Class Notes

Class Correspondent’s Role & Responsibilities

The job of the Class Correspondent is to be in touch with alums from their class to gather news for the Class Notes section of each issue of the Vassar Quarterly (VQ), and to write up that news in a Class Notes column for their  class.

Since the VQ is published three times a year, the Class Correspondent’s work begins about two months before each issue’s Class Notes deadline, which is January 15 for the Spring issue, May 15 for the Summer issue, and September 15 for the Fall/Winter issue.

Outreach may be by phone, in person, through news sent by other classmates, or submitted via the online VQ Class Notes submission form at engage.vassar.edu/register/classnotes, but most typically for each upcoming issue, outreach is via a broadcast email sent to alums of classes from 1950+ by decades, listing the Class Correspondent/s for each year in that decade with their email address, and requesting Class Notes news for the next VQ. For older classes (1950s and prior), postcards will be sent instead.

The correspondents then write up their class news according to a word count, content guideline, and format guide, the Class Notes Reference Guide, revised and sent to all Class Correspondents three times a year. They also follow Vassar’s Editorial Style Guidelines.

Class Correspondents are also sent a list of obituaries by class several times a year.

VQ staff members are available to assist new correspondents by phone or email at all times, and to assist ongoing class correspondents as well. Reach out to classnotes@vassar.edu or (845) 437-5447.

Class Correspondents typically find their role very rewarding, getting to “know” classmates they didn’t know at Vassar, keeping up with classmates they did know, making new friends, learning how each of their classmates as a cohort is experiencing a new stage of life, or national/international situation.