President

Fall Board of Trustees Meeting

October 28, 2024

Dear all,

I hope you enjoyed the weekend. I am writing to update you on the recent Fall Board of Trustees Meeting. It was a busy weekend for the Board, but I thought I would highlight a few of their key activities below:

  1. We welcomed our new Board Chair, Sharon Chang ’84 P’19 to her first Board meeting in her new role. You can read more about Chair Chang here.
  2. We welcomed our new Trustees (Anne Green ’93, James Beaty ’05, Susanne Lyons ’79, and Eve DeRosa ’91) to the Board and they participated in a full-day New Trustee Orientation that included one-on-one meetings with members of the Senior Team and Emily Doucet and Natalie Frank in their roles as Student and Faculty Observer to the Board of Trustees. You can read more about our new trustees here.
  3. Board members had dinner with students and House Fellows living in Main, Cushing, and Davison. Thank you very much to House Fellows Jaime Del Razo, Kenisha Kelly, John Andrews, and David Esteban for hosting these dinners and providing opportunities for our students to interact directly with our Trustees. 
  4. Board members participated in a fiduciary and governance training facilitated by General Counsel Shay Humphrey and Trustee Brian Farkas ’10.
  5. The Board received a report from Vice President of Admission and Student Financial Services, Sonya Smith, on the first-year Class of 2028, and needless to say they were very impressed by the academic quality and range of unique experiences and skills represented in this first-year class.
  6. The Board heard a presentation from Vice President of Finance and Administration Bryan Swarthout and Deputy to the President Wesley Dixon about the opening of the Heartwood and the Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts.
  7. The Board had lunch with the VSA Executive Board and a group of faculty who recently taught intensives as part of the Community-Engaged Intensives in the Humanities grant.
  8. Members of the Trustee Investor Responsibility Committee (TIRC) met with members of the Campus Investor Responsibility Committee (CIRC) and two students, to discuss the proposal regarding the College’s divestment from military and surveillance technologies.
  9. Members of the Board joined other members of the Vassar community to participate in the events for the launch of Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts.

Thank you to the many different groups on campus that played a role in making the Board meetings successful (especially Facilities Operations, Media Resources, Alumnae House, The Heartwood, and Campus Activities). If you ever have any questions (or ideas) related to the Board, please do not hesitate to contact me or Wesley Dixon, Secretary of the Board of Trustees, at wdixon@vassar.edu.

Thanks,

Elizabeth H. Bradley, President
Vassar College
Poughkeepsie, NY 12604
@EHBVassar