Calvin Marsh, Metropolitan Opera baritone and composer-pianist, performed.
President Alan Simpson discussed Vassar co-education on NBC's Today Show, explaining that a coordinate system, rather than simple co-education, seems more likely in Vassar's future.
Kathleen Weil Harris Posner, New York University, gave the 1928 Visiting Scholar's Lecture, entitled "Bramante and Sansovino: The Creation of a High Renaissance Sanctuary."
Frederick A. Olafson, Harvard University, lectured on "Philosophy and the Humanities."
Imogene Horsley, Carleton College, lectured on the "Aspects of Tonality in Lasso and Gesualdo."
B. F. Skinner, Harvard University, gave the Helen Gates Putnam Lecture on new approaches to behavior analysis.
Clyde Griffen, Dean of Freshmen, was designated to conduct a study of the alternatives for a coordinate college for men at Vassar.
The Garvanas Trio performed.
The Hudson Valley Philharmonic performed.
Vassar announced plans for its own radio station.
The Early Music Quartet performed.
The Dean's Program held a symposium on "The New Morality," to "discuss person, social, and religious aspects of morality. Speakers included were Dr. Mary Calderone, Alan Ginsberg, William Stringfellow, and Chaplain Frederic C. Wood.
William Sloane Coffin, Jr., Yale University, lectured on "Vietnam and the draft: Crisis of Conscience."
Jorge Luis Borges, contemporary Latin American author and literary critic, lectured on "The Fantastic in Argentine Literature."
Vassar held its Dickinson-Kayden Program for 1967-68: "Perspectives on Japan."
Dr. Timothy Leary, League of Spiritual Discovery, lectured on the "Conflict of Men and the Use of Drugs in Modern Society."
Quentin Bell, Oxford University, lectured on "Bloomsbury Painters and Writers."
Adrienne Rich, contemporary poet and feminist, read poetry.
Harry A. Borthwick, United States Department of Agriculture, gave the Helen Gates Putnum Conservation Lecture, entitled "Light Control of Plant Movements."
Phil Ochs, folk singer, performed.
Margaret Schlauch, University of Warsaw, lectured on "The Value of Linguistic Studies of Literary Critics."
Vassar's choral group, "The Madrigals Singers," departed for a two-week Scandinavian concert tour.
Val W. Woodward, University of Minnesota, lectured on "Trends and Predictions for the Failure of Biology and Biology Education."
Dr., Hans Kung, Bingen University, Germany, lectured on "The Problems and Future of the Church."
Lt. Col. Arch E. Roberts, U.S. Army, Ret., lectured on the United States' involvement in Vietnam.
Phyllis Lambert '48, lectured on "The Construction of a Modern Building."
The Dean's Program held a symposium, "Focus on India." Speakers included were Dr. Aimya Chakavarty and Swami Saravagatananda.
Vassar College canceled classes in order to allow students and faculty to participate in a memorial march through Poughkeepsie to honor the recently slain Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Gussie and Israel Matz Lecture, entitled "Shaping the Environment of Civilized Societies," was given by Lynton Caldwell, Indiana University.
Vassar joined six other mid-Hudson colleges to form the Mid-Hudson Inter-College Council.
Paul Oscar Kristellar, Columbia University lectured on "The European Significance of Florentine Platonism."
Christopher Lasch, Northwestern University, gave the C. Mildred Thompson Lecture, entitled "The Ambiguities of Equality: The Idea of Asylum in Nineteenth Century Reform."
Eve Borsook '49, New York University, gave the 1928 Fund Lecture, entitled "The Florence Flood: Damage and Discovery."
Rene Dubos, Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, gave the Gussie and Israel Matz Fund Lecture, entitled "Biological Advantages of Urban Life."
Donald M. Frame, Columbia University, gave the Phi Beta Kappa Lecture, entitled "Montaigne on the Absurdity and Dignity of Man."
C. H. W. Hirs, Brookhaven National Laboratory, lectured on "Slide Chain Reactivity and the Structure of Ribonuclease."
The Dean's Program held a symposium entitled, "The New Left Reappraisal of the Cold War: American Foreign Policy 1945-65," to examine the historiography of the Cold War. Guest speakers included were Lloyd Gardner, Barton Bernstein, and Gaddis Smith.
Ellen Chesler '69, and two Yale students, Steven Weisman '68 and Michael Winger (Yale Law School), published their findings, "Vassar and Yale Study: the whole story," in Yale's The New Journal. Vol. I, 12 (April 28, 1968), pp. 3-16, 16-7. The report made a series of accusations supporting that "The Vassar-Yale affiliation was already doomed six months before it ended."
Johnathon Kozol lectured on "Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools."
The committee studying the organization of a men's coordinate college presented its complete report to President Alan Simpson.
Vassar held a symposium on "Causality." Guest speakers were Professor Ruddick, New York university, Professor Fogelin, Yale, and Professor O'Connor, Vassar.
Vassar students petitioned President Alan Simpson to condemn police action recently taken at Columbia University and to promise that such a situation would not happen at Vassar.
Vassar College embarked on two new programs: 1) In July and August, Vassar would hold a "cultural enrichment and recreational program" for local disadvantaged Poughkeepsie children; and 2) next semester, Vassar would admit with full-scholarship, a number of "non-matriculated," local students of color, who could not meet the regular admissions standards, to be tutored in a remedial program until they can enter Vassar's regular curriculum.
Eleanor Dodge Barton '38, chairman of the art department at Sweet Briar College, lectured on "Alessandro Algardi: A case history of a seventeenth century sculptor," in honor of retiring Leila Cook Barber, chairman of the Vassar art department.
