Professors engaged by curious students

Vassar College has seen hundreds of professors come and go since its inception in 1861. Some have visited for a couple of years while others have stayed on for decades. There are a number of professors still teaching today who have been at Vassar for 30 to 50 years. As accounts from three long-term professors attest, while their initial reasons to come to Vassar may be different, a love for the College's atmosphere, faculty and students has kept them here for a long time.

Professor of Drama and Film James Steerman applied to teach in Vassar's English Department when he heard of a job opening in 1967. He sent a letter reasoning why, as a Drama major, he would be qualified to teach English. The head of the English Department liked the letter, so it was passed on to the chair of the Drama Department. Steerman said, "I came in the fall of 1967 and immediately fell in love with the place."

When Steerman began teaching, Vassar was in its last years as a women's college. Whether or not Vassar and Yale University would merge was the main topic of debate. "Many of the women, the faculty and alums were upset with the idea… [On Founder's Day] the President of the College came out on a stage and announced that Vassar would not join Yale."

Though there have been many changes to the College since he joined the faculty, Steerman has been content to stay at Vassar. "There is a generally strong sense of community support from the faculty," Steerman said of Vassar.

"[Vassar's] location is also a tremendous asset, as there is a train every hour to New York City. It's a nurturing environment for studying theater. And the students I've worked with have always been bright and hardworking. I've had terrific experiences at Vassar."

Steerman is a writer who studied playwriting, and he was always interested in film. "When I got to Vassar, I was shocked to discover no film courses being offered." Steerman taught Vassar's first film course, a senior level seminar. "The course was fairly rigorous, and it went very well." Soon alumnae/i were persuaded to give money so that basic filmmaking equipment could be purchased. Today the Film Department unites film studies and filmmaking, but originally it was "not the intention to train filmmakers. But the moment we began offering filmmaking courses, we attracted aspiring filmmakers," said Steerman. Thus the film studies program was born, and Steerman was its director for many years.

Some have tried to lure him away from Vassar, but Professor Steerman has taught at the College for 44 years. "Why should you leave a place where the students are terrific, and the administration is so helpful?"

The Evalyn Clark Professor of History Miriam Cohen, who arrived at Vassar 10 years after Professor Steerman, also cites the excellence of the students and faculty as her reasons for remaining at Vassar. Having worked here since 1977, Cohen now reflects that Vassar "was a very good fit." The quality of Vassar's History Department is a major reason Cohen has remained. "There is a lot of serious scholarship in the History Department, people contributing new and exciting scholarship to their own fields."

Cohen spoke fondly of Vassar sudents, as well. "I have found from the very beginning of my teaching here, that not only are Vassar students bright; they are genuinely interested in learning; this remains true today." She continued, "I would say that both the student body and the faculty are more diverse now, which is great."

Like Cohen, Professor Lucy Lewis Johnson of the Anthropology Department, who has taught at Vassar for over 35 years, also included the students among her reasons for staying. "The students are really fun to teach. They work hard, especially in the upper level classes. At first I thought I'd like to teach at a school with graduate students, but at a small school I get to know the students and become closer with them than I would at a large university," said Johnson.

Johnson began teaching at Vassar in 1973. An archeologist, she has taught classes in the departments of Latin American Studies, STS, Environmental Studies and American Culture.

The first year Johnson taught, 1973-1974, was the first class to include male graduates. The school often discussed "how to create a fully coeducational school so that men and women would both be taught equally," Johnson said. The school wanted to be sure that women continued to be prominent in all classes, and not switch over from the sciences just because men arrived. Professor Johnson believes that "Vassar has been extremely successful as a coeducational school, and have managed to achieve the idea of ‘coequal coed.'"