Seventy-eight years after Elizabeth “Betty” Gatchell ’45 christened a ship named after the College, the champagne bottle used for the christening and the commemorative pin she received from the Navy that day are now preserved as part of Vassar’s history.

A gift from Patrick and Tamar Smith Pichette ’86 will support a new conservation fellowship for a Vassar alum who will work at a Canadian wilderness preserve and then return to The Preserve at Vassar to assist with research, environmental monitoring and land management.

At the ninth annual Sophomore Career Connections students benefitted from the insights of 85 career mentors, renowned soul coach Rha Goddess ’89, and alums at global consulting firm Deloitte.

The campus community gathered on January 16 to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., taking inspiration from the words of the slain civil rights leader and Vassar’s own student poets.

Vassar drama major Becca Chin ’23 broke new ground this fall in addressing the College’s accessibility issues by convincing the Drama Department to engage a Disabled director for their senior project production.

For nearly 40 years, Vassar has had a College Historian to help research and document our institutional history—the most recent being Colton Johnson, Professor Emeritus of English and former Dean of Studies and Dean of the College. As Ronald Patkus, Adjunct Associate Professor of History on the Frederick Weyerhaeuser Chair and Associate Director of the Libraries for Special Collections assumes the role, he promises to take an unflinching look at Vassar’s past.

Members of the Vassar community helped to ensure that children of local migrant farmworkers and others in the community will have gifts to open for the holidays—donating loads of toys and games for the annual Daughters of Sarah Toy Drive.

As 2022 winds down, we take a look back at a very eventful time on campus and beyond.

Vassar College will build a $2.5 million tennis center on a site known as Ballintine Field, President Elizabeth Bradley announced. The facility will include eight courts, spectator seating, and other amenities. It is scheduled to be completed by the start of the Fall 2023 tennis season.