Vassar Yesterday

Vassar has always been interested in bridging the divide between students and professors. The House Fellow program, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, continues to be an important part of residential life. Professor Emeritus of English Lynn Bartlett, pictured above, served as a House Fellow in Strong House from 1954–1959. In “Teacher in the House,” an article for the VQ published in 1957, he wrote, “The student who gets a close view of the House Fellow, the professor who lives down the hall, may come to understand better how he thinks and feels not only about his own field of scholarly expertise, but about all the other things he knows and does. [The student] may then be led to understand better what it means to be, not simply a teacher, but, more generally, an educated person; what it means to be committed, in one’s daily life, in public and private, to the tastes and values developed by the liberal arts.” (For the full text of the article, visit Winter 2002 Online Additions.)

Photo courtesy of Special Collections, Vassar College Libraries.