College Presidents
Series
President Michele Tolela Myers, Sarah Lawrence College
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
|
President
Michele Tolela Myers |
Delighting in fact
that Sarah Lawrence is known as “most inky college” because
of the extensive presence of writing in all classes, President
Michele Tolela Myers also notes with pleasure another possible
designation: “most idiosyncratic.” Though
much has changed in the college’s over 75-year history,
including going coed (in 1968) and veering from the earliest
mission to educate only young women of polite society, basic
premises have remained and indeed have been the main reasons
why Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) is considered a “hot” college.
Under the seven-year stewardship of Dr. Myers, who holds a
Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Denver
and a diplôme in Political Science and Economics from
the University of Paris, the defining characteristics of SLC
have been enhanced: individually designed student curricula,
basically free of course requirements; a 6 to 1 student-faculty
ratio, a 15-member class maximum, and a reputation for progressive
education, incorporating the ideas of John Dewey.
Although at least half
her time as president these days has to be spent fundraising – hardly untypical – President
Myers ensures that she hears from students themselves about
how the college is meeting their expectations. They came to
SLC, they tell her at her monthly at-home suppers, because
of its “idiosyncratic” reputation for allowing
them to design their own programs, in conjunction with faculty
mentors called “dons,” who also serve as constant
advisors and ready resources throughout their college careers.
SLC students don’t “major in” subject matter
and, with the exception of exposure to the humanities, social
sciences and science and mathematics and the arts, meet curricular
requirements by participating in course seminars and working
on rigorous research projects (a couple of examples cited by
the president involved national recognition and publication).
Of course, the monthly suppers also provide the president with
a chance to hear complaints, which she takes seriously—trying
to reduce occasional dorm crowding, widening social life, but
essentially she takes heart that the students volunteer that
they “adore their courses.”
Design-your-own studies,
Dr. Myers points out, makes students directly responsible
for their own success, a curricular way of life that has
proved particularly attractive to students, men as well as
women (a third of SLC’s students are male),
who are not that comfortable with traditional or mainstream
colleges and who are passionate about pursuing their own desires
and needs. So many colleges seem to be simply clones of one
another, Dr. Myers says, but there’s no mistaking SLC.
The workload is heavy, much like graduate school, the president
adds, but admissions policies remain competitive. Of course,
demographics have changed from the 30s. About 70 percent of
SLC students come from public high schools (overwhelmingly
from NY and CA), with at least half receiving major financial
aid. Twenty five percent are students of color. About 70 percent
go on to graduate school. Approximately 40-45 percent may be
attracted to the visual and performing arts, but they elect
to broaden their reach. Thus, what at another college might
be, for example, a “pre-med” major, at SLC is “pre-med
AND”—a conjunction that may include art, music
or writing. “That’s the beauty of our program,” the
president proudly declares—she gets “goose bumps” just
thinking about it—the college doesn’t lock students
in, force them to declare specializations. It gives them broad
exposure to liberal arts where they learn primarily how to
learn. As the country grows bigger, more homogenized, SLC takes
pride in “swimming upstream” with idiosyncratic
curricula. What all students also share—one of the college’s
main criteria for admission—is an appreciation of and
competence in writing. “Everyone writes, in every class,
all the time.” Retention is high. So is morale, much
of it, the president says, the result of on campus improvements
that generous donors, mostly alums, have made possible through
a capital campaign. The centerpiece is the Heimbold Visual
Arts Center that has transformed study in the arts and technology
and the addition of much needed social spaces for students.
Though it would seem
impossible for such a busy person to pursue her own “inky” ways, President Myers tries
to manage time for a novel she’s been working on for
a number of years called Something Borrowed, about plagiarism.
Talk about hot and a love of writing.#
