Sarah Lawrence -- A Dynamic Formula

Lafe in a test tube can be an educational experience. Since 1928 Sarah Lawrence College has experimented with its own brand of college teaching. The result: A dynamic academic formula. Sarah Lawrence College teaches the student--not the subject; and whether or not this method is effective, the school is always consistent.

Twenty-two acres of craggy hilltop and ten Tudor buildings straddle the Yonkers--Bronxville, New York borderline. Once the estate of William van Duzer Lawrence, the Sarah Lawrence campus now boasts 350 good-looking women and some definite ideas about educating them.

President Harold Taylor believes that the Sarah Lawrence girl will be taught most effectively by instructors who help her choose for herself, not only her own values and ideas, but the subjects she wants to know more about. Consequently, Sarah Lawrence is probably the only college where the students have a loud voice in choosing the courses they want on their curriculum.

They are also entrusted with the power to make their own parietal rules and, in the student council, to punish those who break the rules. The dean of the college, Mrs. Esther Raushenbush, has no disciplinary duties; her job is purely educational.

The freedom of the Sarah Lawrence girl together with the observation that 350 students necessitate 350 different programs are the heart of the Sarah Lawrence program. "There is no applied doctrine here," says Taylor. The college adjusts itself to the students, and through the development of each girl can be traced the steady development of the college. Sarah Lawrence has found that these methods of education do work, that its students can be trusted with a voice in the formation of rules and curriculum, and that its instructors feel they can teach better and even learn more without the bonds of a strict syllabus. Sarah Lawrence glances around at the changes is College education since it appeared on the American scene and cockily comments, "Harvard is little by little coming around to the Sarah Lawrence trail."

In the light of recent University policy, one is inclined to agree. Sarah Lawrence discovered long ago the best way to teach an individual effectively. . . . a personal and individual tutorial. The Administration also has offices in the dorms, creating a centralized "House system". .

Sarah Lawrence tutors are unexplicably termed "dons", a strange name since the college bears no other resemblance to Oxford. The don tutors his tutees, discusses general problems of study and educational goals, and, in addition, often provides a shoulder on which a girl can sob out all troubles concerning the men in her life. Besides the papers or "contracts" that the student delivers to her adviser on subjects of her own choosing, the don student relationship is a very informal one. Most of Sarah Lawrence education is centered on these advisers, who include the whole faculty. Students take only three courses, which meet but once a week (with the exception of the sciences and languages), so there is plenty of time to pursue individual interests.

The courses themselves, mostly small conferences of six to ten students, boast two unique features. One is no examinations or grades. The reason for this, Taylor points out, is that exams are bad educationally. If a girl studies only for grades, she is not becoming as involved in learning. "She's competing." Taylor maintains, "for Phi Beta Kappa or some other horrible thing rather than becoming a bigger and better person." Whether or not the shapely Sarah Lawrence female is bigger and better mentally than her Radcliffe sister could only be decided by judicious testing. While lack of exams lifts the pressure off a week-end at Yale or Princeton, it may result in less respect for facts on the part of Sarah Lawrence students, at least those whose tutors do not demand rigid memorization.

Competition is also partly eliminated in campus social life. There is no great prestige attached to an editorial or student council office and the college finds girls who work hard at activities do so because they like the work. Securing a position on the Student Council is a matter of ability and desire rather than politics, since the nominees are picked by a board which delves deeply into each girl's record. Because there are only 350 on the campus, the odds are that few capable workers will be overlooked.

Confidence for Competition

Sarah Lawrence is adamant on the competition question. Taylor will not accept the argument that an uncompetitive school fails to prepare its students for a competitive world. He feels Sarah Lawrence substitutes confidence for competition; the student will do her job competently without worrying about how well the girl from Smith of Vassar does hers. And she will do it as well or better, says Taylor, pointing to the graduate school, business, and teaching records of his alumnae.

The other innovation in the Sarah Lawrence system is the field work program. The college has not employed either Bennington's three months of trips and work, or Antioch's six months of work experience. Accepting the theory that both field trips and work experience belong within the structure of a course, field work is integrated into class or don subject matter. Sarah Lawrence excursions vary from the next door United Nations building in New York City down to Tennessee Valley Authority. On some projects the students merely observe. Others are more ambitious--designed to aid the surrounding community, like the recent study on Cancer education in Westchester County secondary schools.

It is doubtful that Sarah Lawrence teaching methods would fit into a more traditional academic set-up. Above all else they necessitate intelligent students, able to choose for themselves, who will not misuse a relatively free environment. The college also requires a patient but vigorous breed of teachers, who believe in Sarah Lawrence's philosophy and who are willing to leave the sanctity of the high lecture platform for the college's individual-to-individual teaching. Sarah Lawrence has done amazingly well in finding both the students and teachers it needs to function properly.

