World-class. Transformational. Game-changing.

Those were just a few of the adjectives used to describe The Dede Thompson Bartlett Center for Admission and Career Education at a groundbreaking ceremony on June 12 adjacent to the construction site at the north end of Vassar’s campus. The $27.5-million state-of-the-art building, designed by award-winning architect Maryann Thompson P’17, is scheduled to open in the late fall of 2025.

Video by Jim Sulley and Craig Bonheur

Speaking to a crowd of more than 150 members of the Vassar community and local government and business officials, alum Dede Thompson Bartlett ’65, who launched the project with a $10-million donation, called the new Admission and Career Education Center “a dream come true.”

Wielding the same shovel College founder Matthew Vassar used for the groundbreaking of Main Building in 1861, President Elizabeth H. Bradley joined Bartlett, Bartlett’s spouse Jim, Trustee Chair Anthony Friscia ’78, and Thompson in turning over a mound of soil at the site.

Bradley lauded Bartlett, who was an executive at two Fortune 25 companies, as a “pioneer (who) has broken glass ceilings and excelled in corporate systems formerly only available to men.” A longtime supporter of career education programs at Vassar and New York University, where she received her master’s degree, Bartlett has funded hundreds of internships for students in mathematics, computer science, economics, and engineering.

Referring to the initial conversations she and her spouse had with Vassar administrators nearly five years ago, Bartlett said she wanted to help “create a world-class facility built on the astounding work” the College had been doing in career education. “This center will house a dynamic career education program that will give our students the skills to meet the existential challenges of the coming decades,” Bartlett said.

The building will also provide expanded facilities for the Office of Admission, Bartlett added, serving as a welcoming space for visitors to campus. “I cannot wait to see the faces of prospective students and their parents as they walk through this building and see the possibilities Vassar offers,” she said.

Thompson, the architect, said one of her main goals in designing the building was to ensure that it served as a gateway linking the campus to the community. “The courtyards and open space open their arms to the community,” she said, “and this openness also reflects the Vassar education. Dede told me, ‘I want a building that’s full of light,’ and that’s what it is.”

At a luncheon at the Alumnae House following the groundbreaking ceremony, the College administrators expressed their gratitude to the donors. “I am immensely grateful to Dede and Jim for their unwavering support of career education and this project,” said Stacy Bingham, Associate Dean of the College for Career Education. “Fortunately, career education at Vassar has come a long way since Dede graduated in 1965. But it has come an especially long way in the last decade, and not a moment too soon. We have long known that Vassar provides an incredible education. Now, with this new home … we have the opportunity to showcase how we prepare our students and graduates with not only a world-class education but also the skills to be successful and essential in our rapidly changing world.”

Sonya Smith, Dean of Admission and Student Financial Services, said she and her staff had been planning for their new facilities almost since she arrived at Vassar in 2019. “This evolved into a fantastic one-two punch of [a facility for] Admission and Career Education together,” Smith said. “It kicks off another great chapter in Vassar history and gives a new front door—a gorgeous, state-of-the-art one—that we open to our guests from around the world. So folks, this is going to be great!”

President Bradley closed the celebration by asking everyone to raise their champagne glasses and toast the Bartlett Center. “Our future will be full of change,” she said, “but we are fully equipped for it, thanks to the vision of Dede Bartlett. Here’s to the future!”

The dedication and official opening of the Richard L. Cretella Tennis Center kicked off a new era for Vassar’s men’s and women’s tennis teams. The new facility was made possible thanks to the Richard Cretella Trust, administered by Cretella’s sister Virginia Mars ʼ51, Pʼ82, GPʼ04, ʼ07; Mindy Mayer Pʼ92, in memory of her son Eric M. Smith ʼ92, a member of the men’s tennis team for four years and who now has a court named after him; Chrysoula Dosiou Pʼ22 and Andreas Stavropoulos Pʼ22, who named a court after their daughter Melina Stavropoulos ʼ22; Georgia Carrington ʼ58; and Peter Frey ʼ82.

“I can confidently say that Vassar now has one of the very best outdoor tennis facilities among our peer schools in the northeast,” Michelle Walsh, Director of Athletics and Physical Education at Vassar, said. “That makes such a big difference because it helps us to recruit outstanding scholar-athletes to the campus—students who excel in the classroom, on the court, and who contribute in so many different ways to our campus community.”

