Bronxville, furthermore, is an intellectual town, with a good percentage of authors and professional men among its population. Here is another reason for rapport with the college, for Sarah Lawrence veers distinctly toward the intellectual.

Intelligence and intellect are not alway concomitants, especially at women's colleges, where stress is often put on social aspects, with grades producing the major impetus for learning. But on the Sarah Lawrence campus, there is ample evidence of intellectual activity. In the dining hall that serves Sarah Lawrence's 400 students, conversations hew to the intellectual rather than the social. This year's freshman play, written by students, is a satire on Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot," a striking contrast to the fraternity-sorority skits that are the rule on many of the nation's campuses.

Dean Gerard Fountain finds that, "These girls are more serious than the students I went to school with." Dean Fountain is a graduate of Yale. The girls back up this statement with tales of the many weekday hours spent in study. Just why Sarah Lawrence girls take their studies so seriously is difficult to analyze. Certainly progressivism must be given most of the credit, for the importance of education is emphasized and reemphasized.

According to the girls, dates are not a prestige factor as they are at other colleges. To them, Sarah Lawrence is a "status-less society," in that a girl cannot acquire acclaim through the usual methods of dates and grades. The only criterion for prestige is individual brilliance, whether intellectual or artistic, and this becomes the ideal to which most aspire, not for prestige but for personal satisfaction.

In an oft-quoted remark, a transfer student from Smith made a perceptive comparison between the two schools: "Smith is academically stimulating," she said, "but Sarah Lawrence is intellectually more exciting." Whatever validity this comment has is a result of the college's attempt to interest its students in broad ideas rather than in narrow course material.

Social awareness is certainly not ignored but to a large degree it is set aside every Monday to await its Friday renaissance. Speaking of the casual, often Bohemian, weekday dress, one junior jokingly commented, "At Sarah Lawrence, if you're ugly, it's because you choose to be, and this is your mark of individuality." Her remark was a reflection both on the Sarah Lawrence reputation for good looking girls and on the unconcern for social affairs during the week. It also reflects the respect for individualism felt by the student body, and the suspicion that this individualism has to a large extent been attained by the girls.

Not as radical as it likes to think, nor as it once was, Sarah Lawrence--at its best--produces a girl whose individualism is tempered by community responsibility and whose fervor for education is complemented by social awareness. Tenaciously hugging to its radical policies in theory, the college has moderated them in practice