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Academic Life

Purposes

Vassar's statement of its academic purpose, adopted by faculty and trustees, is a definition of the qualities it seeks to develop in its students:

·Achievement of depth and range of knowledge in a single discipline or in a subject approached through several disciplines. The quality sought is not only the mastery of a body of facts, but the attainment of skill in the conduct of inquiry and the satisfaction of having gained knowledge.

·Recognition of the different kinds of knowledge and their scope and relevance to one another. It is necessary for an educated person to understand the relationships between the past, the present, and the future as well as those between people and their social and physical environments.

·Immediate experience of creative ideas, works of art, and scientific discoveries.

·Development of the powers of reason and imagination through the processes of analysis and synthesis and the use of all our human resourcesto speculate, to feel, to inquire boldly, to enjoy, to change, to create, and to communicate effectively.

·Increased knowledge of oneself, a humane concern for society, and a commitment to an examined and evolving set of values.

Faculty

Assisting students to realize these goals is a faculty of more than 200 individuals, all of whom hold advanced degrees from major universities in this country and abroad. In their devotion to the teaching of undergraduates and in their concern with the needs and capabilities of the individual student, they carry on Vassar's strongest and most productive traditions. At the same time, they encourage students to assume responsibility for the direction of their education and to engage in independent study and in field work.

Accreditation

Vassar is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

Curriculum

The Vassar curriculum has always been characterized by boldness, breadth, and flexibility, and curricular innovation has been constant in the history of the college. Vassar was among the first colleges to offer courses in drama, psychology, and Russian, and it has experimented with interdepartmental courses since the early part of the century.

Today, the curriculum is broader, richer, and more varied than ever, including concentrations ranging from Latin to cognitive science, from biochemistry to religion, from astronomy to Africana studies. Students at Vassar may choose
courses from such diverse fields as Asian art and women's studies, corporate finance and Chinese, film history and constitutional law, or electron microscopy and Old English. Field work, integral in the curricula of many departments for decades, is
an expected part of students' work in such fields as anthropology and education,
and study abroad programs are available for many students, especially those concentrating in foreign language study.

Curricular requirements are flexible, and both students and faculty have various options in ways of teaching and learning. Students have a choice of four paths to the bachelor's degree: concentration in a department; interdepartmental programs such as biopsychology or mathematics/computer science; multidisciplinary programs such as urban studies; American culture, or science, technology and society; or concentration in an individually tailored course of study in the Independent Program.

Informal Education

The formal curriculum is supported and enriched by remarkably abundant resources for informal education outside the classroom. The college provides lectures, in any year, by more than 150 outside scholars and public figures. Vassar's schedule of concerts, lectures, films, dramatic productions, art exhibitions, and conferences generates a campus atmosphere that would do credit to a much larger institution.

Artists from outside the college give concerts and recitals in addition to those given by the college musical organizations and by faculty members and students of the Department of Music. Exhibitions of fine printing, binding, manuscripts, rare editions, and Vassar memorabilia are shown in the main library.

Every year, four major productions are staged by the faculty and students of the Department of Drama; works of eminent playwrights from the ancient Greeks to the moderns have been presented in recent years. In addition to these major productions, many studio productions, directed by the students and faculty, are presented throughout the year under the auspices of the Department of Drama.

The Third World Festival is an annual event sponsored by the Program in Africana Studies which focuses on the Afro–American, African, and Afro–Caribbean heritage and tradition, and on the social and political thought of the non–Western world, particularly the African Diaspora.