Vassar plans for Sesquicentennial

Next spring, students, faculty, staff and administrators will engage in what can be described as one of the biggest and most poignant celebrations Vassar College has ever witnessed. Indeed, Vassar's 150th year—its sesquicentennial— will be collaboratively commemorated in grand style on campus, as well as in cities around the United States and the world.

There will be two types of events scheduled over the course of 2011: four on-campus events especially planned for the Sesquicentennial, and events that already take place on a regular basis that have been modified to include a "sesqui-twist," according to Director of Development for Regional Programs for Almunae/i Relations and Development and co-Chair of the Sesquicentennial John Mihaly. The reason for this creative combination of programming is both to have the celebratory mood become "interesting at all levels of the campus community" as well as to dramatically increase the magnitude of the programming without a consequent increase in costs.

The Campus Sesquicentennial Birthday Party, to be held on Saturday, Jan. 29, is the first of the events planned exclusively to celebrate Vassar's 150th year. "This event is the official launch of all on-campus celebrations for the Sesquicentennial," said Vassar Student Association (VSA) Vice President for Operations and co-Chair of the Sesquicentennial Student Advisory Committee Ruby Cramer '12. The event will begin with a reception and performances, and will conclude with a "huge all-campus party for students co-hosted by Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE) and the VSA," according to Cramer.

The next event is planned for the day before Founder's Day. "Keeping the Sesquicentennial in mind, we wanted to enhance Founder's Day for the Vassar community this year," said Mihaly. While the planning committees realized that "students love Founder's Day as it is," said Cramer, the night before will play host to a Variety Show, which will involve Vassar professors performing for students. The event is based on variety shows that in the past greatly entertained the student body, but ultimately fizzled away, explained Cramer.

The next event, A Day at Vassar, to be held on Saturday, Oct. 15, will "open Vassar up to members of the Hudson Valley community to enter the College and enjoy its intellectual resources," said Mihaly. Cramer added that Vassar's guests will be able to "experience what it feels like to be a member of the Vassar community" through various events.

Scheduled for the weekend of Friday, Nov. 11, the fourth event will be a conference: "On Educating the Global Citizen." The proceedings will involve a "day-and-a-half worth of invited guests—which include scholars, panelists and university presidents—speaking about topics of global importance such as health, welfare, and the environment," according to Mihaly. Panelists are going to be invited on campus from all over the country and the world, and so will a group of students.

Aside from on-campus programming, Sesquicentennial celebrations will be taken across the United States and even overseas in London. Starting these off-campus events will be "Jazz at Lincoln Center" in New York City with Guest of Honor Meryl Streep '71. This event is mainly geared towards alumnae/i of the College, and will have performances by a student company directed by Professor of Drama Christopher Grabowski. This event will also be one in which the College will announce the beginning of its compressive fund-raising campaign, which has been in its silent stages since 2005-2006.

While the Sesquicentennial Committee and the Sesquicentennial Student Advisory Committee are facilitating the events, both Mihaly and Cramer stressed that the campus Sesquicentennial is essentially a "collaboration" between each and every element in the Vassar community, on and off campus. "I'm very interested in seeing how student organizations on campus can include the ‘Sesqui-theme' in their programming," said Mihaly, encouraging all student organizations to feel free to develop ways in which they can celebrate Vassar's history and at the same time look to the future.

In the same vein, Sesquicentennial Student Advisory co-Chair and VSA Vice President for Activities Tanay Tatum '12 "is still looking for more student groups across campus to contribute to the Sesquicentennial Celebrations; students can contribute in a variety of ways."

"Student organizations should consider hosting Sesqui-themed meetings, art showcases, parties, performances or tweak their annual events so that it incorporates the Sesquicentennial. Students can also use Vassar's 150th birthday as an opportunity to reflect and celebrate the history of their own organizations," said Tatum, the liaison for student-related Sesquicentennial events.

The planning for the Sesquicentennial was carried out keeping in mind the current state of the economy. "We do not have the luxury of spending a large sum of money on the Sesquicentennial," said Cramer. "That said," she added, "the contributors have been brilliantly creative with the programming that's been planned. The events are so thoughtful and inventive that you would never be able to tell that there was essentially no budget for this."

Referring to the ultimate goal of the Sesquicentennial programming, co-Chair of the Sesquicentennial and Professor of Art Susan Kuretsky commented in an e-mailed statement, "The Sesquicentennial will celebrate all of Vassar—our long history and every person who has ever been and is now part of the College."

According to Mihaly, the Sesquicentennial "is both a nod to the glorious history of the College and a look forward to Vassar's future growth, keeping constant the same core values upon which it was founded," as well as "a celebration of the present."

"A great variety of events and communications are being planned for the edification and delight of all of us—students, faculty, administrators, staff and our large extended family of alumnae/i. That we'll all have the chance to share so much with each other will, we hope, be an especially rewarding aspect of these two birthday semesters in 2011," concluded Kuretsky.