At the start of the Spring 2026 semester, the new Dede Thompson Bartlett Center for Admission and Career Education officially opened to students. Last spring, President of the College Elizabeth Bradley broke ground at the site of the soon-to-be admissions building and career center, announcing a big change coming to Vassar College. Construction has taken place throughout the year, and the building will officially be finished by March 2026. This new site houses admissions operations, hosts information sessions for prospective students and provides career education services, such as resume review and interview preparation for Vassar students and alumnae/i.
In the summer of 2021, plans for a new admissions building had already been put in motion. However, following a $10 million donation from Dede Thompson Bartlett ’65, Associate Dean of the College for Career Education (CCE) Stacy Bingham also looked to expand her office’s space. The architects presented three options to the CCE. The first was to rebuild the interior of Main Building’s south wing, the CCE’s former location. The second was to renovate the Carol and James Kautz House, where the Office of Admission was formerly housed. The third was to add a space for the CCE to the ongoing building project to relocate the Office of Admission. Bingham shared that the idea Bartlett liked best was to have a brand new space.
“It’s a very different change, but a nice change,” said Career Counselor Azeeza Saafir, of the Bartlett Center. The new building provides a more open and spacious work environment compared to the previous location. “It’s also a more open space. It was pretty dark and cramped in Main,” stated CCE intern Lucas LaFleur ’29.
According to Bingham, the new building has upgraded its ability to provide admissions and career-related services: “We’re doing 150 events a year, they’re [admissions] doing two info sessions a day, five days a week. So, we were always beg, borrowing and stealing space on campus, so this is amazing because now there’s just dedicated space.”
Many see the new building’s unique architecture as a positive. Saafir shared, “My most favorite part of the building is all of the natural light. It’s hard to be in a bad mood if you are walking past all of the windows.” Sahar Abassi ’28, a CCE intern, said, “I love the wood infrastructure. I think it’s so pretty.” Also in reference to the architecture, Thomas Millem ’29 expressed, “It’s really interesting. I think it’s a cool contrast to the dorms and it adds a lot of character to the campus.”
Having a dedicated building has made the CCE more visible on campus. “I feel like there’s a lot more traction now. There’s a lot more students coming in because I think the outside of the building is attracting them. Before we were, like, pretty closed off in the [south] wing [of Main], so people didn’t really know where to find us. But now, we have a whole building dedicated to us, so more people are coming in,” Abassi expressed. Similarly, LaFleur said, “I feel like this building is a better attraction for students. Nobody really came to us when we were [in] a side hallway in Main.”
Students interviewed by the Miscellany agreed with CCE workers’ assessment that the new center has brought more traffic. Milem shared, “I didn’t even know where the CCE was before, so it’s really cool that I now have a noticeable building to go to do things for the career center.” Vera Bronshvag ’29 also commented, “I had a lot of concerns about getting an internship over the summer, but now I definitely feel like I will go to the new building so they can help me figure it out. I didn’t really know that we even had a resource like that on campus. Wasn’t it in Main or something?”
According to Bingham, the new building will ease student anxieties and provide future-related care. “We came up with these plans and these ideas to really create this space that would be very open and inviting. We know that the college search process and the process of figuring out what you want to do with your life after college are both really heavy stressful things,” she explained. “So we wanted to essentially create a building that would really be one with nature and peace and calm, to help people sort of feel their blood pressure go down a bit.”