Winter 2002 volume 99 issue 1 : letters
MacCracken's Generosity
Regarding the discussion (letters, fall 2000 and fall 2002) as to when men first attended classes at Vassar: men were admitted even before World War II. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, President MacCracken opened the college’s classrooms to unemployed young men from Poughkeepsie who were invited to sit in on as many classes as they chose. They paid nothing, earned no college credits, handed in no papers, and were never called upon by the instructors. They simply came, listened, and, if they wished, took notes. Many took advantage of this unprecedented opportunity. I remember two or three in my Physics 105 class, sitting unobtrusively in the back of the room. I have always thought it was a marvelous thing Prexy did — giving young men, often destitute and hopeless, such an unheard-of opportunity to absorb the educational offerings of a great college they could never otherwise have obtained.
Joan Deming Ensor ’36
W. Redding, Connecticut