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.

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.

Why do some colleges and universities—even those with limited resources—achieve high graduation rates while others do not? Over the past three years, several Vassar administrators, a faculty member, and a student have been engaged in research designed to help answer this question. They will present their findings and continue this discussion at a symposium on April 29 at The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts. Representatives from a dozen colleges, foundation leaders, and policy makers are expected to attend.

Students, faculty, administrators and alums gathered at the Institute for the Liberal Arts on March 11 and 12 to talk about paths—most of them non-linear—to successful entrepreneurial endeavors.

Local college officials met for three days of workshops with representatives of local school districts, local, government and not-for-profit-agencies to develop strategies to improve opportunities for Poughkeepsie public school students.

Vassar Sustainability Director Kenneth Foster recently led a group of town and county officials on a tour of The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts to show them the building’s state-of-the-art energy conservation systems.

The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts hosted EcoVisions, a three-day conference on community and global responses to climate change.