Largely responsible for selecting the school's faculty is President Taylor, who came to Sarah Lawrence in 1945 from Wisconsin where he was an assistant professor of philosophy. Taylor, perhaps more than anyone else, typifies the best qualities of Sarah Lawrence. Taylor is a handsome, curly-headed philosopher whose youthfulness belies his 38 years. Open and forthright, he has consistently fought for his principles of education and academic freedom by hiring controversial people and by answering all attacks without sacrificing his beliefs. Surprisingly, many of his worst critics are Sarah Lawrence students, who feel that once Taylor's boyishness ceases to impress the hardened sophomore, she sees her president as "a big grin with nothing behind it." Others say that Taylor "is too informal." They would like to see him act the traditional role of a college president. These critics, however, constitute a small minority of the Sarah Lawrence population.

A Valiant Educator

The more perceptive girls observe behind Taylor's smile the strain of running a financially shaky institution which is further burdened by irrational attacks, plastering the girls with names like "irresponsible debutants" or "junior communists." That Taylor can maintain his good humor to the students at the same time he is fighting off the sensationalists is a minor miracle. And although Taylor's familiarity may be disconcerting at first, it seems natural when one realizes that his manner is in no way affected.

Taylor and Dean Raushenbush also express one of the main reasons why the college can grow with its students. Anyone with either a complaint or a suggestion has easy access to Taylor, the Student Council and the faculty committee. If her suggestion is good, it will be adopted. There is no tradition at the college which automatically sets policy. Once the policy is made, however, Mrs. Raushenbush guides its administration. The diminuative, grey-haired dean is loved and admired by every Sarah Lawrence student. While Taylor is forced to spend most of his time on policy, hiring, financial matters, and his own course, in philosophy. Mrs. Raushenbush actually runs the college with her light touch. Studying the work reports that take the place of grades, she evaluates each student's learning so that, together with a girl's don and a special faculty board, she may determine whether or not a student ought to remain at Sarah Lawrence. At the end of each year, composed of three terms, every student's record is examined.

Mrs. Raushenbush feels that Sarah Lawrence must find out exactly how well its system works. She does not want the don-tutee relationship to deteriorate into a spoon-feeding process of education. For the last four years, the Dean together with a special committee has made a study of the class of '52 in the hope of tracing the development of the Sarah Lawrence girl through her college education.

Dean Raushenbush needs no reports to formulate an answer to the question: "Is freedom in choosing parietal rules and deciding disciplinary action abused by the students?"

Not only does she think this set-up works well a Sarah Lawrence, but Mrs. Raushenbush believes other girls schools might well follow its example. This year, when two students from Keene State Teachers' College visited and were impressed by Sarah Lawrence methods, the Dean gave them a tactical plan of action for setting up a similar system in their New Hampshire College.

Much more than enlarged social privileges, it is an enlightened faculty which makes Sarah Lawrence an academic success. The don must learn all about his student's likes and dislikes, aptitudes and back ground, so that he can help her pick a stimulating program. As Bert James Loewenberg, American historian, puts it, "There are no stuffed shirts here. They couldn't exist." Hans Rogger, another historian who is associated with the Harvard Russian Research Center, adds that at other colleges, one always feels that he is barging in on his instructors Rogger feels an especially close tie with Sarah Lawrence. He was one of the veterans who studies on the campus right after the war. Today the college is again 100 percent female.

Balanced Programs

The Sarah Lawrence system can not be property termed one of free electives. It is up to the dot to see that his student takes a balanced program the different is that tutor and tutee pick the course together. Because only three subjects are taken the college rules that they mist lie in different fields. But if insistent, a girl can persuade her dot that two courses in mathematics are the only think that can make her truly happy. There has been some objection to the limits this rule places on the senior year, moreover, and a fairly large groups is now lobbying for something like a seniors honors program.

Academically Sarah Lawrence is oriented towards the social sciences--from the exploratory courses in the freshman year to "the four ring circus meeting once a month for social psychology, cultural anthropology, ethics, and "the nature of prose and poetry." But there is a large group in dancing, theatre, painting, sculpture and music. And despite this emphasis, a science major has particularly good opportunities for instruction. This is because only those really interested in science take the courses, and these girls may study at a rate corresponding to their ability. Unfortunately, in some years the sciences find few students with exceptional ability, but there are usually enough good scientists. The facilities for science, however, make it clear where the main Sarah Lawrence interests he.

In choosing its freshman class Sarah Lawrence must practice the greatest care. The college seeks girls who can be trusted to work at a steady and brisk pace; without this characteristic the educational system must needs collapse. Complicating admissions is Sarah Lawrence's abnormally high tuition rate of $2,281 needed by the college to meet expenses. There is only the small endowment of $295,000 left by William Lawrence. The interest of $24,000 just pays off the interest on the mortgage and keeps the buildings heated and lighted. The tuition, therefore, must add up to salaries and materials.

