Past inaugurations signaled start of new eras at College

John Palmer Contributing Editor

Shahreen Saifi Staff Writer

This weekend, Catharine “Cappy” Bond Hill, will officially join the ranks of the presidents of Vassar College, a club with only nine other members. The days of events for Hill will colorfully mark the beginning of Hill’s tenure, and other presidents of the College had large kick-off celebrations as well. The previous college presidents each faced the challenges of their particular historical moments, and each inaugural ceremony was unique. Here’s a look at highlights from past inaugurations:

The last time Vassar held an installment ceremony was 20 years ago. On Oct. 10, 1986, The Miscellany News’s editorial looked forward to ninth president of Vassar Fran Fergusson’s inauguration, anticipating a “three-day extravaganza” in an “action-packed weekend.” Fergusson’s inauguration ceremony was attended by delegates from 82 other colleges and universities. But the editors of the newspaper were less concerned with the celebration and more interested in what Fergusson would do in her first few months. They looked forward to the president’s “openness,” and her “effort to address those issues that have been more important to Vassar in the last few years,” which included ways to improve the campus’ social life and student-administrator contacts.

In many ways, Fergusson’s presidency marked the beginning of increased interactions between students and the administration, according to a number of articles published at the time in The Miscellany News. Past editorials complained of a lack of student imput in the social life of the college as well as administration.

The ceremony at Vassar’s Outdoor Theater celebrated Vassar’s third female president. Fergusson’s inauguration was also part of a large series of festivities that commemorated the College’s 125th birthday. It was during this week that Main Building was designated a national historic landmark.

Some eighty years before Fergusson, another president would also shape Vassar’s social and academic life in profound ways. In 1915, an academic procession of Vassar faculty and representatives from academic institutions around the world marched to the inaugural stage for President Henry MacCracken. The audience consisted of United States government representatives, delegates from 114 colleges within the states, 11 from as far as Norway and New Zealand, as well as Vassar student and alumni representatives. But by the time MacCracken was installed as president, he had been on campus for over six months, and he had already made changes to enliven the social experience for students at the College. Earlier that year, he allowed the junior class to have a prom, which at the time was the only on-campus event that allowed juniors to invite male guests.

Thirty-one years later, Sarah Blanding’s 1946 inauguration marked the first female president take the helm. And The Miscellany News’s editors were excited, calling her inauguration day “the most eventful October 11 in the history of Vassar” (“Blanding, Sague Describe Inauguration Proceedings at General Meeting of College,” 9.25.46 issue). The inauguration made headlines for three weeks before the event. Attendance was by invitation only, and delegates were housed and served lunch in the dorms at the beginning of the weekend.

More than 150 alumnae visited the campus. Students had their own lunch the day after the official inauguration, where they had the opportunity to meet Blanding individually. During her installment, Blanding was decorated as a consultant to the Secretary of War, receiving the Exceptional Civilian Service Decoration. More than 1,400 guests packed the Chapel. Speaking just one year after the close of World War II, Blanding called upon the world for a “fuller understanding of human needs, a clearer sense of the duties of freedom, and a deeper faith in the spiritual power which can make men greater than themselves” (“Inaugural Talks Stress Role of College Today,” 10.16.46 issue).

While this year’s festivities may be the first to feature chocolate fountains, previous parties for new presidents were not without their own pep, and former presidents used inauguration to lay out their agendas and respond to student voices. Hill’s inauguration on Oct. 29 will mark the beginning of the tenth presidency and tenth era of the College’s history.