President Catharine Bond Hill begins first year at Vassar

Katie Paul News Editor

Tenth College President Catharine “Cappy” Bond Hill intends to fully immerse herself in the Vassar community during her first year, while paying particular attention to key issues such as the College’s curriculum, residential life, affordability, facility maintenance, and community relations.

“The two things I want to do this year are continue to get to know the place and understand what Vassar is about,” said Hill. “I’d like to start a process through which the campus can start to think about where it wants to be in ten years. I have some ideas, but I want to have conversations about whether those are areas that make sense. In a year and a half or two, I hope to have an agenda.”

Before she was unanimously selected by Vassar’s Board of Trustees to become the president of the College, Hill served as the Provost and John J. Gibson Professor of Economics at Williams College, where she had taught since 1985. She graduated from Williams in 1976 and, after receiving other degrees from Brasenose College, Oxford University and Yale University, she published her work on higher education affordability and access.

Hill has focused her research on economic development and reform in Africa. Early in her career, she worked for the World Bank, the Congressional Budget Office and Zambia’s Ministry of Finance. Hill was selected to become Vassar’s next president after an extensive national search that yielded more than 200 other candidates.

Hill stressed the importance of looking at Vassar’s financial aid packages. “One area I care about very much is admissions and financial aid,” said Hill. “If a student wants to come to Vassar, his or her family’s income shouldn’t prevent him or her from saying yes. We’re looking at what kinds of students we’re accepting and want to make sure our financial policies are adequate.”

Hill said that she also plans to devote attention to examining Vassar’s curriculum and developing its multidisciplinary programs.

“I’d like us to ask questions,” said Hill. “Are we teaching what we want to be teaching? Are we teaching the way we want to be teaching?”

She also said that she plans to take diversity into account when looking at the curriculum. “I think we have an incredibly diverse student body, and the United States is very diverse, so I think it’s very important that the curriculum reflects that diversity,” she said. “I think we will continue the discussion about ethnic studies.”

Finally, Hill said that she wants to look at the state of various facilities at the College, both residential and academic, which she considers a continuation of the work started by former President Fran Fergusson.

“As we think about what we teach and how we want to teach it, we need to make sure we have the buildings to support that focus,” said Hill. “We have a wonderful supply of old buildings that need to be revisited. I suspect two areas we’ll be talking about are science facilities and the dormitories.”

Hill explained that she was initially drawn to Vassar because of what she described as its “sense of place.” She also noticed a similarity between Williams and Vassar regarding both institutions’ willingness to grow and evolve over time. “If a college is too conservative or stuck in the past, it can be hard to excel. The faculty, students and staff at Vassar all seemed very committed to the place, and I liked that.”

The position of president appealed to her in particular because of her experience as provost at Williams College for the past seven years. “I really enjoyed being a part of the senior team that thought about the institution,” said Hill. “You can play an important role in the direction that a wonderful place takes, and that’s interesting, challenging and fun.”

In addition, her work as an economist has prepared her to think critically about how to prioritize as a College president. “In economics, you think a lot about trade-offs and opportunity costs,” said Hill. “The list of things we want to do will naturally be longer than the list of things we can actually do.”

“If you actually look at the data, there are more economists that are college presidents than any other type of scholar in the general pool,” she continued. “I guess boards think economists would make good presidents because they know about money.”

Beyond her presidential responsibilities, Hill tries to attend her three children’s athletic events as often as possible. She is an avid golfer, having played since her college years. However, Hill recognizes that her new professional role will demand much of her time and attention. “It’s not exactly clear if I’m going to have much free time for hobbies,” she said.

When asked what she considers one part of college life that all students ought to experience before they graduate, Hill encouraged intellectual exploration and experimentation. “Trying something completely different. Taking some risks,” said Hill. “This is a time when it’s safe to do that and you might find something that you really love. When I look back at my college experience, there are one or two things I wish I had done, like take a studio art class. I never did because I was afraid I wouldn’t do it well, and now I wish I had. So experiment. Try something very different and very new.”

Hill will be officially inaugurated at a ceremony in the Vassar College Ampitheater on Oct. 29. A reception and fireworks are scheduled to follow the inauguration.