The Police Department in conjunction with the District Attorney’s Office is currently investigating the charges, while Vassar continues to “cooperate fully,” said Hill. In response to this discovery, the College is “evaluating its financial and operating controls” and has already taken steps to improve them.

According to an article published today on the Poughkeepsie Journal website, former Project Manager Arthur H. Fisher and his wife Jennifer Fisher have been charged with first degree grand larceny after a police search of their home.

The article continues: “The Fishers were sent to Dutchess County Jail. Bail for Aurthur Fisher was $100,000 or $200,000 bond. Bail for Jennifer Fisher was $50,000 or $100,000 bond. They were scheduled to appear on Town of Poughkeepsie Court at 3 p.m. today.”

Bellow is the full text of Hill’s email.

Dear members of the Vassar community:

I am writing to share some distressing news. Recently college administrators discovered financial irregularities in a limited number of campus construction accounts. These were reported to the Town of Poughkeepsie Police. The college cooperated fully with a police investigation, and the police have notified us that a former Vassar employee was arrested Friday on charges of embezzling $1.98 million from our construction accounts.

The police investigation and prosecution by the District Attorney’s Office are currently ongoing and the college continues to cooperate fully. We are taking all available steps to recover the funds. In light of this discovery, the college is evaluating its financial and operating controls, and has already taken steps to enhance their effectiveness.

These allegations go to the very heart of the trust that we rely on in our community.  While this is a very disturbing incident, all of us appreciate how our staff, faculty, and students work together every day to create a college of the highest possible integrity.

We will keep you informed when more information is available publicly. Please understand that this process will be guided by the police investigation.

Catharine Hill
President

9:00 p.m.| Residents of the two dorm are arriving at the MPR. Hill and Roellke are present.

9:05| Roellke and Hill are waiting for students to finish dinner provided by the Dean of the College Division.

9:08| Hill introduces herself and Roellke. Hill: “It seems remarkably normal this year.” Roellke apologizes for missing the cancellation of a previously-scheduled Town Hall meeting. Roellke introduces his and Hill’s student interns.

9:10| Roellke “opens up the conversation for questions.”

9:11| Hill answers a question posed by Joesselyn House President Daniel Flynn ’13 about her summer. Hill mentioned that she travelled across the country meeting alumnae/i and other friends of the College. Roellke joked that he “did no work for the College.” He continued to talk about visiting sports games and spending time with his family.

9:15| Cory Epstein’13 asks Roellke about the banning of a high-alcohol-beverage “Four Loko.” Roellke said that the banning of a substance must go through the College’s joint-governance system. The ban, if one were to be placed, would come through students as well as the administration; more specifically, the item has been placed on the agenda of the Committee on College Life.

9:18| Roellke and Hill discuss the College’s plans for creating a space for “alternative” programming, one in which students who do not want to participate in activities that involve the consumption of alcohol can spend Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Roellke says that he is looking for ways to attract students to such a space.

9:22| Sophomore Paul Weinger asks Roellke about keeping Baldwin medical services open during the weekends. Roellke says that such plans are not going to be addressed in the near future. He qualifies that by saying that he prefers that students spend time at a professional hospital if they are in need of care.

9:24| Louise Dufresne ’13 asks Hill what she thinks about the budget cuts that the College has carried out, and “where [she] sees Vassar 5 years from now.” Hill said that there is a lot of uncertainty in the future, and that an upwards trend in the College’s finances is contingent on the improving health of the economy. “We are fairly hopeful that we’ll get it right, economically,” Hill commented. Roellke said that, at least in the Dean of the College Division, the “economic downturn was an opportunity” for the Division to rethink its structure and streamline to create certain natural efficiencies that would not have  been realized under normal economic conditions.

9:31| Roellke and Hill are asked about the “future of campus dining,” and the lack of “quality and quantity” thereof. Roellke says that “we are still working out the kinks” in Campus Dining. Roellke stresses his commitment to improving the quality of Campus Dining along with the Food Committee. “We’re on it,” concluded Roellke. Roellke also commented that the College is most likely going to renew its five-year contract with Aramark, Vassar’s catering partner.

9:40| Epstein asks Hill what the one thing she would like people on tours at Vassar to know about the institution. Hill said that “talking about the quality of the intellectual activity at Vassar” is a very important element of the Vassar experience to share with those on tour.

