Class Notes Reference Guide

Updated March 2025

A most heartfelt thank you to new and continuing correspondents for your time, effort, and energy! We hope you find the following Class Notes guidelines useful.

Software

Please type your column in a word processing program, preferably Microsoft Word using Times New Roman, size 12 font.

Headings

Please type your class year, name, and contact information at the top of your column. In the magazine, this will be the contact info printed in the column header. You can include as much or as little as you’d like—just a postal address, just email, both, telephone number—but remember to try to make it easy for classmates to reach you.

Word Count

Pay close attention to word limits, listed below for each class. They are determined using a formula based on the number of alums in your class and can change from year to year. Reunion classes are given an extra 200 words for the year in which their reunion occurs; this starts with the Spring issue prior to reunion and ends with the Fall/Winter issue following reunion.

Note: You can’t roll over words from one issue to the next. If your class’s column has an upper limit of, say, 1,000 words, it might seem perfectly logical that if you skip an issue, you can then submit 2,000 words the next time. But this isn’t the case, as the space allotted to Class Notes is the same for each issue.

Word limits are per issue. (Classes in bold are those that were scheduled for a Reunion in 2023). The word count includes the additional 200 words that the correspondents of reuniting classes are allotted from the Spring issue of Reunion year to the Fall/Winter issue immediately following it.

Class Year	Word Count
1942	625
1943	825
1944-1947	625
1948-49	845
1950-1952	845
1953	1045
1954-1957	845
1958	1045
1959-1962	845
1963	1045
1964-1967	845
1968	1045
1969-1971	845
1972	1025
1973	1225
1974-1977	1025
1978	1225
1979-1982	1025
1983	1225
1984-1987	1025
1988	1225
1989-1992	1025
1993	1225
1994-1997	1025
1998	1225
1999-2002	1025
2003	1225
2004-2007	1025
2008	1225
2009-2012	1025
2013	1025
2014-2017	825
2018	1025
2019-2022	825

Names

Please put the names of your classmates in boldface type, without a class year (e.g., Jane Smith reports that…). When referring to a Vassar alum from another year, do not put the name in bold, but do list the class year after her or his name (e.g., Joe Jones ’15). Your classmates should only be listed in boldface upon the first mention in a column; subsequent references should be in plain type. (If you are unable, for whatever reason, to put text in bold, we ask that you do not put names in ALL CAPS.

Please refer to classmates by their full names (Vassar name and married name when appropriate; e.g., Jane Jones Smith. Please refrain from including middle names or middle initials. Nicknames may be included and should appear in the following format: Jane (Bitsy) Jones Smith. Common and familiar nicknames, such as Peggy for Margaret or Mike for Michael, need not be indicated as such. We check all names that appear in Class Notes against the college’s database. If a correspondent refers to a classmate by a name other than the name in the database, we may contact the correspondent for clarification.

Please consult those who have changed their names and/or pronouns due to gender transition about whether they want their name change announced and which pronouns they prefer.

Grammar & Style

Generally, the VQ follows the Chicago Manual of Style and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. We also use a Class Notes Style Sheet. The VQ will edit your column to match these style guidelines and for length and questionable content. In the event that substantive edits are necessary, we will make every effort to inform you of these changes.

Dividing Class Notes Duties

For classes that have more than one correspondent, splitting the duties of the position can be done in several ways. Most co-correspondents alternate issues, but feel free to come up with a system that works for you. Whatever option you choose (or invent), please let Lynn (classnotes@vassar.edu) know so she can keep track of who is on deck for the next issue.

Gathering News For Your Column

Any news sent to our offices at Vassar will be forwarded to you, mostly by email. These materials often come in the form of press clippings, emails, or press releases. We have launched a new online VQ Class Notes submission form, which alums can fill out at any time, at engage.vassar.edu/register/classnotes. Any submissions from your classmates made via this form will be forwarded to you within two weeks of their submission. For each issue, we will automatically send broadcast emails to classes by decade, from the 1960s onward, with a standard message asking for news to be submitted to you directly no later than ten days prior to your Class Notes deadline, unless you have discussed the submission of an individual email request with Lynn. The correspondent names and contact emails for that decade will be listed in each email. Review the guidelines for submitting a broadcast email request prior to submitting an individual request.

Remember, in order to complete the request form you will need the text of your broadcast email as a Word or text document. Contact Lynn if you need other assistance or have questions about sending an individual broadcast email to your class.

For classes from 1944-1959, postcards will be sent asking for news. The postcards will be sent for each issue of the VQ, and classmates will return them directly to their class correspondents.

To take a more active role in cultivating news, ask your class president for a class directory, and reach out to classmates who haven’t written in some time. And keep in contact with your fellow class officers, as they can be a great source for news and can alert you to important class business. Remind your classmates that they can submit news anytime via the new online VQ Class Notes submission form.

