Sarah Lawrence College: A Comprehensive Overview

Sarah Lawrence College, a private institution founded in 1926, offers a unique and progressive approach to higher education. Located on a 42-acre campus in Westchester County, New York, the college is known for its low student-to-faculty ratio, personalized learning experience, and commitment to fostering intellectual curiosity and social responsibility. This article delves into various aspects of Sarah Lawrence College, including its rankings, academics, campus life, history, and more.

Rankings and Recognition

In the edition of Best Colleges, Sarah Lawrence College is ranked #109 in National Liberal Arts Colleges. It's also ranked #48 in Best Undergraduate Teaching. These rankings reflect the college's commitment to providing a high-quality education and a supportive learning environment. While college rankings have gained national prominence, it's important to consider them as just one factor when evaluating a college. Michele Tolela Myers, a former president of Sarah Lawrence College, has written about the cost of focusing too heavily on college rankings. In 2022, Forbes rated it 467th overall in its America's Top Colleges ranking, which includes 660 military academies, national universities, and liberal arts colleges.

Academics and Pedagogy

Sarah Lawrence College distinguishes itself through its unique pedagogy, which combines independent research projects individually supervised by teaching faculty and seminars with a low student-to-faculty ratio. This pattern has been retained to the present. The student-faculty ratio at Sarah Lawrence College is 10:1, allowing for personalized attention and close mentorship. The college has a test-optional admissions policy.

Curriculum and Notable Programs

Originally intended to provide instruction in the arts and humanities for women, Sarah Lawrence College's early curriculum included "productive leisure," requiring students to work eight hours weekly in fields such as modeling, shorthand, typewriting, applying makeup, and gardening. While the curriculum has evolved significantly since then, the college remains committed to providing a broad and interdisciplinary education.

Campus Life and Environment

Much of the 42-acre Sarah Lawrence campus was originally a part of the estate of the college's founder, William Van Duzer Lawrence, though the college has more than doubled its size since Lawrence bequeathed his estate to the college in 1926. The terrain is characterized by outcroppings of exposed bedrock shaded by large oak and elm trees.

Architectural Style and Buildings

Many of the older buildings are in the Tudor Revival architecture style that was popular in the area during the early 20th century, and many of the college's newer buildings attempt an updated interpretation of the same style. The area outside the original Lawrence estate holds the college's newer facilities. Several century-old, Tudor-style mansions among the newer additions, including Andrews, Tweed, Lynd, Marshall Field, and Slonim House: each was once a private estate, purchased by the college during periods of growth and expansion. The more modest Tudor houses along Mead Way, which also had been private residences, now serve as dormitories for students at the college.

Key Campus Buildings

The Barbara Walters Campus Center: The newest building on campus. Finished in the fall of 2019, the building is named for alumna Barbara Walters. The building is a multipurpose space which is used for dances, speeches, class gatherings, etc. On the second floor is the Barbara Walters Reading Room. It includes a rotating exhibition, but currently holds artifacts from Barbara Walters' life.
Bates Center for Student Life: One of the original campus buildings. Designed in the English Tudor style that was begun by Bates and How and extended by Penrose Stout in the 1930’s. It housed offices and classrooms and maids' quarters to dining halls to laboratories and arts facilities. At one time, it was home to a miniature basketball court that is now a faculty dining room, though the lines of the court can still be seen on the floors.
The Alice Stone Ilchman Science and Mathematics Center: Completed in 1994, is situated on the far north end of the campus. It houses science laboratories in addition to classrooms and faculty offices.
The Marshall Field Music Building: Originally created as part of William Lawrence's residential neighborhood, Lawrence Park West. Built in the Georgian Colonial style by Dwight Baum it was situated on 3 acres (12,000 m2) of landscaped land when the college purchased it in 1960 to house the music department and to provide additional student housing.