9:42| Davison House President Michael Thottam ’12 asks Roellke about certain unused spaces on campus. Roellke said that there will be intermittent use of such spaces as programming allows. He continued to say that a number of options are being revisited, but most changes are dependent on the economic climate the College will find itself in the future.

9:46| Flynn asks Roellke and Hill how the students will be impacted by the College’s Sesquicentennial. Hill said the College has tried to structure the “sesquibrations” around the already-existing programming. Co-Chair of the Sesquicentennial Student Advisory Committee and Vassar Student Association Vice President for Activities Tanay Tatum ’12 informs the gathering about the events that are planned for the upcoming calendar year. For more details, see the Miscellany News article on the topic.

9:55| An audience member commented on the fact that Vassar’s Career Development Office  (CDO) “is lagging.” To this, Hill informed the gathering that the College is in conversation with alumnae/i about increasing their bond with current students. Roellke commended the CDO and said that, during his time at Vassar, he has seen the CDO carry out some “impressive” programming. “I hear you, and I think that there is potential [for improvement],” said Roellke, optimistic about the future of the Office based on current efforts.

10:01| As there were no more questions, Hill thanked everyone for attending and participating in the meeting.

She also wrote that though she is “cautiously optimistic,” the College’s endowment is still recovering from the financial crisis. “Our endowment has recovered some of its value, although it is still, as of March 2010, below its July 2008 value by just under $100 million,” she wrote.

However, she looked forward to the future, including  the futures of the recent graduates in the Class of 2010, the matriculation of the Class of 2014, and Vassar sesquicentennial in 2011. “This will be a time of reflection and celebration of the pivotal role our college has had in the history of higher education and in the world,” wrote Hill. “Vassar stands apart. It stood for important principles from its beginnings and stands for important principles today: engaged and rigorous study, students who can challenge each other and their professors, world-changing graduates.”

The full text of the letter is below:

Dear Members of the Vassar Community,

As we end what has been a very challenging but also productive academic year, I want to share with you some of the accomplishments of the year, as well as some of the projects we look forward to for 2010-11. I am encouraged by many things, including the hard work we shared as we collectively faced the economic challenges of the recession. While members of the community didn’t always agree on the best course of action, I appreciate the campus-wide discussion that has taken place and the efforts so many are making that will allow us to offer a superb liberal arts education now and into the future.

While we live with continued uncertainty about the global financial situation, I am cautiously optimistic. Our endowment has recovered some of its value, although it is still, as of March 2010, below its July 2008 value by just under $100 million. I believe the efforts we’ve made over the past year and a half and our continued vigilance over our operating budgets position us well to enter our sesquicentennial year and to look ahead to new projects that support our institutional priorities.

As always, our students give me a great sense of optimism.  It is that time of year when I hear about what’s next for our graduating seniors – plans for graduate school, or travel, or a job. Many have found employment, thanks, in part, to our Career Development Office and the help of alumnae/i mentors. Others will move on to advanced study, a number of them supported by prestigious fellowships, including Fulbright awards.  Vassar has consistently ranked in the top 10 among undergraduate institutions in the country for Fulbright fellowships. This year’s eight recipients, all recent graduates, will use their fellowships to study a range of topics, among them public health in Ecuador, education in South Korea, water resources in Sweden, and the role of provincial museums in China.

Three members of recent classes also earned fellowships this spring for advanced study from the National Science Foundation. They will be pursuing graduate work in cognitive neuroscience at the University of California-Irvine, cognitive psychology at Boston University, and environmental sciences at Stanford.

As we celebrate our departing seniors, we also anticipate our newest class, the first-year students who will comprise the class of 2014. We again had a record number of applications, 7822 for 660 places in the class.  We are very pleased that, at this point in the admissions process, this class includes 35 percent students of color, up from our record 33 percent last year. We also have four students from Poughkeepsie High School enrolling, all receiving Vassar’s Poughkeepsie High School scholarships, part of our effort to be responsive to students in our local community.  The class of 2014 is 42 percent male and 58 percent female, close to the national norm for entering students at four-year colleges and universities in the U.S.

