mind—can bolster our democracy, promote economic and social mobility, and lead to more meaningful lives.
I want us for a minute to think about the threats from many, many sources:
- Federal government actions endanger federal funding of higher education. Just yesterday, we received the initial text of the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations subcommittee for the FY 27 spending bill. There is some good news. The National Institutes of Health are going to get a little more money. Pell grants for low-income students are going to get a little more money. That’s the good news. But the proposed rewrite of the Uniform Guidelines (the rulebook for how campuses manage federal funding) will have an enormously negative impact on US federally funded research if passed. The proposed changes subordinate scientific peer review, to decide if you receive your grant or not, and replace it with reviews by senior political appointees, and they also propose to freeze international scientific partnerships. It is the complete opposite of what we want to be happening. The proposed changes also add massive administrative burdens. Every time we would pull any money for an NIH grant, we would have to submit paperwork—no matter how small the amount—to the federal government, almost on a daily basis.
- We face other threats, too, such as sociodemographic shifts nationally. We have fewer college-age adults as a proportion of the total US population, and a particular decline in male college applicants.
- We also face the generalized threat regarding trust. There is so much less trust in institutions and the law, in our federal systems and our state systems, than there has been traditionally, and therefore less trust in higher education as well.
- Technological shifts are immense with AI and quantum computing, which is going to completely transform higher education as well.
So, many, many clouds on the horizon.
During these times, we must stand firm—self-examining and reflective always (goodness knows, we are still learning; we make mistakes and we learn from them), but also confident in our mission, fortified by our history, and ambitious for our future. I remain energized and optimistic because I know we are fully equipped to meet the moment.
So, thank you for coming to Reunion and supporting higher education. And a special shout out to the Class of 1976, celebrating their 50th Reunion!
Now I want to give some updates from campus. I will talk about admission, finances, curriculum, career education, and the campus itself.
Admission: This is going well! Check out the Dede Thompson Bartlett Center for Admission and Career Education! It’s the first building at Vassar designed by a woman architect, and it completely transforms the north end of campus. We will have a full class this fall, as talented as ever. Applications were slightly less this year; they went down a little bit from our high the year after we went test optional, but they’re still strong. I want to tell you a little bit about the class coming in. The average matriculating student has a 3.9 GPA; three-quarters were in the top 10 percent of their high school class, and about one-quarter were straight-A students who took the most rigorous courses, so, likely valedictorians, as well as being fantastic contributors beyond the classroom. You have heard me say this before: None of us could get into Vassar today!
Finances: We are balancing the books well. For nine years, we have had no cash deficits, have not overspent the endowment, and have met our asset preservation goals, that is, taken care of the buildings and landscape. Thank you to everyone who donates. To give you a sense of how important your gifts are, the endowment earns and puts out about $70 million per year; we are spending about $80 million per year on financial aid (about two-thirds receive financial aid); and to balance that, we raise about $9.5 million per year in the annual fund … so it is a direct correlation between what comes out of the endowment and keeping us need blind and able to meet 100 percent of demonstrated need. About 20 percent of the incoming class is very low income (Pell eligible), and 17 percent are first generation.
Curriculum: We still have an open curriculum. And humanities and social sciences are alive and well here. Top majors are: economics, political science, biology, psychology, and English, and more than half of students double major, with the craziest combinations, like biochemistry and drama, or art history and computer science. And we have so many unique approaches to course content, pedagogy, and the culture of equity present in the classroom where learning happens. For example:
AI is a major disruptor, and we are good at disruption! Faculty members remain focused on going to the source. We have seen a return of the blue book (how many of you ever took an exam in the blue book?), more oral reports (fewer written reports and more oral defense of students’ ideas), and creative project work (such as understanding exactly how quantum computers work—Vassar is the only liberal arts college making a quantum computer accessible for students; designing a light show that highlights the intersection of nature, architecture, and history; understanding childhood asthma in Poughkeepsie; and discussing intervention points to reduce school absenteeism). And we are also teaching about AI directly—both its promise and its perils—through many departments and, most centrally, a new correlate called Data Science and Society. Many faculty across the curriculum have been thinking about how to use it productively, and we hope to incorporate our liberal arts approach in shaping how AI unfolds.
We continue to deepen what was previously called “field work” (taking place in the community): 200+ students do a community-engaged learning experience for academic credit. They work with 80+ local community partner organizations (representing health care, public education, criminal justice, food and environmental agencies, and local government); and do 7,000+ hours of direct community-engaged education and service during the academic year, so that part of the curriculum remains strong.
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center: The Loeb is amazing, and Bart Thurber has done so much to integrate it into campus life. It’s not just where you go for your art history classes; 52 students worked or served on committees there last year, and 83 faculty taught using Loeb materials. And I love that idea, because these are primary sources. So, 83—really a third of our faculty—have been teaching with materials from the Loeb. The installation of Rose B. Simpson’s Seed last August marks the first time a major outdoor work by an Indigenous artist has had a permanent home on campus. We also have established an MOU for joint projects with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community—Indigenous people on whose homelands Vassar resides, including a visit from their president last semester. Students can study the sculpture, faculty are starting to develop classes around it, and Native American Studies is growing.