The Richard L. Cretella Tennis Center, built on the former Ballentine Field, has eight tennis courts made with “post-tension” concrete underneath which is made to last at least 20 years, new spectator seating, and storage for team equipment. A new scoreboard will also be installed soon. The courts are conveniently located directly adjacent to Walker Field House, providing the teams with access to locker rooms, indoor courts, and sports medicine facilities.

Before the center, the teams had to take a roughly 15-minute walk from Walker Field House to the courts along Raymond Avenue, away from the locker rooms as well as the training and sports medicine facilities. Now, the teams have a 2-minute walk from the field house and its amenities.

“On behalf of both the men’s and the women’s tennis teams, we are so incredibly grateful for this amazing state-of-the-art tennis facility,” Tina McDermott, head men’s tennis coach, said. “We’re just so very proud to practice and compete here. We want to thank the donors again for their support and generosity.”

Mars, encouraged by her daughters, created annuity trusts in both of her brothers’ names. When her older brother, Albert W. Cretella Jr., passed, a scholarship was created in his name. After Richard Cretella’s passing in October 2022, Mars and her daughters had a need for the trust to fund something for the College and the College had a need for new tennis courts. This was perfect as Cretella was an avid tennis player, passing his knowledge and love for the game on to his children and his sister.

“To me, it’s very fitting that a tennis center should be named for him because he would be one of the first ones to be pleased that that was what the money was used for,” Mars said. “The tennis courts needed to be moved and they needed to be where the sports center, the old one, is and a new one will hopefully be built.”

Upon seeing the courts for the first time, Mars said “It’s wonderful, beautiful, impressive. How many settings do you get like this for tennis?”

The teams and coaches are celebrating the new courts, too.

“It’s the best facility by far I’ve ever had the opportunity to work on in my 26 years,” women’s head coach Marty Perry said. “From day one, the team is playing better. It’s a huge help to the success of the programs and for recruiting.”

“The first day we practiced on the courts, our coach (Perry) was saying we were a different team,” Macey Dowd ʼ25, a member of the women’s team, said. “They’re a good source for recruiting.”

“It’s a big step up from the old courts,” men’s team member Jay Wong ʼ24 added. “We’ve had a breakthrough and this gives us bigger potential to recruit and to host tournaments.”

Members of both teams said the new courts will provide a much better spectator experience and give the coaches better access to the players during practice.

“It’s my last year and I’m going to enjoy every moment of it,” Benjamin Almquist ʼ24, a member of the men’s tennis team, said. “It’s beautiful. It really enhances the practice and match experience.”

As the Walker Field House shows its age, the new tennis courts, according to President Bradley are “our first, and most recent step, toward strengthening the vision for Vassar Athletics broadly.

“Having those courts really starts us on our way to the larger replacement that we need,” Bradley continued. “So, so much more to look forward to in the program.”

June 21, 2022, Poughkeepsie NY – Three-time Academy Award-nominated, two-time Primetime Emmy Award-winning and three-time Peabody Award-winning producer Jason Blum ’91, founder and CEO of Blumhouse, the company behind such films as Whiplash, Get Out and BlacKkKlansman, will make a $10 million gift to Vassar College that he asked to be used to supplement the College’s financial aid funds, President Elizabeth Bradley announced.

The donation from Blum, who has served on Vassar’s Board of Trustees since 2015, is the largest gift ever given to the college by a male alum and is a lead gift for Vassar’s upcoming fundraising campaign, which will launch this fall. “As we prepare to launch the largest campaign in Vassar’s history, Jason Blum’s gift for financial aid is catalytic and will have a positive impact on innumerable lives of Vassar students for years to come,” President Bradley said.

Blum, who majored in drama at Vassar, said his gift reflected his gratitude for the role his Vassar education played in shaping his career. “The courses I took, friends I made and the other activities I was involved in while at Vassar fueled my critical thinking skills and made me more curious about the world,” Blum said.

He said he earmarked his gift for the College’s financial aid funds because of his strong belief in the importance of access to the best liberal arts education for all applicants, regardless of their financial status. “I want to help ensure that Vassar is able to continue its commitment to admit students with the desire to succeed without regard to whether or not they can pay,” he said.

Blum announced the gift during an appearance on ABC’s Live with Kelly & Ryan last Friday.

Blum is the founder and CEO of Blumhouse, a multi-media production company that pioneered a new model of studio filmmaking, producing high-quality, micro-budget films. Through Blumhouse, he has produced over 150 movies and television series with theatrical grosses amounting to more than $5 billion, including the lucrative, iconic, genre franchises including Halloween, Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Happy Death Day, Sinister and The Purge, among many other films.