Sending Your Column

Emailing Your Class Notes Documents

Email your class notes document to Lynn (classnotes@vassar.edu). If you are unable to send your column electronically, or if you do not have access to email, you can also mail a typed hard copy of your column to the Quarterly office. We will scan the hard copy and convert it to a Word Document (We prefer to avoid this method if at all possible, as character-recognition software isn’t 100 percent accurate). Please do not fax your column or send it on any sort of disc.

Save Your Source Materials

Questions do arise during the publishing process, and we will call or email you to ask about the original wording or spelling. Note: If you plan to gather news via a phone conversation, take notes. Down the road you’ll be glad you did. New: Please keep all source materials as a backup for one full year; do not delete them or throw them away! No need to send them to the office as you may have done previously.

Important Considerations

Births & Weddings

News of expected births and expected nuptials should not be included and will be edited from the column. Such announcements have been the source of great pain in the rare situation when problems have occurred before or during birth, or a wedding has been canceled. We welcome announcements of births and marriages after the fact.

Deaths

Please do not announce deaths unless you have official confirmation from the Office of Advancement. In the event that you learn of a death before hearing from the college, please contact the VQ so that we can notify the records office and official confirmation can be sought. If we have no official confirmation for a reported death, the mention of that death will be deleted from the column.

Death announcements in class notes frequently include your tribute to that classmate’s life. It should not be a verbatim copy of all details you have in a printed or online obituary: Please do not include funeral arrangements or where donations may be sent. Remember that the VQ death notice will not appear in print until several months after you have submitted your column.

Privacy

Please do not print your classmates’ contact information, including email addresses, in your columns; we will edit out any of this information, unless it pertains to official class business. If a classmate would like to update his or her contact information, please encourage them to visit the online alum directory at vassar.edu/alums (via the “Alum Directory” button in the lower right corner of the browser window), or write to vq@vassar.edu to notify Vassar’s Central Records office of the change.

Hyperlinks, URLS, Web Addresses

The class notes are designed to be complete in themselves. In general, please do not give hyperlinks or list websites in your class notes. For example, if you are writing remembrances of a deceased classmate, decide what, relating to his/her life accomplishments or life while at Vassar you want to include in the column, and do so. Your classmates are able to search for full obituaries or other outside information on their own. If a classmate is writing about a book recently published, again, no hyperlink or website for obtaining the book. Remember, the VQ has a separate page, Mixed Media, that has full citations to alums’ new publications. Such information can be sent to vq@vassar.edu to include in Mixed Media.

Discrimination

Remember that the VQ follows the same policies as Vassar College and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, or handicap. There should be no “censoring” of material that you, personally, might find in contrast to your own ideas. If you’re in doubt, send the news in its unaltered state to the VQ editor (classnotes@vassar.edu).

Derogatory Language

We understand that cursing can sometimes add a bit of “flavor” to your columns, but please refrain from using derogatory language to denigrate others, even if you are quoting a classmate.

Controversial Content

We wish to honor the original purpose of the Class Notes section by reporting on the activities and lives of members of each class. Using this forum to promote views on controversial issues or to air grievances against the college is inappropriate. It’s one thing to reflect upon and report on a groundswell of sentiment among your classmates at highly charged moments, but another entirely to use the column to print political diatribes by you or your classmates. Please note that we reserve the right to edit or excise such material, but we will certainly consult with you first. Remember, the views of your classmates are not monolithic; it can be off-putting to see people with one political viewpoint denigrate those who may not agree. Use your judgment and consult the editors if you have a question about what’s appropriate.

Social Media

It’s fine to use Facebook and Twitter to gather news for Class Notes, but, as a courtesy, make sure your classmate has given you permission to share what they have revealed on social media. A classmate might be surprised to find news printed in VQ that was intended only for a particular Facebook group.

Confirming Information

Judge the news you receive critically and report it with sensitivity. Be cautious of hearsay or news that seems too strange to be true, since the VQ is subject to the same libel laws as other publications. If there is a particular item you question, verify it with the source, leave it out, or call it to our attention. If you speak with a classmate by phone or in person, or receive a personal letter, ask permission before including news of her or his life in the column.

If we have serious reservations about an item, we will make every effort to contact you, but we may edit or cut questionable/unverified items if we have not reached you by our deadline.

Perplexed? Need Help?

Again, we hope the pointers above are helpful. But if you’re confused about anything, please reach out to Lynn Janovsky at classnotes@vassar.edu.

Alums Website Resources

Through the alums website, you can:

• Find classmates through the alum directory
• Find links to Vassar social media platforms
• Find information on your class, affiliate groups, and Vassar Clubs
• Update your contact information with the college
• Read about students and campus life
• Find links to articles by and about fellow alums

We encourage you to browse the website. It has grown and improved, and we think you will enjoy it and find it useful.