This also is the class that will receive the largest amount of financial aid in our college’s history, an outcome that reflects our commitment to providing a Vassar education to the most qualified applicants regardless of their ability to pay. The college continues to see financial aid as an essential factor in offering a great education to our students. We all benefit immeasurably from the talents, variety of backgrounds, and differing perspectives in the student body that our financial aid policy makes possible.  The senior class felt so strongly about the importance of this priority that they devoted their class gift to financial aid and raised the largest gift of any senior class in Vassar history out of their shared sense of commitment to educational access.  Their gift of  $22,690 represented a participation rate of 92 percent of the class. Two generous alums each matched the gift for a grand total of $68,070 for the 2010 Endowed Scholarship Fund.  What a remarkable accomplishment from our most recent graduates!

We are so grateful for all of the support we get from our alumnae/i and others who believe in Vassar’s mission.  More alumnae/i than ever are showing their commitment to the college with philanthropy for financial aid, capital projects, and with gifts at all levels to the Annual Fund for the college’s greatest needs.  To date, Vassar has had 800 more donors this fiscal year than last.  We could not accomplish our goals without the commitment and generosity of our alumnae/i.

This year in the course of the nearly 1,500 lectures and other events on campus, we hosted some extraordinary guests. In late April U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder spoke on campus, introduced by our alumnus and former trustee Richard Roberts, U.S. Federal District Court Judge. Attorney General Holder addressed a full Chapel of students, faculty, staff, and community members on “Public Service and the Common Good.” His talk is available on the Vassar YouTube channel for those who were unable to attend, www.YouTube.com/Vassar. The Alumnae and Alumni of Vassar College (AAVC) presented their Award for Distinguished Achievement to Dr. Anne Buckingham Young, class of 1969, a world-renowned neurologist who has made major contributions to the understanding and treatment of such diseases as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Alzheimer’s.  Dr. Young is the Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and the Chief of the Neurology Service at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The coming year, 2011, will mark Vassar’s sesquicentennial, the 150th anniversary of the college’s founding. This will be a time of reflection and celebration of the pivotal role our college has had in the history of higher education and in the world.  Vassar stands apart. It stood for important principles from its beginnings and stands for important principles today: engaged and rigorous study, students who can challenge each other and their professors, world-changing graduates. Our celebration of this anniversary will take place first on campus in early 2011, with subsequent events to be held at various cities throughout the country and abroad.  These celebrations also will serve as the launch of the public phase of our fundraising campaign, a major initiative that will support important priorities of the college.

One of those priorities is providing excellent science facilities that will match in quality the science programs now available to our students.  With an emphasis on interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches to science, Vassar faculty have developed cutting-edge curricula and significant opportunities for undergraduate participation in research. Unfortunately, our facilities have not kept pace, and we must now address those needs.  A faculty committee has been working for several years to develop a detailed plan of lab and classroom needs.  The college has engaged the noted architectural firm, Polshek Partnership, to envision a building that would accommodate our science needs and support the work across disciplines that marks our programs. You will be hearing more details about this project, the campaign, and the sesquicentennial events in the near future.

I want to close by thanking you for all that you do for Vassar.  I learn more about this extraordinary college every day, and I value so greatly its place in the world and the impressive contributions of its faculty, students and their families, staff, and alumnae/i.

Catharine Hill
President

“We have done a great deal of planning around the College’s workforce,” she wrote. ”Since compensation takes up two-thirds of our operating budget, reducing the size of the workforce is essential to creating equilibrium in the College’s financial structure now and into the future.”

According to Hill, the College has looked for ways to improve efficiency at the College through coordination between offices, the reorganization to some student services and a reduction in spending on capital improvements. Hill also reported on the number of staff and administrative positions that have been cut. She wrote that since the onset of the financial crisis, the College has reduced non-faculty postions by 80. “We were able to achieve most of that reduction by not filling open positions and by offering a program of retirement incentives,” she wrote. ”We feel great sadness, however, that 20 of the 80 reductions in positions required laying off valued colleagues among our staff and administration. We are working with those employees to help them find other work; and, in fact, to date 11 of them have taken positions in other areas of the College or found employment elsewhere.”

Hill also gave an update on savings that the College has made on the faculty salary budget including how many non-tenure-track have not had their contracts approved. “Considering requests made for 2009/10 as well as 2010/11, a total of 19 non-tenure-track faculty in part or full-time positions have not had their contracts renewed,” she wrote. “In some other cases we have agreed to renewed contracts with a reduced course load.” Hill noted that every year only a portion of requests for courses taught by non-tenure-track professors are approved, though a smaller proportion was approved this year than usual.

