Reunion 2024
The Highlights
n 2024 Reunion weekend—spanning Thursday, May 30, through Sunday, June 2—nearly 1,300 alums returned to campus for a full weekend of fun. This reunion focused on classes that end in 4s and 9s, though 1948 and 1949 prefer to return together. The weekend was jam-packed with activity.
As part of the forum Reflections on Coeducation at Vassar, the class of 1974 looked back on Vassar’s decision to go coed a year before they matriculated. Classmates shared personal reflections of that time, and two popular professors—Glen Johnson, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, and Anne Constantinople, Professor Emerita of Psychology—put the era in context. The decision had come at a moment when important shifts were occurring in American higher education, they noted. It was also in an era in which students began to pressure colleges to expand their curricula to include the teaching of African American and non-Western narratives, as well as women’s history.
There was the festive annual Reunion parade, in which alums proceeded by golf cart or on foot to Celebrate Vassar, held in Noyes Circle. The five-year fund-raising totals are typically announced at the gathering to the cheers of the participants, but the proceedings were interrupted by about 100 alum and student protesters demanding action to stop the war in Gaza. It was later announced that the Reunion classes had raised more than $31 million over a five-year period to support the College and its students.
Attendees enjoyed tours of the museum and lectures on everything from the promises and pitfalls of AI to the 96-year-old Wimpfheimer Nursery School. Paula Williams Madison and the Honorable Richard Roberts, both from the class of 1974, hosted a screening of Madison’s 2014 documentary Finding Samuel Lowe: From Harlem to China, which chronicles her journey to find her extended family in her maternal grandfather’s homeland, China. Alum authors showcased their work in the Vassar Store. Two forums offered sneak peeks at programming for the Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts, which will open this fall, alongside the Salt Line restaurant and the Heartland, a 40-room inn.
Alums reconnected not just with each other, but with the beauty of the campus through tours of Vassar’s Arboretum and Preserve. Some even took a break for a peaceful walk around the labyrinth at Pratt House, the new home of Vassar’s Department of Religious and Spiritual Life and Contemplative Practices.
At a luncheon at Alumnae House, the Alumnae/i Association of Vassar College (AAVC) honored Stephanie Hyacinth ’84 with its Outstanding Service to Vassar Award. In her introduction, AAVC President Monica Vachher noted that Hyacinth has served in “six or seven Vassar campaigns, as everything from campaign chair to committee member. She has also served on the Vassar Board of Trustees and on the Board of Directors of the AAVC.” Despite these lofty positions, Vachher said, no job has been too small for Hyacinth. “She never gets wrapped up in the sturm und drang—she just sort of does the right thing.”
This Reunion was one to remember not just for Hyacinth, who celebrated her 40th Reunion, but for members of classes from 1948/49 to 2019. Connecting with old friends, meeting new ones, and reencountering the beauty of the campus did many a world of good.—Elizabeth Randolph
