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News about The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts.

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A Message from the Institute for the Liberal Arts Committee: Request for Proposals

All members of the Vassar community are invited to submit proposals to host a Signature Program at the Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts during the 2026/27 academic year.

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Four Thought-Provoking Public Programs Coming to The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts in the 2025-26 Academic Year

The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts—a convening space where scholars, students, and professionals from all over the world engage in meaningful work on contemporary challenges—has just announced its schedule of symposiums for the 2025–26 academic year.

How Humans, Animals, and Sound Environments Shape Each Other

Scholars who study sound in a range of disciplines gathered to exchange their findings during a Signature Program of The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts in May.

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Uplifting Education Summit at Vassar Delves Into Boosting College Completion Rates

An all-day Education Summit at The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts explored ways to ensure that those who start college do end up with a degree.

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A Half Century Later: Understanding the Impact of the Vietnam War

A conference convened by History Professor Robert Brigham at The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts offered insights on the Vietnam War 50 years after the fall of Saigon.

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Transgressing Borders: Signature Program of The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts Reimagines Education and the Role of Learning in Community

Educators from Vassar and the State University of New York at New Paltz hosted a series of workshops at The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts aimed at enhancing collaborations with the local community.

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Vassar Institute Signature Program Explores Ways Education Can Better Serve Students and the Greater Community

Students, faculty, staff, and administrators from nearly a dozen institutions recently gathered to explore questions about the future of belonging and mattering in higher education. They tackled topics ranging from ancestral intelligence to AI.

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100 Years of Tech Pioneer Grace Hopper ’28 Celebrated by Her Alma Mater Vassar

Posted 5/5/2025

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of tech pioneer Grace Hopper’s arrival on the Vassar campus, Vassar students, faculty, alums, and others in the tech field gathered at The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts on April 10, 2025, trading stories about the groundbreaking work she had done to shepherd the world into the modern computer age.

Three people stand in front of a banner that says “The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts”. President Elizabeth Bradley, a person with short gray hair and a blue dress, stands between a person with gray hair and a gray suit and a person with gray hair and a blue checked suit.

Improving Graduation Rates Reveals Actionable Findings

Posted 4/30/2025

Vassar presented the findings from its nearly three years of study into why some colleges and universities—even those with limited resources—graduate their students at a far higher rate than others. The research was presented in the context of a convening of educators from a dozen institutions, foundation leaders, and policy makers at The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts.

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165 College Avenue, Poughkeepsie, New York 12604