Full text of the e-mail is below:

Dear members of the Vassar community,

As the semester comes to a close, I write not only to express my gratitude for the hard work and attention so many of you have given to getting through this difficult year at the College, but also to look ahead with renewed energy to our future. It has been a challenging fall and the Vassar community has participated in passionate discussion about how best to sustain the extraordinary College we all believe in. The focus of our discussion has centered on how to weigh the importance of different aspects of this complex institution, and it is only right that in our intellectually engaged community, we will have different ideas about how to preserve its well being. Although we may not all agree, our commitment to having these conversations with respect for differing points of view reflects Vassar’s strength as an academic community.

As we have worked to make the changes necessary to bring the College’s spending to a sustainable level, we have kept our focus on the values that define Vassar: our varied and exciting academic program; our commitment to making this academic experience available to all qualified students without regard to their financial need; our commitment to providing fair compensation to all employees; responsible care for the physical facilities of our campus; and strong connections to our neighboring communities. These values have been at the forefront of our planning processes.

Throughout the course of this year, we have made substantive changes in our operating costs through reorganization and responsible reductions in services. In almost every office in the College we have asked people to rethink the way they do their work, to innovate, and consider what may not be necessary. We have, for example, coordinated and consolidated work among offices where there was overlap in responsibilities; we have temporarily slowed down our program of capital improvements in response to reduced financial resources; and we have made adjustments in how we provide services in many areas, from health services and student employment to the faculty housing program and cleaning services. These changes have required all of us on campus to reconsider our expectations and open our minds to new approaches.

We have done a great deal of planning around the College’s workforce. Since compensation takes up two-thirds of our operating budget, reducing the size of the workforce is essential to creating equilibrium in the College’s financial structure now and into the future. In making decisions about where we could reduce staffing we have paid careful attention to the potential effect of reductions on our educational mission. We have particularly considered areas where cooperation and efficiency could be improved within and among offices as staffing is reduced. The overall result of this planning is that since the fall of 2008, our non-faculty staffing has been reduced by a total of about 80 positions. We were able to achieve most of that reduction by not filling open positions and by offering a program of retirement incentives. We feel great sadness, however, that 20 of the 80 reductions in positions required laying off valued colleagues among our staff and administration. We are working with those employees to help them find other work; and, in fact, to date 11 of them have taken positions in other areas of the College or found employment elsewhere.

We also have reduced the faculty salary budget but have done so in a way that minimizes the effect on the curriculum. To achieve necessary savings we offered eligible faculty retirement and phased retirement incentives; restricted leave replacements; declined a portion of the requests for new tenure-track appointments; and reduced the number of team-taught courses and classes of fewer than five students.

Every year departments make requests for additional staffing, including renewal of non-tenure-track faculty contracts, and only a portion of those requests is typically approved. In consultation with department chairs over the past several weeks we have approved a smaller proportion than usual of requests for courses to be taught by non-tenure-track faculty in the next academic year. Considering requests made for 2009/10 as well as 2010/11, a total of 19 non-tenure-track faculty in part or full-time positions have not had their contracts renewed. In some other cases we have agreed to renewed contracts with a reduced course load. Colleagues and students will deeply miss those faculty who will no longer be at the College; they have enriched Vassar and had a significant impact on their colleagues and students.

Although we are still planning the curriculum for 2010/11, we expect that it will be the same size or slightly larger than this year’s curriculum due to leave patterns and fewer course reductions for faculty who have taken on administrative duties.

The Vassar community has met the unprecedented challenges of the past year, and we are now in a better position to move forward even as we face uncertain economic conditions ahead. The College will continue to be a place where curious, creative, and engaged young people from all backgrounds are challenged intellectually and stimulated by their interactions with each other and the other members of the community. Because we believe in the importance of this kind of education, we must steward the College’s resources so that Vassar continues to play a leading role in creating a better future for people here and around the world. I look forward to working with all of you in reaffirming our commitment to that mission and to strengthening the College and all that it means to our students now and for generations to come. I wish you all restful holidays and, again, I thank you for all that you do for Vassar.

Catharine Hill
President

Despite rumors that Midnight Breakfast would be canceled for the Fall 2009 semester in order to save money, Dean of the College Christopher Roellke announced this afternoon that “Midnight Breakfast is back!” On Sunday, Dec. 13, from 10 p.m. to 12 a.m., he wrote in an all-campus e-mail, “breakfast will be served free to all students in [the All Campus Dining Center] by President Cappy Hill, the Vassar Student Association (VSA) and members of the Dean of the College Division.” Roellke explained that for the Spring 2010 semester, an ice cream social “with accompanying outdoor activities is being planned” in lieu of a second Midnight Breakfast.

