AAAVC’s Triennial 2024:
Reconnecting & Remembering
merican Alumnae/i of Vassar College (AAAVC) Triennial XIV, held on campus April 12-14, marked the 40th anniversary of the group, created in 1984 to engage Black graduates and students. Triennial is a “homecoming,” of sorts, for Black alums and an opportunity to connect not only with each other, but with students, faculty members, administrators, and staff. Members were eager to meet in person, as the last Triennial in 2021 was held online due to concerns about the COVID pandemic.
On Friday afternoon, AAAVC members and others celebrated the Alumnae/i Association of Vassar College (AAVC) Spirit of Vassar Award recipient Pamela Harris ’92. Before accepting the award, Harris was interviewed by Maybelle Bennett ’70 about her trajectory from a low-income student to activist to documentary filmmaker and (currently) CFO at the Community Foundation Sonoma County. Her lens as an activist has colored many of her choices; she said, “I attended my first protest in the womb. My father was part of Freedom Summer and worked on voter registration drives down South.” Harris is particularly focused on economic inequality—her 2005 documentary film Waging a Living addressed the struggles of minimum-wage workers and their families. She said she strives to use her position in finance to help “those not in the center of the quantitative framework” to become more financially literate.
As members reflected on 40 years of AAAVC, they also looked back with gratitude on beloved friends who had passed since the 2021 Triennial. Saturday morning bright and early, alums headed to the Thompson Library to hear about Narrative of Sojourner Truth, a book AAAVC will help to preserve in honor of Dr. June Jackson Christmas ’45-4—a member of AAAVC and a three-time trustee of the College. The gesture was made in conjunction with Vassar’s Adopt-a-Book program. Ron Patkus, who heads the College’s Archives and Special Collections, explained that the autobiographic text had been dictated by Truth to a scribe and printed around 1850 and sold as part of her lecture series.
Alums then dedicated a bench and tree near Metcalf Hall, the center of Vassar’s mental health services, to Dr. Christmas, who had been a noted psychiatrist, educator, and had led New York City’s mental health agency under several mayors. Several of Dr. Christmas’s family members were able to attend the dedication, including her daughter, Rachel, and son Gordon, who later presented the Africana Studies Program a gift of $7,250 in honor of their mother.
The weekend also featured a reception at the President’s House, workshops, panels, student-alum activities, an alum networking event, and a tour of the Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve and Poughkeepsie Farm Project. There was plenty of time for revelry, too. Many enjoyed Game Night and a gala dinner followed by a “Wakanda Dance Party.” Terrence Harris ’01 spun the tunes. Other highlights included a marketplace in the College Center, where alum authors and entrepreneurs offered a range of products and literature on Saturday, and an “Author-Entrepreneur Roundtable,” where they spoke of their work on Sunday.
Apropos Triennial’s theme, “Storytelling: Creating Our Future, Celebrating Our Past,” there were many opportunities to share. Several members of AAAVC sat with Vassar podcast host Wesley Dixon to speak about their Vassar experiences as part of the College’s Oral History Initiative. There was also a conversation between Africana Studies Chair Diane Harriford and Kiana Moore ’02, who co-directed the 2022 award-winning documentary The Beauty of Blackness (HBO Max), about the relaunch of Fashion Fair, the first national makeup brand that catered specifically to women of color.
During the AAAVC’s business meeting, members elected co-chairs who will serve for the next three years. Newly elected Co-Chair Nicole Savage ’08, an educator based in Washington, DC, had been Senior Assistant Director of Admission and Co-Coordinator of Multicultural Recruitment at Vassar after graduating and says one of her goals will be to involve younger alums.
Gwen Salley ’81, who will serve a second term after co-chairing with Eric Wilson ’76, said, “Triennial was very rich and a reunion like none other. We brought Black alums together on Vassar’s campus, some of whom had not returned since graduation. There was networking, laughing, creating new memories, telling stories about our treasures—including Dr. Christmas, Dr. Hodges, and Dr. Fierce—telling our new stories with Kiana Moore, and participating in the Vassar Oral Histories Initiative.”
Over the next three years, she said, AAAVC will focus on growing engagement. “There are so many more alums who could be enjoying Vassar’s campus and contributing—not only financially but as volunteers,” she said. “Our goal is to reach those talents and bring them back into the fold.”