World-class. Transformational. Game-changing. Those were just a few of the adjectives used to describe The Dede Thompson Bartlett Center for Admission and Career Education at a groundbreaking ceremony on June 12 adjacent to the construction site at the north end of Vassar’s campus. The $27.5-million state-of-the-art building, designed by award-winning architect Maryann Thompson P’17, is scheduled to open in the late fall of 2025.

Speaking to a crowd of more than 150 members of the Vassar community and local government and business officials, alum Dede Thompson Bartlett ’65, who launched the project with a $10-million donation, called the new Admission and Career Education Center “a dream come true.”

Wielding the same shovel College founder Matthew Vassar used for the groundbreaking of Main Building in 1861, President Elizabeth H. Bradley joined Bartlett, Bartlett’s spouse Jim, Trustee Chair Anthony Friscia ’78, and Thompson in turning over a mound of soil at the site.

Bradley lauded Bartlett, who was an executive at two Fortune 25 companies, as a “pioneer (who) has broken glass ceilings and excelled in corporate systems formerly only available to men.” A longtime supporter of career education programs at Vassar and New York University, where she received her master’s degree, Bartlett has funded hundreds of internships for students in mathematics, computer science, economics, and engineering.

Referring to the initial conversations she and her spouse had with Vassar administrators nearly five years ago, Bartlett said she wanted to help “create a world-class facility built on the astounding work” the College had been doing in career education. “This center will house a dynamic career education program that will give our students the skills to meet the existential challenges of the coming decades,” Bartlett said.

The building will also provide expanded facilities for the Office of Admission, Bartlett added, serving as a welcoming space for visitors to campus. “I cannot wait to see the faces of prospective students and their parents as they walk through this building and see the possibilities Vassar offers,” she said.

Thompson, the architect, said one of her main goals in designing the building was to ensure that it served as a gateway linking the campus to the community. “The courtyards and open space open their arms to the community,” she said, “and this openness also reflects the Vassar education.”

By the Numbers: Vassar and Careers

About Vassar College

Vassar–based in Poughkeepsie, New York–is a coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college where perspectives cross, ideas intersect, and passion burns bright. Vassar fosters an intellectual openness and independence in students, who meet each other as equals, and are encouraged to absorb diverse thought and impassioned dialogue that give them the insight and confidence they will need in a complex world where they will make important contributions. Consistently ranked among the top liberal arts colleges in the country, Vassar is renowned for pioneering achievements in education, for its long history of curricular innovation, and for the beauty of its campus, which is 85 miles from New York City. Originally founded to provide women an education equal to that once available only to men, Vassar was the first all-women’s college in the nation to become coeducational when it opened its doors to men in 1969.

Vassar is located at 124 Raymond Avenue in Poughkeepsie, NY.