The Hudson Valley Philharmonic performed.
Volkmar Sanders, of New York University lectured on "Bertolt Brecht's Documentary Theater."
Vassar celebrated "Founder's Day" for the first time since World War II.
The faculty recommended to trustees to pursue co-education, rather than coordinate education.
Vassar College Board of Trustees accepted the Forward Planning Committee's resolution to "adopt a policy of admission of male undergraduate students on a wholly coeducational basis." The trustees asked for a report to be drawn up by Dean Nell Eurich on how to make the college coeducational regarding timing, scheduling, recruitment, needed construction and funds. The report's goal was to reach a student body of 2,400 with a 1:1 male/female ratio by 1975. It also proposed the need for major construction to be done "regardless of the increased student body," including apartments/dormitories between the golf course and Sunset Lake, two main dining halls, rather than the proposed one dining hall to be located in the middle of the quad, a new science building, and an experimental theater.
Charles Frankel, Columbia University, began work as planning director of the Institute for the Advancement of College and University Teaching at Vassar.
Twenty men sponsored by local companies, enrolled in chemistry, physics and math courses on a trial basis, becoming the first male students enrolled at Vassar since the college enrolled veterans after the World War II.
A report prepared for the State University of New York called for a Mid-Hudson Graduate Center at Vassar College to be affiliated with 38 other area institutions. President Alan Simpson welcomed the possibility.
Negotiations began between six men's colleges (Bowdoin, Amherst, Dartmouth, Williams, Colgate, and Trinity) and Vassar to begin an exchange program next semester. By December, approximately 70 Vassar women and 70-80 men from Colgate, Williams, and Trinity would register in the exchange.
Melbourne R. Carriker, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, gave the Helen Gates Putnam Conservation Lecture, entitled "Biology of Shell Penetration of Oysters by Their Predator, the Boring Snail."
Vassar abolished liquor restrictions in dormitories.
The Dean's Program held a panel on "Drug Use."
Father Pierre Benoit, director of L'ecole Biblique, Jerusalem, lectured on "The Evolution of the Ancient City Jerusalem."
Peter Gay, Columbia University, gave the C. Mildred Thompson Lecture, entitled "The Enlightenment: Dead or Alive."
Vassar held its first Fine Arts Festival.
Vassar College and Trinity College agreed to establish an exchange program.
Padraic Colum, Irish poet and playwright, gave the 1928 Fund Lecture, entitled "Yeats and the Irish Cultural Movement."
The Board of Trustees approved the acceptance of male transfer students for 1969-70 and the admission of freshman men in the fall of 1970. The Board also petitioned the New York State Board of Regents for the right to grant degrees to men.
Vassar College and Colgate University agreed to an exchange program for the following semester.
Donald Keene, of Columbia University, lectured on "Two Modern Japanese Poets: Shiki and Takuboku."
A.M. Nagler, Yale University, lectured on "The Painted Stage."
Ten colleges (Amherst, Bowdoin, Connecticut College, Dartmouth, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Vassar, Wesleyan, Wheaton and Williams) discussed ways in which they might cooperate, particularly through exchanges, in order to offer students better educational opportunities.
Thomas Nagel, Princeton University, lectured on "War and Murder."
Morris Kline, New York University, lectured on "Logic and Truth in Mathematics."
Hedda Garza, Socialist Workers' Party candidate for Senate, lectured on "Black Control of the Black Community."
A conference of students, faculty, administration, and trustees gathered at Lake Minnewaska to discuss decision-making policy and new directions open to the college.
Julius Tomin, University of Prague, lectured on the "Impact of Recent Events in Czechoslovakia on Marxist Theory and Practice."
James Tenney, Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, lectured on "Computer Generations of Music."
Margaret Wilson, The Rockefeller University, lectured on "Concept, Cause, and Object: Kant's Reply to Hume."
Jan LaRue, New York University, lectured on "A Unique Monument to Friendship: Mozart's Quartets Dedicated to Haydn."
Wassily Leontief, Harvard, gave the Martin H. Crego Lecture, entitled "To Grow Or Not to Grow."
Theodore Sorenson, advisor to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, gave the Barbara Bailey Brown Lecture, entitled "Whose Law and Order?"
Pete Seeger, folk singer, performed.
The Hungarian String Quartet performed "The Six Mozart Quartets Dedicated to Haydn."
Sheldon Nodelman, Yale University, gave the 1928 Fund Lecture, entitled "Illusion and the Arts of Reality: Some Thought on the Plastic Arts in the Sixties and After."
Benjamin DeMott, Amherst College, lectured on "Culture and Society."
Elias Bredsdorff, Cambridge University, lectured on "Interplay of Word and Image in the Modern Theater."
Ricardo Gullon, University of Texas, lectured on "Una Relectura de Didna Perfecta."
Twenty-some students staged a five-and-a-half hour sit-in demonstration in the office of Nell Eurich, Dean of Faculty, demanding the extension of professor Roger Katan's contract to include the following semester.
Christopher Thorn, American University in Cairo, lectured on "Life and Higher Education in Egypt Today."
Arthur I. Waskow, Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D. C., lectured on "The Next Thirty Years of American History."
Steven Cahn, New York University, lectured on "The Performer as Creator: An Analysis of the Role of the Performer in Music."
Jacob Bean, Metropolitan Museum of Art, lectured on "Italian Draughtsmen of the 17th Century."
Jean Mayer, Harvard University, lectured on "The Ethics of Birth Control."
Alexander Sesonske, University of California, Santa Barbara, lectured on "Cinema Space."
Last updated: 10 November, 1999, by Jeremy R. Linden, '00.