Need More Scholarships

High tuition tends to place most of Sarah Lawrence in one economic group, but the college is working hard to increase its scholarship ratio of 17 percent. Forty-three percent of the girls preped at private schools, 23 percent at public schools, and an abnormally high 24 percent are transfer students. Transfer students, explains Dean Raushenbush, usually do quite well at the school, because they always know why they are coming when they apply.

When applying to Sarah Lawrence, a girl must fill out a massive six page application called "form A." In it are questions such as "What is your picture of yourself as a woman of 35." President Taylor sees a definite portrait of the Sarah Lawrence woman of 35. She is an independent, clear thinking individual, who doesn't need to waste her time joining ladies' clubs merely for the sake of joining. Part of Sarah Lawrence education aims at making the girl into a woman who will always be able to occupy herself with useful activities, useful to both herself and the community. "Go around the country," he boasts, "and you will find that the Sarah Lawrence gals are the ones supporting a new nursery, a theatre, or a little symphony in their towns."

One little item on the Sarah Lawrence application seems glaringly out of place, in the light of avowed policy. It requires the names, occupation, and education of a girl's grandparents. Admissions director, Marie Bovard explains this with the remark: "If a girl's grandparents have had no education, then all the more power to her." But this and the statement that a good looking girl has a better chance for admission are the condemnable parts of Sarah Lawrence's policy.

The school's smiling attitude on pulchritude, probably a result of the predominantly male admissions board, does succeed in making the campus scenically interesting for the date-seeking male. That all this beauty is appreciated is evident on Friday afternoon when Sarah Lawrence turns into a ghost college, while most of the girls head off to Ivy League colleges or into New York City.

Besides good looks, a majority of Sarah Lawrance students posses a commendably intelligent attitude toward both their academic and social lives. Because their school is only a base for week-end activities, they do not remain cloistered native school girls.

Few Mediocre Students

Sarah Lawrence does, however, have a relatively small group of mediocre and poor students. Regrettably, their inadequacies are magnified. Consistent with the theory that Sarah Lawrence teaches the students, instructors often find they must simplify courses because some students are not prepared for the material. On the other hand, some classes can move as fast as the teachers, and the poorer students may have to drop an intensified course. And so, while the college's instructors are sometimes disappointed with an enforced snail's pace, they are often pleasantly surprised.

Without a doubt, most of the Sarah Lawrence student body is satisfied with its work and feels ambitious about future projects. A few girls think the education a sham, that small conferences are little more than bull sessions, and while this may be true sometimes, a girl can always find, both in class and don work, an educational track geared to her speed.

No one connected with the college is particularly worried about either the unsubstantiated accusals of radicalism and loose morals or the atmosphere that results from a free speaking faculty and a free moving student body. Harrison Tweed '07, a Harvard overseer, is the chairman of the Sarah Lawrence board of trustees. Again, in the formation of this body, the college uses a unique framework. The board's 24 members includes one faculty trustee elected by the instructors and two mothers of Sarah Lawrence students.

Ambitious for Future

Tweed's only worry is not with policy, but in making sure that the college gets enough money to pay its bills. As long as the money can be found, he is willing to go along with any of Taylor's plans.

Taylor's immediate goals are more scholarships, lowered tuition, and the completion of the new theatre for the performing arts. He would like to improve facilities for the college's sketchy intra-mural program.

His big, long range aim, however, is to see a man's college next door with coeducational classes. Most of the instructors and students find this picture attractive. During the post-war years, in the days of the veterans, Sarah Lawrence found that classes were much more stimulating with male attitudes and opinions.

The instructors in the performing arts are especially eager to work with men in dancing and dramatic productions. The desire for co-education is, in fact, typical of the college which constantly pushes towards an enlarged educational horizon.

Taylor comments that there are about twenty-five men from Ivy League schools who regularly visit some Sarah Lawrence girl, and attend classes. Taylor likes to see them around, and he considers the boys his students.

Plans more likely to be realized in the near future are the senior honors program, and extension of the dormitory entered education. There are no house mothers in the dormitories, but Sarah Lawrence would like to see more don offices in the dorms, so that education can be further centralized. This corresponds to a general attempt to provide more of a cohesive spirit. Sarah Lawrence could use more week-end, events, so there would be less need for a migration every week.

These programs will probably be accomplished, if Sarah Lawrence demonstrates its past tendencies to improve itself as it matures. The administration has constantly shown a remarkable ability to analyze its own weaknesses and to correct them. Because of Harold Taylor, Dean Raushenbush and an understanding faculty, one may safely predict that Sarah Lawrence will continue to blaze its own academic trails.Historian HANS ROGGER, presently associated with the Russian Research Center at Harvard, talks to a group of students after a class.