Informality, Activity Enliven Campus...

"... take West Side Drive into Henry Hudson Parkway, go through two toll gates, follow sign to Connecticut, turn right off highway on to Cross Country Parkway, continue about mile and half, follow sign Kimball Avenue, Bronxville, exit to right, left on Kimball Avenue, go straight, turn right on the Glen Washington Road..."

And there, surrounded by a high wire fence, lies Sarah Lawrence College.

Informality is the keynote to the life at S.L.C. There are 350 young ladies there who although addicted to blue jeans and checkered shirts during the week, can perform miraculous about-face in dress in the interest of any young gentlemen who happen to arrive.

The Administration draws a line, however, on this custom of casual clothing. Halters and barefeet are not permitted in classes, conferences, or the dining room, and shorts must not be more than three inches above the knee.

Because of a lack of proximity to a man's college, many of the girls feel they might as will save their lipstick and good clothes for the weekends. Sarah Lawrence is a four-year, five-day-a-week college With New York only 60 cents and 30 minutes away by train, and New Haven and Princeton within a stone's throw from there, Sarah Lawrencians realize that if Mohammed won't come to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohammed. And so, come Friday's metamorphosis, hordes of students don skirts and heels and migrate for their weekends entertainment.

Sometimes, however, Elis, Tigers, Lions, and maybe a few Harvard men, do manage to get to Bronxville. Since students handle their own disciplinary problems, and no faculty members live in the houses, these males often prowl through the dorms seeking dates. On weekends only, men are allowed in girls rooms till 6 p.m.

Overnight permission is given to any girl who wants it on the weekends, and to juniors and seniors at all times. But those who return to the campus must be there before the curfew tolls. The impressive Main Gate closes on weekdays at 1:30 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. on weekends. Although there is a liberal attitude towards infractions of the lateness rule, the "hole" in the fence through which students used to be able to crawl in after hours has been wired-up. "Let the or twice so long as it doesn't become habitual." And latecomers are invariably screened by Ernest, the "Omniscient and Omnipresent" night watchman.

Before leaving and after returning to the College, each girl must sign-out at the "desk" in Westlands, the Administration Building. So that the College can keep tabs on the whereabouts of the students, each girl must file a blue or yellow slip telling the date, time, and her destination.

Once outside, Sarah Lawrence students are not at a loss for things to do. "B'ville," Scarsdale, Yonkers, and the "City," provide no end to extra-curricular activities. Bronxville's most patronized joint is the "Greasy Spoon," a small place on the other side of the tracks, where the clientelle varies from cops and switchmen to college students and their friends. Although no "intoxicants" are allowed on campus. New York State is not dry, and 18 is the legal age for drinking. Local establishments, The Tap, Barge, Maxl's and many others, provide a convenient rendezvous for dates, and a good place to quench one's thirst.

Favorite aperitif with S.L.C. demoiselles is straight bourbon, according to the "Spoon's" congenial bartender. But some don't need to be coaxed to down a Martini, Manhattan, or Diaquiri, Most, however, stick to beer.

Sports Important

Activities, though, are not limited to those off-campus. Students partake in many and varied groups and organizations, not least of which is the sports program.

Students, faculty, and administration all participate in athletics as a campus activity. Classes are held in many of the sports, and whenever student interest changes, so changes the athletic program. But the College lacks the best in facilities and equipment, and the gym is at an inconvenient distance from the campus.

Tennis, archery, swimming, paddle-tennis, riding, hockey, basketball, and many others comprise the list of sports offered. Sarah Lawrence also turns out some fine squash players.

Sarah Lawrence students, according to President Taylor, are "intellectually alive and alert." The myriad activities no doubt contribute to this state of being. Round table discussions and lectures, political and social clubs, publications, chorus and orchestra, and a dance and theatre group abound on Kimball Hill.

Guest speakers lecture to a packed assembly hall on questions of current, general, and community interest. The College has a chapter of the NAACP and the Students for Democratic Action; it has a Young Progressives of America and International Relations Club. Significant as it may be, an examination of the College's official handbook reveals no mention of a Young Republican group. Students publish a weekly newspaper, the Campus; a biannual literary magazine called Dimensions; and a Yearbook.

The Campus is one of the only women's college newspapers which is independent of faculty control.

Dance and Chorus

For those girls interested in dance, the Dance Group gives opportunity to work on productions for both the College and the community. Largest extra-curricular activity is the Chorus, which has broadcast with Koussevitsky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and which has given concerts with Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Williams and Brown.

Though friendly informality, casualness, and a relaxed atmosphere prevail at Sarah Lawrence at all times, some students find themselves with nothing to do on weekends. Although some Saturdays and Sundays feature jazz concerts, films, athletic events, and house or all-college parties, a group of girls are trying to organize more activities for the weekends. Biggest social events of the year are the Freshman-Sophomore and Junior-Senior Proms, which attract invaders from all Eastern men's colleges.

Spirit at Sarah Lawrence, in the sense of "rah-rah Joe College," is willfully missing from the campus: as one girl put it, "there's little too little spirit." But the Sarah Lawrence student is interested and enthusiastic about her college and the life she leads there. There's spirit at Sarah Lawrence, all right, but it's not displayed with beanies and sorority songs.

And when you leave her at the Gate at 2 a.m. some Sunday morning, and head for home, "... turn left on Kimball Avenue, go straight, turn right on entrance to Cross Country Parkway, continue about a mile..."