January 24, 1991

About 300 students, faculty and community members attended a “multi-faith prayer service for peace” in the Chapel. The event’s organizers hoped it would allow people with different political opinions and backgrounds to “find some common ground on which they could come together, pray, and express feelings.” Delores Mack, the director of the counseling service, promised that subsequent such events would be planned, “depending on the needs of the community,” and that a support group would be available for those with friends or family involved in the war.

Responding to a letter signed by nine faculty members, President Fergusson set a date for a faculty forum to discuss how the college would formally respond to the war. “It’s a political act to say ‘we can’t go on with business as usual,’” she observed. Similarly, the Vassar Students Association had not yet taken an official political stance on the war, although it offered financial and logistical assistance to student organizations.

—The Miscellany News