Vassar College, a private liberal arts institution known for recruiting one of the most diverse student bodies among elite colleges and universities, announced the election of its 11th president Wednesday. Elizabeth Howe Bradley, a professor of public health and head of Branford College at Yale, will take over the leadership of Vassar on July 1.
In a phone interview with Diverse, Bradley commended the Poughkeepsie, New York, institution for its academic excellence and system of governance, a balance of power shared among the faculty, board and president. She emphasized the importance of Vassar’s commitment to what she called its core values of diversity and inclusion.
“I think managing a community that is diverse but allows the topics that they argue about to actually galvanize instead of divide the community is a 21st century leadership challenge, and something that I’m excited to work on,” Bradley said.
Issues of diversity and inclusion are prevalent on many college campuses, including at Yale, which saw a particularly high-profile controversy unfold after a Yale lecturer sent out an email in the fall of 2015 suggesting that students should be free to wear the Halloween costume of their choice, regardless of its potential to cause offense to minority groups. The email was subsequently shared widely and caused a major upset on campus.
More recently, Yale students have advocated to change the name of Calhoun College, named after John C. Calhoun, a former Yalie and South Carolina politician who defended slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War. Calhoun College retains its name.
Bradley has spent the past 20 years at Yale, serving as the head of Branford, the largest of Yale’s 12 undergraduate colleges.
“As the head of Branford College here, I’ve really worked with students to be able to understand what open dialogue is,” Bradley said. “How do we dialogue with each other so we really understand what difference is and value it, not just tolerate each other, actually value each other for our differences?”