President

A Welcome to Families

Dear Families,

WELCOME TO VASSAR!

We are excited about meeting you on campus for the start of Fall Semester 2025, and I want to share a few details about what life will be like for your soon-to-be Vassar student. Here are a few key dates to keep in mind:

  • Summer Engagement 2025 is a series of virtual events to which all new students will soon be invited for the purpose of connecting with the Vassar community. Please remind them to check their email and RSVP.
  • Move-In Day and Check-In is Monday, August 25, beginning at 8:00 a.m.
  • New Student Orientation 2025, which includes a Family and Friends Day, will be in person on campus on Monday, August 25 through Sunday, August 31. Please check our New Students website for updates throughout the summer.
  • Families Weekend, an opportunity for parents to return to campus, will be held September 26–28, 2025.
  • Fall Semester ends on December 19, 2025.

I would like to introduce myself more fully and describe what you might expect from me during the years at Vassar. I started as the president in July 2017 after a 25-year academic career at Yale and five years as an administrator at Massachusetts General Hospital. I live on campus with John, my husband of more than 35 years, and we have three adult children.

John and I very much enjoy living and working with students of college age and having students over to the President’s House for tea, office hours, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, and gatherings of all kinds. One of my favorite traditions at Vassar is the age-old custom of the signing of the Book of Matriculation, a set of books dating back to more than a century of students signing in during their first week of school.

Communication with the president is important. Each Sunday after my office hours (students can sign up to meet with me about any topic in my home office from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. every Sunday), I write an email designed for students, fondly referred to as the “Sunday Email.” The email has pictures and various musings and ideas for the week ahead. I periodically address emails to families—sometimes in response to challenges in the world or on campus and sometimes as a routine update about Vassar’s plans and activities. You can read some of these correspondences here.

Less formally, I use LinkedIn, Instagram, and Bluesky—often amplifying experiences at Vassar and beyond. Feel free to follow me on Instagram, on Linkedin, and on Bluesky.

We aspire to provide the highest quality liberal arts education in a diverse and inclusive setting—a mission of particular import in this uncertain world. Your student will be challenged to be creative, ambitious, passionate, and always in pursuit of greater understanding—not just to have beliefs, but to be able to discuss them and engage with others who may think differently. Based on what I hear regularly from our 41,000+ alums, a Vassar education is transformational, and the effects last for a lifetime. At the same time, your student’s presence at Vassar helps us transform as we learn and benefit deeply from your students and their ideas, perspectives, and energy.

Vassar is a place of intellectual freedom and exploration. We are committed to building a sense of belonging for everyone. Although we will face challenges, we have the opportunity to learn, care for each other, and discover something new about ourselves and each other—the heart of a high-quality liberal arts education.

Until the time we meet at Vassar, I hope you enjoy these pictures of our beautiful campus and of students studying, playing, and taking care of their health and the well-being of others.

With best wishes,

Elizabeth H. Bradley,
President
Professor of Political Science and of Science of Technology, and Society