February 15, 1971

Over 400 students met in the Students Building to discuss the proposed consortium with Syracuse University and Union College in a Mid-Hudson Graduate Center of Science. A spokesman for the students said the principal opposition to the center was the fear that its planning and execution would serve IBM’s needs at the expense of Vassar’s traditional liberal arts character.

A college spokesman said that the proposition was a “a paper concept” that did not initially call for concrete action involving Vassar property.

The next day, a similar number of students cut classes to protest the board of trustees’ decision to proceed to develop the Mid-Hudson Graduate Center of Science. In a subsequent student referendum, a vast majority of students voted against the trustees’ decision.

The New York Times