Multidisciplinary programs: About 25 percent of our students major in a multidisciplinary program, meaning they are looking at issues from many perspectives. For instance, in environmental science, students take classes in economics, literature, art, sociology, and politics—a whole interdisciplinary group teaches courses relevant to the environment. These programs are popular. Half of our faculty teach in, and 25 percent of our students major in, a multidisciplinary area. But they have not had a physical home on campus. If you’re an environmental studies major, it’s hard for you to connect with others in that area of study. So, we’re taking the Old Laundry Building—how many of you know the Old Laundry Building? It’s behind Main. It used to be a computer center—I think it was a laundry building once—and we are renovating it to become the Center for Multidisciplinary Studies. It will include a state-of-the-art teaching space, particularly good for group work, and a convening space for majors that don't have any designated spaces. That building project starts this spring and will take about 18 months to complete.
Athletics: We are on a roll! Five teams claimed conference championships (men’s basketball, women’s cross-country, field hockey, women’s rugby, and, for the first time ever, women’s soccer). Four more were runners-up in their conferences (men’s soccer, men’s rugby, men’s tennis, and women’s tennis). At the national level, women’s rugby advanced to the final four; women’s cross-country finished in 10th place in Division III, and four individuals qualified for their respective national championships. Haley Schoennegge continues to be a generational talent, winning national championships in the indoor mile and the 1500-meter DIII events.
As you can see, our curriculum is far more than a sole professor imparting data and information to their students. That doesn't happen at Vassar. Rather, classes are a human experience—working together mulling over complicated problems in a small group with talented and caring faculty who help you think novelly, think creatively, and use the contemporary ways of learning. So education has evolved a lot.
Career education: In the inspiring Bartlett Center, we are developing a new approach to career education, with relevant resources and events woven into all aspects of life at Vassar. In days past, it was very separate—“Oh, now it’s time to get a job. I’ll go over there and try to get a job, and over here I’ll be taking my classes.” We’re really throwing that away, and working to integrate these aspects of learning with a beautiful building and faculty that are engaged with it. So much of what we do here actually prepares people for work: work study, field work of all kinds, community-engaged learning efforts, and, new this year, a financial literacy course. And our outcomes, despite the turbulent market, remain strong: 94 percent are employed or in graduate school or a competitive fellowship within six months of graduation, and admit rates for both medical and law school exceed 80 percent, far above national averages. So I think this method of not making career education something separate, but rather part of liberal arts education overall, will be successful.
Beyond admission, finances, curriculum, and career education, we have also been paying attention to our campus, landscape, and archives. This year was the 100th anniversary of the Vassar Arboretum, and we joined the Old Forest Growth Network conserving an additional 250 acres of the campus. Also, this unique resource is not just for Vassar students; we mindfully share the Preserve and campus with the Poughkeepsie community. Every Poughkeepsie public school second grader visits the Preserve, and new science and exploration programs for fifth and sixth graders are growing. We are also enhancing asset preservation investments—each year we try to get $10 to 12 million dollars back into the campus, and we’re trying to increase that to $13 million a year. That has been an enormous shift because it allows us to keep the buildings in good shape—and as I talk about this I want to give a huge shout out to the Class of 1971, whose class gift was to improve the Preserve. Thank you so much. Ever since COVID, the Old Farm, called the Preserve now, has been integrated more with campus. It’s really a vibrant place. Speaking of amazing gifts, we also received a landmark gift from Mary C. Schlosser Class of 1951 so that Vassar is now a preeminent source of books, manuscripts, and ephemera related to prominent 19th-century abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe. The Mary C. Schlosser–Harriet Beecher Stowe Collection has 500+ items, including a first-edition print of Stowe’s seminal work, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
You may be asking, how have we grown in all these ways? Well, now I must speak about our campaign: Fearlessly Consequential: A Campaign for Our Collective Future. The title is important. To thrive in these times, we must be fearless and focus on matters of consequence. Fortunately, we have a strong history; these sentiments and values are in our DNA as a college founded for women in an era when women were largely excluded from higher education. We have always been fearlessly consequential, from Matthew Vassar starting his Magnificent Enterprise on the eve of the Civil War, to student Inez Milholland and friends marching for women’s suffrage as early as 1908, to today when our mission explicitly includes diversity, inclusion, and equity—and we are not changing that. Vassar has ideas and does not cower in the face of injustice. The second part of the title, a Campaign for Our Collective Future, is also important. Vassar is worthy of investments in its future because it is part of something bigger than itself. It is part of building the capacity for democracy, for peaceful dissent and reasoned action, for learning, and—most importantly—for our enduring freedom to be advanced by the generations to come. The resources and support provided through this campaign have made all the difference. About 23,000 unique donors have given to this campaign, which has included the annual fund, Generation Vassar, the Brewers Fund, and all kinds of gifts. We have raised more than $488 million out of our $500 million goal. Thank you again to the many of you who have helped us get here.
Alums often ask me what they can do to be helpful. I would say three items: One is staying informed—be sure to look for primary sources to find out about campus life, and support higher education when others are generalizing or applying a cynical lens to it. Second is building and maintaining the social fabric of the Vassar community—we feel it on campus when you get together and strengthen the Vassar spirit! And third, by giving what you can. What better investment is there but to invest in the future of young adults who have dreams and capacity? They need our help. And if they achieve their dreams—which typically contribute to a better world—we will all benefit.
Thank you.