Blumhouse’s television division produces provocative programming – with streaming anthology series like Welcome to the Blumhouse for Amazon and a series of films for Epix – and has expanded beyond genre with acclaimed scripted and unscripted series and documentaries, such as The Thing About Pam, starring Renee Zellweger for NBC; The Good Lord Bird, starring Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke for Showtime; The Loudest Voice, starring Golden Globe winner Russell Crowe for Showtime; A Wilderness of Error (FX); The Jinx for HBO; A Secret Love, from executive producer Ryan Murphy, for Netflix; and lauded HBO series Sharp Objects starring Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson, among others.

He has been recognized by TIME magazine’s 100 list of the world’s most influential people and has appeared several times on Vanity Fair’s “New Establishment List.”

Labyrinths, serpentine pathways carved into the landscape, have been found in ancient ruins and have been a component of contemplation and meditation practices throughout the world ever since. As Vassar’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life and Contemplative Practices prepares to move its offices to Pratt House, a newly created labyrinth is one of the resources students will find there, thanks to a gift from Vassar alumna Mary Hyde Ottaway ’59.

The opening of the labyrinth and Pratt House will be celebrated at an Open House April 13. Vassar alumnus Gabriel Dunsmith ’15, whose senior thesis helped to inspire Vassar’s new labyrinths, will speak at the event.

During the October dedication, Rev. Samuel Speers, Associate Dean for Religious and Spiritual Life and Contemplative Practices, thanked the Ottaway family for the gift. “I’m a longtime lover of labyrinths, and this self-effacing donor has used her Vassar experience to emphasize their importance as a form of prayer,” Rev. Speers said.

“The Labyrinth, that most grounding of contemplative practices, has long been a favorite of mine,” Ottaway said, “and one I know many of us have hoped for here at Vassar for a long time.”

Ottaway said she had been awed by the beauty of Vassar’s campus when she was a student and learned to more fully appreciate the landscape when she took a course in ornithology. “Our final project involved tracking banded chickadees, mapping their territories, and observing their nests,” she recalled. “I was assigned AbleBlue. His name is etched in my memory, and, as chance would have it, we are on his territory. So, today, what I bring is this cherished memory, as well as great pleasure at being able to contribute to this project and amazement that we all stand here, right now, in AbleBlue’s flight path!

Associate Professor of Psychological Science Carolyn Palmer, who is teaching a course on contemplative practices this fall, noted that some funding for the labyrinth had been provided by the Carolyn Grant ’36 Endowment Fund. Palmer told those gathered at the dedication ceremony that she hadn’t waited until the labyrinth had been fully constructed to visit the site. She said she had brought her students to the Pratt House lawn earlier in the semester.

“This labyrinth has been a dream of mine for 20 years,” Palmer said. “Part of Vassar’s mission is to help answer the question: ‘What is my purpose in life?’ The labyrinth takes you in, not necessarily to answer that question, but to provide a space for contemplation—and Pratt House will be actively engaged in purpose-driven activities.”

Then, nodding to Ottaway, Palmer said there had been some other visitors on the tour with her students that day. “We were graced by many chickadees,” she said. “I guess they were AbleBlue’s great grandchicks, and maybe someday our own great grandchildren will walk in this space.”

Ellie Whiteman ’24, an intern in the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, said the creation of the labyrinth and the imminent move into Pratt House were significant events for many on campus. “The labyrinth has been a dream of many students, faculty, and community members for far longer than I have been a Vassar student.,” Whiteman said. “It is incredibly exciting knowing that it will be a part of the Vassar experience for years to come. It can be difficult to find truly peaceful places on campus when there is so much happening all the time, but having seen the care put into this project I truly believe that the labyrinth and Pratt House will serve that purpose.”

Vassar alumna Jane Baker Nord ’42 has made a $3 million gift to the College to endow a new Chair in Media Studies, President Elizabeth H. Bradley announced.

The Chair will be awarded to a distinguished faculty member designated by the President on the advice of the Dean of Faculty. The first recipient will be announced in the Fall of 2023. The endowment will fund the faculty member’s salary and benefits and will provide funds for the Chair’s research and teaching development.

“Jane Baker Nord has been one of the College’s most generous and most loyal supporters for many decades,” President Bradley said. “Her gift enabling us to fund this new Chair in Media Studies is particularly significant as the College continues to enhance its multidisciplinary programs.”