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The Monica A. and Charles A. Heimbold Visual Arts Center: The building was designed by Polshek Partnership Architects chief architect Susan Rodriguez. Completed in 2004, the building uses the landscape and existing campus circulation patterns.
The Charles DeCarlo Performing Arts Center: Remodeled and expanded in 1974, it is located on the western end of the South Lawn. Named for former College president Charles DeCarlo, the complex comprises the Bessie Schönberg Dance Theatre, the 200-seat Suzanne Werner Wright Theatre, the 400-seat Reisinger Auditorium, the 117-seat Cannon Workshop Theatre modeled after Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and rehearsal spaces and work areas.
The Ruth Leff Siegel Center: Which is referred to as "The Pub", was originally constructed as a gardener's cottage on the Lawrence estate, then used as an infirmary and later as a faculty house. When the college began admitting male students in 1968, it became temporary housing for men. During the 1970s, the space was remodeled and christened "The Pub" for use as an informal dining hall and as a space for student activities. During the 1980s, it was renamed "Charlie's Place", honoring former President DeCarlo. In 1998, the entire structure was renovated, an addition was built by the architects Buttrick White & Burtis, and the new complex took on its current official name.
The Tea House: Also known as the "Tea Haus", because its façade evokes German architectural motifs, was originally a gazebo built by the Lawrence family on a small rocky hill on the north lawn of their estate. After being saved by a student petition from a demolition that was called for by architect Philip Johnson in 1960, it was converted to an enclosed building with large windows and a fireplace that now houses a café selling a variety of teas and baked goods.
The President's House: Built in 1921 and designed by architect Lewis Bowman is an example of "stockbroker Tudor-Elizabethan." Typical of Bowman are the ornate chimneys, tower like entrance pavilion and graceful treatment of the garden facade. Its living room features restored carved beams, representing the various trades, from a 16th-century Tudor mansion in England. Additionally, above the mantel a Christian creation story is told in intricate wood carving. Campus legend dictates that a secret panel exists in the living room leading to a wine cellar, which was built during Prohibition.

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Robinson House: On Mead Way is home to the college's communications department.
Westlands: Primarily an administrative building, but its top floor houses a number of student living spaces. Completed in 1917, it is the oldest building on campus and was home to Sarah Bates Lawrence and William Van Duzer Lawrence before being given to the college. Dynamically situated at the highest point of elevation on the campus, it is a notable example of Victorian/Tudor architecture inspired by British architect Norman Shaw and designed by the New York/Bronxville firm Bates & How. When completed the home was pictured on the front page of the New York Times.
The Wrexham Road Property: Acquired by the college in 2004, is a large manor house that once belonged to the government of Rwanda and used as a home for its consul.
Andrews House: A former manor house purchased for $200,000 by the college in 1935 from Arthur Lawrence, a son of the college's founders, is known for its high ceilings, fireplaces, and its spiraling main staircase. The house is designed in the Germantown Colonial Style by architect Penrose Stout in 1926. Andrews Court refers to the twelve cottage-style buildings to the south of Andrews House.
Lynd House: Another former mansion, designed by Harrie Lindeberg in 1931. It is home to mostly living spaces.
Hill House: Bought by the college in the late 1990s, is a seven-story apartment building on the extreme southern end of the campus. At present, the majority of the apartments in the building are occupied by students, but a number of them remain in the possession of the original tenants who occupied them when the building was purchased by Sarah Lawrence. Most of the apartments are quite large and each has a full kitchen.
Kober: Also designed by Penrose Stout in 1933. It is home to dorm rooms, but is also a part of the Early Childhood Education complex. It was donated to the college in 1951 by Otto Frohnknecht in memory of his daughter, Margaret Frohnknecht Kober, who graduated from Sarah Lawrence in 1935.
Slonim Woods: Is the group of 10 purpose-built living facilities constructed in 1977.
The "Old dorms": refer to four original purpose-built student housing structures to the immediate north of Westlands in what is frequently referred to as the "central campus". Dudley Lawrence, one of the sons of William and Sarah Lawrence, achieved the remarkable feat of constructing three of these buildings in one year (1926-1927). The halls were designed by Bates and How using a more traditional Neo-Tudor style through the use of stone and timber materials, and mansard roofs. The interiors are also in keeping with the architectural style found on most of the older buildings in the area, with thick plaster walls, hardwood floors, and leaded windows (since replaced with more energy-efficient double-pane windows).
MacCracken: Built a few years later than the other three, is situated to the south of Dudley Lawrence. Dudley Lawrence, houses two classrooms in addition to living spaces. MacCracken, named for Vassar College president Henry Noble MacCracken, is a few years younger than its neighbors and has, at various times, housed the college library, the bookstore, and a number of other facilities in addition to living spaces. Titsworth is an all-girls dorm and was also named for one of the college's founding trustees.
The "New Dorms": Designed by the renowned architect Philip Johnson and combining the lighter brick of Westlands with concrete slender "post modern" arches and modernist glass atria, were completed in 1960. The architectural style of the buildings is meant to be a modernist reflection of the three older dorms (Gilbert, Titsworth, and Dudley Lawrence) that stand on the opposite side of the North Lawn. The three buildings that comprise the New Dorms are connected by the glass atria in which the buildings' primary stairwells are found. Rothschild comprises apartment style, air-conditioned dorm spaces with kitchens, living rooms, and an elevator.
The Mead Way Houses: Are the eight former private homes that stand along the steep hill of Mead Way on the college's eastern end. The two southernmost houses, Robinson and Swinford, are occupied by administrative offices and the studio of WSLC, the campus internet radio station, while the northernmost six houses, listed below, are reserved for student living spaces.

