LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION commemorating the 150th Anniversary of Vassar
College

WHEREAS, New York State's commitment to education is unparalleled; its
history and stature are secured by the superlative caliber of its educa-
tional professionals and the students they inspire; and
WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to recognize and
commend those exemplary institutions of higher education within the
State of New York which have achieved world renown and brought pride and
honor to our State and Nation through their traditions of academic
excellence; and
WHEREAS, Attendant to such concern, and in full accord with its long-
standing traditions, this Legislative Body is justly proud to commem-
orate the 150th Anniversary of Vassar College; and
WHEREAS, A highly selective, residential, co-educational liberal arts
college, Vassar College is located in the scenic Hudson Valley, 75 miles
north of New York City in Poughkeepsie; consistently ranked among the
top liberal arts colleges in the country, Vassar College is renowned for
pioneering achievements in education, for its long history of curricular
innovation, and for the beauty of its campus; and
WHEREAS, The original mission of Vassar College, founded in 1861 by
Matthew Vassar, was to give young women a liberal arts education equal
to that of the best men's colleges of that particular day; rather than
the "teacher training" typically provided at "female seminaries," Vassar
College offered women the full range of courses from art history to
zoology, taught by the leading scholars of the day; and
WHEREAS, One hundred years later, in 1969, Vassar College again led
the way, becoming the first of the Seven Sisters colleges to open its
doors to men; today, the student body enrollment is 2,400, 60% women,
40% men, from every state in the United States as well as from 45
foreign countries; and
WHEREAS, The faculty numbers 260 distinguished scholars, many of them
nationally or internationally recognized in their fields; the pedagog-
ical tradition at Vassar College began with the noted astronomer Maria
Mitchell, the first woman elected to the Academy of Arts and Sciences,
and the first member of the faculty to be hired; she took her students
to Iowa in 1869 and to Colorado in 1878 to observe a solar eclipse; and
WHEREAS, Long recognized for curricular innovation, Vassar College's
departments, and interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary programs now
range from cognitive science to classical studies and from media studies
to neuroscience and behavior; Vassar was among the first colleges to
teach drama, psychology, and Russian, and among the first to experiment
with interdepartmental courses in the early 1900s; and
WHEREAS, Matthew Vassar declared that art should stand "boldly forth
as an educational force," so his college was the Nation's first to be
founded with a gallery and teaching collection; today, the Frances
Lehman Loeb Art Center, built in 1993, boasts over 16,000 works; and
WHEREAS, Universally acknowledged as one of the most beautiful in the
country, the Vassar College campus comprises over 1,000 picturesque
acres and more than 100 buildings, including two National Historic Land-
marks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International which
have been designed over the course of the college's history by some of
the most prominent architects of the day, including James Renwick, Jr.,
Francis R. Allen, Eero Saarinen, Marcel Brueur, and Cesar Pelli; and
WHEREAS, A designated arboretum, the Vassar College campus features
more than 200 species of trees, a native plant preserve, and a 250-acre
ecological preserve; and

WHEREAS, As it celebrates its sesquicentennial anniversary, Vassar
College's most valuable asset is the myriad accomplishments of its grad-
uates, some of which include: Ellen Swallow Richards, Class of 1870, the
founder of ecology; Crystal Eastman, Class of 1903, cofounder of the
American Civil Liberties Union; Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, Class
of 1928, inventor of the compiler and coinventor of COBOL; astronomer
Vera Cooper Rubin, Class of 1948, discoverer of "dark matter"; Patricia
Goldman-Rakic, Class of 1959, the neuroscientist who mapped the
prefrontal lobe; Geraldine Laybourne, Class of 1969, founder and presi-
dent of Oxygen Media; Academy Award-winning actor Meryl Streep, Class of
1971; architect Adam Kalkin, Class of 1984, designer of the Quik House;
and filmmaker Noah Baumbach, Class of 1991, writer and director of "The
Squid and the Whale"; and
WHEREAS, Ably led by President Catharine Hill, Vassar College contin-
ues to prosper today and into the future; and
WHEREAS, With great admiration, this Legislative Body is proud to pay
tribute to this eminent academic institution which stands at the thresh-
old of the future with its legacy of outstanding achievements and its
impressive body of distinguished faculty and alumni; now, therefore, be
it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
commemorate the 150th Anniversary of Vassar College; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to Catharine Hill, President of Vassar College.