Vassar College and the Great Depression

This week marks the 80th anniversary of the stock market crash of 1929, the event that led to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Today's financial climate, though a far cry from the severity of the Depression, has actually had a far more negative effect on the Vassar itself and its finances than did the Depression.

It seems that the College, while not existing in a vacuum, was relatively unaffected by the crash. Instead of suffering greatly, the College became a source of support for its students and in some ways for the local community. Students and their families of course experienced the burdens of difficult economic times and the College responded with support in scholarships and student employment.

"When I came to Vassar I was 17, and the year I came to Vassar was the fall of 1937, so we're right in the thick times of the Depression," recalled Vassar College Historian Elizabeth Daniels '41. Though every student at the time would have had a unique experience, Daniels gave some insight as to how students were affected by the Depression. "Money was hard to come by if there were several children in the family and so on. I came to Vassar [in that economic climate], so I recognize a lot of things that are going on right now."

In the current financial crisis, Vassar's problems have mainly come from a loss on the endowment, which was heavily invested in the failing U.S. capital markets. In the 1930s, the College endowment relied more on donations from wealthy benefactors and alumnae contributions to the Annual Fund than on investment and capital budgeting, so the Stock Market Crash of 1929 did not affect the college anywhere near as heavily as the current financial crisis has.

The 1930s were also one of the periods in which the most new buildings were constructed on campus, according to the Vassar College Encyclopedia. Kenyon, Blodgett and Skinner Halls and the Wimpfheimer Nursery School were all built during this decade. Wealthy donors supplied both the bulk of the endowment at the time and the funding for these projects.

Despite the largess of the donors, the Crash did affect the College's finances. The weakened financial states of alumnae and donors meant that less money was coming into the College, and the few investments that the College did have—primarily low-risk, low-return trust funds—did suffer a loss on investment return, according to an April 19, 1933 Miscellany News article.

During the Great Depression, the College reduced some student fees as families lost income after the crash. In April 1932, the Trustees approved an elimination of most fees for student medical care. Prior to this decision, students were required to pay a fee for each visit they made to the infirmary. The Miscellany News reported on April 22, 1932, that the change was made to convince students with contagious illnesses like influenza to report for medical care without worrying about money.

According to Daniels, a scholarship from the College supported her Vassar education, and many other students received similar aid. "Personally, it was okay for me," she said, "and I don't recall that anyone I knew well enough to know about their financial situation had to leave College, but I'm sure there probably were some people. But Vassar has always, in my estimation, been very generous with scholarships."

An article in the Jan. 16, 1932, issue of The Miscellany News reported that Vassar provided 300 students with scholarships from a fund of $150,000. At the time, the cost of attending the College, including tuition, room and board, was about $1,200 per student. The College also had loans available to students, though it warned students against accruing too much debt.

Another article from the Miscellany reported an increase in student employment on campus, then called "self-help." According to the Vocational Bureau, equivalent to today's Office of Student Employment, the Library, Retreat and post office experienced an increase in the number of applicants and "that paid work is being considered more seriously, and executed in a more purposeful manner."

Along with the scholarship, Daniels remembered saving money by living in a cooperative living house during her junior year. "It was a great help to move there because we did our own supply-getting and cooking and cleaning up after ourselves and so on to save money."

President MacCracken took great interest in the possibilities of cooperative living at the College, and the first available cooperative living units were founded in Raymond House and Blodgett Hall in 1933. The initiative was conceived to save students money at a time when the College faced reductions in its scholarship fund. Students' admission to these houses was partially based on financial need. Though the precise responsibilities of students varied slightly in each house, students were generally responsible for their own cooking, usually eating less expensive food, and cleaning.

According to an article in an April 23, 1933 issue of The Miscellany News, "It will mean a simplified menu; that is when the rest of the college is having steak and a rich cream dessert, Raymond will be dining less expensively but just as nutritiously on pot roast and baked apples."
Although today the College is experiencing curriculum cuts across all departments, Daniels said that during the Depression, "I don't have the impression that there were cutbacks, but there were far fewer courses."

That is not to say that the Depression was left out of the curriculum entirely. The Economics and Sociology Department added an intermediate-level course called "Corporations" in 1931, which was likely a response to their role in the economic developments of the 1920s and '30s, and in 1932, the topic for the advanced course, "Industrial
Development in the United States," changed to a "Historical survey of all phases of economic development since the founding of the colonies, as a basis of explanation of our current economic problems."

Though the Depression had relatively little impact on Vassar itself, students were active in responding to the economic and corresponding social problems in the world around them. Indeed, in his
Commencement Address to the Class of 1932, President MacCracken characterized Vassar as being particularly invested in social engagement. "Partly because it arose as a protest of inequality within the family and within society, the woman's movement was a class movement and the woman's college took on the aspect of a class college," he said. "There was from its inception a social consciousness aroused among its number."

This social consciousness is apparent in the Miscellany articles of this era. Practically every issue reports on at least one lecture on the impact of the Depression, with speakers ranging from the Lieutenant Governor of New York to the head of the American Communist Party.

Vassar's Political Association held a campaign in the summer of 1934 to "gather local and community opinions of New Deal policies," according to the May 19, 1934 Miscellany. Students were asked to determine the effects of and responses to the New Deal in their hometowns over the summer, and then report it back to Vassar to be compiled.

Students were no less engaged with the effects of the Depression in Poughkeepsie itself. "Field work was front and center," said Daniels. She also said that MacCracken was deeply invested in Vassar's involvement in the Poughkeepsie community. "He wanted Vassar College to be aware of the needs of the town, and things to do with the town," she said. "He didn't want us to be the ‘rich college' side by side with the ‘poor community.'"

As the College navigates the current recession, comparisons between the present era and the past are inevitable. However, there are fundamental differences between the current response and Vassar's response to the Depression, in part because the financial foundation of the College during the Great Depression was inherently different from that of the institution today.