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.

Every year, volunteers from the Vassar community choose 10 local nonprofit organizations that will receive financial support through the College’s Community Works program. This year’s goal is $87,500 and 225 donors.

Award-winning actor William H. Macy critiqued performances by several Vassar drama majors and offered some career advice during a three-hour master class recently in the Streep Studio in the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film.

Vassar Trustee Leslie Jackson Chihuly ’83 is giving the College’s $500 million fundraising campaign a kick start with a series of gifts totaling more than $2 million. They include an estate gift, a donation to the Health and Wellness Fund, annual gifts to the Vassar Fund, and a donation of several works created by her husband, renowned artist Dale Chihuly.

More than 150 members of the Vassar community gathered on the campus November 19 to pay tribute to the life and career of beloved architecture professor Jeh Vincent Johnson, who designed the Center—rededicating the gathering place in his name.