Audio Tour Transcript
Welcome to Westlands, the heart of the Sarah Lawrence College campus. This building was originally the home of Sarah Lawrence, our namesake, and her husband, William Van Duzer Lawrence, who founded the College. Sarah Lawrence College was founded in 1926 as a women's college using a progressive education model. Though we went coed in the late 1960s, we've absolutely upheld the concept of putting students at the driver's seat of their education. All students create their own program of study under a faculty adviser, who we refer to as dons, uniquely tailored to their interests.
This means there's endless freedom to explore your intellectual curiosity and bridge different disciplines through independent research projects. Today, the College is home to 1,400 undergraduate and 300 graduate students from all over the world. It's a residential campus with about 90 percent of our students choosing to live on campus all four years. It's a really close-knit place with over 100 clubs and organizations to join, including 15 Division III varsity athletic teams and free events and shows happening just about every day. Westlands houses a classroom, the Office of Admission and Financial Aid, as well as the Offices of the President, Provost, Dean of Studies, and Registrar.
Many of these offices maintain open-door policies, ensuring that resources are readily accessible to all students. There's even a residential hall on the third floor of this building. So, as a first-year, you just might find yourself living in an early 20th-century mansion. If you peeked into the classroom on the first floor of Westlands, you noticed gorgeous stained glass and a stately fireplace, along with SLC's famous round seminar tables. Most of your classes will be seminar style with 12 to 15 students and your professor gathered for lively discussions. Your professors are there to guide and moderate critical inquiry and conversation.
Large anonymous lecture halls are absent on this campus. Our largest seats just 60 people. A Sarah Lawrence education might start here, but it doesn't end in Bronxville. Fifty percent of students study abroad, exploring a dynamic range of programs across the world. SLC currently hosts programs in Amsterdam; Florence; Havana; Leeds, London, and Oxford, England; Paris; Shanghai; Tokyo and Osaka, Japan; and a unique program in Southern Africa that includes time in Tanzania, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. SLC students also regularly take part in programs through other institutions, meaning the options are just about limitless.