The gift is the latest in a series of donations Nord and her family have made to the College. Previously, she has established The Eric and Jane Nord Fund to support faculty salaries for the Music department and The Eric and Jane Nord Fund for Skinner Landscaping, and she has been a lifelong supporter of the Frances Lehman Loeb Arts Center, contributing to the building construction and an endowment for the curator of academic programs.  The Loeb Sculpture Garden is named after her mother, Hildegarde Krause, Vassar Class of 1911.

She was a volunteer for her class and a member of the Friends of the Frances Lehman Loeb Arts Center, and she served on the Committee for the 25th Anniversary of the Frances Lehman Loeb Arts Center.

Nord said the gift was an expression of her love and admiration for the College. “I first discovered my profound love of learning at Vassar,” she said, “and I am happy to be able to fund this new Chair to help Vassar continue to carry out its mission.”

Buoyed by a $10-million gift from alumna Dede Thompson Bartlett, Vassar College today unveiled plans for a new building that will house the offices of Admission and Career Education, President Elizabeth Bradley announced. Construction of The Dede Thompson Bartlett Center, to be located on the north end of the Town of Poughkeepsie campus, is expected to begin within the next 18 months.

“For nearly a decade, Dede Bartlett has been helping Vassar students and graduates carve their career paths by funding paid internships and other initiatives through the College’s Career Education office, President Bradley said. “Her extraordinary gift will enable the College to provide state-of-the-art facilities and programming that will truly enhance the services our Admission and Career Education offices can provide.”

Bartlett, who graduated from Vassar with honors in 1965, said: “This exceptional building ushers in a new era at Vassar. Two of the most important tasks facing world-class liberal arts colleges are recruiting the best students, regardless of their economic status, and providing them with a lifetime of educational and career opportunities. The staffs of the offices of Admission and Career Education will have a welcoming, superb facility to enable them to carry out their critical missions.”

Bartlett was a senior executive at two Fortune 50 companies, Mobil Corporation and Altria Group. She said she had long been interested in enhancing career opportunities for students in part because her own early career path was so difficult. The College had no formal career education program at the time, and her first job, typing letters to clients of the Far East America Council, “was not an auspicious beginning.”

Following her retirement in 2002, Bartlett was invited to lecture on career education at colleges across the country as a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, a program administered by the Council of Independent Colleges. Bartlett had been mentoring Vassar students throughout her career, and in 2013 the Jim and Dede Bartlett Foundation established the Thompson Bartlett Fellowships for Science, Mathematics and Computer Science, named in part for Dede’s mother, Emilie Thompson, a champion of higher education. For the past nine years, the program has funded internships for more than 80 students. Last year, it was expanded to include internships for students in economics. “These critical summer internships have changed lives and have been the best mentoring I’ve ever done,” Bartlett said.

She said her relationship with President Bradley and Associate Dean of the College for Career Development Stacy Bingham had prompted her to consider taking her commitment to another level. “I was convinced that Stacy was doing remarkable work in cramped quarters with no room for expansion,” Bartlett said. “Students come to Vassar with the expectation that they are going to find a lifetime of intellectual and professional learning; career education is paramount. We looked at what other colleges were doing, and I was convinced talking to Betsy that she has a clear vision of where she wants to take Vassar. This building will be an outward and visible sign that Vassar is doing that kind of work in career education.”

Bingham said the facilities in the new building will significantly enhance the programs the Career Education Office will be able to offer. “The admission and career education project makes a bold statement about Vassar’s future-facing commitment to our students and the ambition we have for their success,” she said. “When prospective students and their families cross the threshold of this modern, inviting space, they will immediately sense that Vassar is committed to not only giving them a world-class education but also helping them build the skills needed to thrive in their life’s journey.”

Sonya K. Smith, Dean of Admission and Student Financial Services, said she and her team are looking forward to pursuing their mission in the new building. “Meeting prospective students and their families in such a state-of-the-art and welcoming space will surely amplify and enhance how we tell Vassar’s story, ensuring that we attract the best possible candidates for admission,” Smith said.

Smith noted that the demand by prospective students and their families to visit the campus is greater than ever, and she said they are particularly interested in student outcomes. “Having our remarkable career education programs in the same building with admission will make crystal clear the great work and care that Vassar does to prepare students to become their best selves and to pursue pathways that resonate with who they are,” she said.

Bartlett said she was thrilled to be part of this new era for Vassar. “Technological, economic and social forces are disrupting and challenging many traditional careers while creating new opportunities,” she said. “That’s what’s so valuable about career education, and that’s the point of a Vassar education.”

Photo Credit: Deborah O’Brien