“I am proud of our students for all of these ways in which they reach out beyond campus,” wrote Hill. “So many of them have a very strong commitment to the local community where they live the vast majority of the year. They also by law have the right to register and vote locally.”

Read Hill’s letter in full below:

Ease Voting Process For Vassar Students

Vassar College students take part in the local community in many ways: several hundred volunteer each semester, working in human service agencies, at health-care clinics, as tutors in local schools, to note only a few examples. Through internships in the community, they contribute what they’ve learned in classes and gain additional on-the-job experience in government, business and social services. They raise money for local causes, including contributing to the college’s annual Community Works campaign, which to date has raised more than $500,000 for local nonprofits. I am proud of our students for all of these ways in which they reach out beyond campus. So many of them have a very strong commitment to the local community where they live the vast majority of the year. They also by law have the right to register and vote locally.

For that reason, I would ask election officials for the opportunity to work together to resolve the obstacles for future elections that made it difficult for students to vote in the last election. Many of our students were challenged as they went to the polls, being required to vote by paper “affidavit” ballot rather than using a voting machine. The issues cited involved students’ addresses on campus, a situation complicated by the fact that the Vassar campus is in multiple voting districts.

We need to be able to assure our students who are registered voters of their opportunity to participate in elections.

Catharine Hill

President, Vassar College

Poughkeepsie

Though Hill still stressed the value of competitive compensation and her philosophy against across-the-board cuts, she still explained that “the key point made in the Oct. 29 editorial is that the symbolism of a voluntary pay cut on the part of the leader of the institution would be ‘meaningful’ to the community, not as a solution to our difficulties but as a sign that I understand that sacrifices are being made everywhere, and that such a cut would be perceived differently by the community than the private giving that the leadership of the College has undertaken this year.”

Hill continued, saying that while she and the senior officers have already made sacrifices for the community—including substantial gifts to the Vassar College Annual Fund—she would “as President of the College and a member of [the] community, reduce my current salary next year by five percent to signal—to symbolize—that everyone is sacraficing at this moment in our College’s history.”

Click here to read more of Hill’s letter or here to read Features Editor Emma Carmichael’s article on pay cuts at Vassar and at peer schools.

Members of the Solidarity Working Group—who have advocated throughout the past two weeks for the job security of Vassar employees—received an e-mail the day before the Trustee meeting from President of the College Catharine Bond Hill. In the e-mail, Hill wrote that she “would like to invite two [members of the group] to present the demands to our Board of Trustees who are here on campus this weekend.” Hill also explained that she and the Senior Officers would be “getting back to [them] on the ‘List of Demands’ as soon as possible, but no later than Oct. 30, 2009,” wrote Hill. “I would like to propose,” the e-mail continues, “that a small group of administrators and members of the faculty leadership meet with you before then, however, to discuss in more detail the demands you have outlined so that we can respond with a clear understanding of your concerns.”

The meeting, held in the College Center Multipurpose Room—was already in session when Hill exited the room to call in Joyce and Stevenson, who had been waiting outside. Once inside, the two students were introduced to Chair of the Board of Trustees William Plapinger before being seated before the Trustees and Senior Officers.

Because all those attending the meeting already had copies of the demands, Joyce and Stevenson did not read them aloud and instead both read from a brief statement, during which they advocated for the preservation of the mission of the College and the protection of the Vassar community.

Once the students had delivered their remarks, Plapinger thanked them, saying “I don’t think we’re going to open this up for conversation—I think it’s the start of a conversation and I know that the administration has invited you to meet with a group of administrators and senior faculty.”

“I would like to say,” continued Plapinger, “that the steps being taken by the administration have been fully considered and fully supported by the Board. We do believe that we share the many—and almost all—of the concerns that you have, but ultimately our responsibility by law is to preserve the mission of the institution, which is education, and we believe that the steps we have taken will permit us to have Vassar be economically sustainable for many years to come.” Following these remarks and further thanks from Plapinger, the students left the room and the Trustees continued with the meeting.

Please continue checking miscellanynews.com throughout and following October Break for more updates on breaking campus news.