Karen R. Lawrence, president of Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, is no relation to the school”™s namesake, though not for want of trying.
When she took the post in 2007, she said, members of her family turned to Google to uncover any connection to Sarah Lawrence ”“ wife of real-estate titan William Van Duzer Lawrence, who founded the college on their estate in 1926.
“We haven”™t found any relationship ”“ yet,” she added.
So while she likes to think her stewardship of Sarah Lawrence is karma, “It”™s probably serendipity,” Lawrence said.
Yet, there has to be an element of fate here, for there is a lot of Sarah Lawrence in the Smith girl turned Yalie ”“ the passion for the life of the mind; the ability to weave myriad topics into a stimulating conversation; the slightly edgy fashion sense. When we interviewed her in March, she was wearing a black-and-blue striped dress with asymmetrical beads.
More important, Lawrence ”“ a James Joyce scholar and former dean of the School of the Humanities at the University of California, Irvine ”“ remains a staunch advocate of the liberal arts in general and Sarah Lawrence”™s approach in particular at a time when our economy seems to demand an educational experience pared to the bone.
Chatting in her wood-paneled office in Westlands, the college”™s august stone administration building, Lawrence noted that liberal arts colleges have been playing defense for a while.
“I think liberal arts education has been under siege for a number of years in terms of a vocational approach to education,” she said.
But Lawrence added that while student and parental anxiety is “understandable” in the wake of an unyielding job market, the liberal arts ”“ with their emphasis on writing and reading in an array of disciplines ”“ still offer the best possible preparation for a future in an information-based economy.
“What CEOs) are looking for are people who can think,” she said. “Narrow training is not going to cut it. We”™re preparing students for careers that didn”™t exist 10 years ago.”
Contrary to its reputation as an airy establishment for rich girls, Sarah Lawrence (“Sadie Lou”) boasts a justly famous writing program for undergraduates and graduate students that has produced newswoman Barbara Walters and novelist Alice Walker, as well as a strong natural sciences department. (The college has been highly successful in placing students in medical school.) Many students who plan to go on to careers in medicine, the law and finance come to Sarah Lawrence to nurture artistic talents, like Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, alumnus (class of ”™81) and recent commencement speaker, whom classmates remember as an argumentative poli-sci student and gifted dancer.
Nevertheless, Lawrence acknowledged that the college”™s emphasis on the qualitative more than the quantitative may have contributed to its image. The school does not use the SATs and does not have majors, though students can concentrate on one or more disciplines. Evaluations take a narrative form, although the college also awards letter grades, largely because graduate schools require them.
And while students take “only” three courses per semester, each seminar is composed of a class and student-teacher conferences with rigorous requirements in reading, writing and class participation.
“It takes a lot of working, trying, experimenting,” said Lawrence, who taught a seminar on Joyce to experience this tutorial approach for herself. “It”™s a hand-minted education that starts with the student and the student”™s interest and takes a lot of work on the part of the faculty.”
The focus on teaching ”“ the student-faculty ratio is 9:1 ”“ is perhaps the main reason a Sarah Lawrence education is so expensive, with tuition, fees and room and board topping $56,000 a year.
“We are at the top of the price range, although there are at least over 100 schools that are at least $50,000 a year,” Lawrence observed.
These numbers, however, belie others: 65 percent of the undergraduates receive some form of financial aid for an average package of nearly $37,000, while 62.5 percent receive college grants for an average package of approximately $30,000. The average debt load for Sarah Lawrence students is below the average for four-year colleges in the country.
While the recession has taken its toll as it has virtually everywhere ”“ the college”™s relatively small endowment has dipped to $75 million from $80 million ”“ the school increased financial aid 25 percent in 2008-09, thanks to contributions to its Angel Fund.
The high price tag does not bring a highfalutin attitude: The college remains committed to its outreach programs, particularly its partnership with the economically challenged Yonkers public schools.
“Our students want to do good,” Lawrence says. “Many go into nonprofits.”
Despite this, the current economic climate has placed schools such as Sarah Lawrence in the crosshairs. But they aren”™t the only ones. Critics have also been taking aim at public education, dissecting teacher salaries and benefits. Lawrence sees a complex system in which unqualified teachers have been allowed to continue while on the other hand, a single test can determine a teacher”™s success or failure.
She herself is both a fan and a product of public education ”“ Pascack Valley Regional High School in Montvale, N.J., where she studied French and Russian along with her beloved English. It was, however, at Yale University ”“ where she was among the first women to graduate ”“ that she encountered the love of her intellectual life, James Joyce, and his “Ulysses” in a course on the epic. Lawrence has written extensively on her favorite subject, including the new book, “Who”™s Afraid of James Joyce.”
It was at this point in the interview that the love of Lawrence”™s actual life walked in, Peter Lawrence, chief of vascular surgery and director of the Gonda Vascular Center at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dressed in jeans and a sports coat, Lawrence appeared as unpretentious as his wife. Their gently teasing manner suggested a couple who”™ve been together a long time and who are comfortable in their relationship. (Their two children, Andrew and Jeffrey, are now grown.)
Of necessity, it is a bicoastal marriage with the pair chatting daily around midnight, New York time. But Peter Lawrence spends a good deal of time on business in New York where, his wife said, he enjoys being part of college life, including the couple”™s dinners for first-year students.
He also displayed an affectionate tolerance for Joyce: “I tell people I know more about James Joyce for someone who”™s never read James Joyce.”