Athletics

Sarah Lawrence College is a member of the Skyline Conference of NCAA Division III. The college sponsors intercollegiate teams in crew (rowing), men's and women's cross country, equestrian, men's basketball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's volleyball, men's and women's soccer, women's softball, and men's and women's swimming. The college's official mascot is a Gryphon by the name of Godric. It was chosen in the 1990s to represent the college's athletic teams after a long period of fielding sports teams without one. Unofficially, the student body had long adopted the large resident population of 'Black Squirrels' as a de facto mascot to the college.

Student Body

It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 1,521 (fall 2023). and with those admitted having an average 3.75 high school GPA.

Political Activism and Community Engagement

Political activism has played a role in forming the Sarah Lawrence community since the early years of the college. As early as 1938, students were volunteering in working-class sections of Yonkers, New York to help bring equality and educational opportunities to poor and minority citizens, and the Sarah Lawrence College War Board, organized by students in the fall of 1942, sought to aid troops fighting in World War II. During a time when the college's enrollment consisted of only 293 students, 204 signed up as volunteers during the first week of the War Board. During the so-called McCarthy Years, a number of Sarah Lawrence's faculty members were accused by the American Legion of being sympathetic to the Communist Party and were called before the Jenner Committee. Since that time, activism has played a central role in student life, with movements for civil rights and against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and for student and faculty diversity in the 1980s. Also in the 1960s, students established an Upward Bound program for students from lower-income and poverty areas to prepare for college. Theatre Outreach, the Child Development Institute, the Empowering Teachers Program, the Community Writers program, the Office of Community Partnership, and the Fulbright High School Writers Program are among the many programs founded since the 1970s to provide services to the larger community. In the late 1980s, students occupied Westlands, the main administrative building for the campus, in a sit-in for wider diversity. Students occupied Westlands again in 2016, in a sit-in supporting improved wages and safer working conditions for the college's recently unionized facilities workers.

History and Evolution

Sarah Lawrence College was established in 1926 by the real-estate mogul William Van Duzer Lawrence on the grounds of his estate in Westchester County and was named in honor of his wife, Sarah Bates Lawrence. The college was originally intended to provide instruction in the arts and humanities for women.

Key Figures

The first president of the college was Marion Coats from 1924 to 1929. She was a friend of Vassar College president Henry MacCracken and William Van Duzer Lawrence. Coats had traditional views of women's role in society that were at odds with her progressive approach to women's education. Harold Taylor, President of Sarah Lawrence College from 1945 to 1959, influenced the college. Taylor was elected president at age 30, maintained a friendship with the educational philosopher John Dewey, and worked to employ the Dewey method at Sarah Lawrence. Sarah Lawrence became a coeducational institution in 1968.

Tuition, Financial Aid, and Outcomes

The school's tuition and fees are $66,862. The average net price for federal loan recipients is $33,701. The four-year graduation rate is 59%. Six years after graduation, the median salary for graduates is $34,251.

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