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.