Sarah Lawrence College the prestigious, coeducational liberal arts college that consistently ranks among the leading liberal arts colleges in the country, is celebrating 100 years in 2026. The year-long centennial celebration’s theme is SLC100: Timely Education. Timeless Values.
“Throughout our history, Sarah Lawrence College has been a place where timeless values have shaped timely ideas, and our centennial serves as both a celebration of who we have always been and a reaffirmation of why a liberal arts education is more important than ever,” said Cristle Collins Judd, President of Sarah Lawrence College. “As in all eras defined by rapid change throughout our history, the College continues to offer our students the intellectual grounding, adaptability, and ethical framework they need to navigate complexity and lead with purpose. As we embark on our second century, we reaffirm our role as a resource for our students, our community, and a catalyst for thoughtful dialogue, creativity, and change.”
Sarah Lawrence College was founded in 1926 by William Van Duzer Lawrence as New York’s first two-year college for women, named for his wife, Sarah Bates Lawrence. The College received its provisional charter on December 9, 1926, and welcomed its first students in 1928. Shortly afterward, the College began offering a four-year BA in the liberal arts and subsequently added pathbreaking master’s degrees, a number of which were the first such degree offerings in the country. A pioneer of a distinctive, student-centered approach to liberal arts education, Sarah Lawrence College is defined by close faculty mentorship, interdisciplinary exploration, and arts-infused, hands-on learning. The College became coeducational in 1968 and has a longstanding reputation for academic rigor, creativity, and intellectual freedom. To date, more than 23,000 students have received undergraduate and graduate degrees from the College.
The College’s extensive network of distinguished and successful alumni includes: pioneering journalist Barbara Walters; filmmakers J.J. Abrams and Noah Hawley; preeminent epidemiologist W. Ian Lipkin; actresses Juliana Margulies, Tovah Feldshuh, and Jane Alexander; composer Dave Porter; fashion moguls Sam Edelman and Vera Wang; former Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel; authors Alice Walker and Ann Patchett; composer and performer Meredith Monk; and diplomat and former Deputy U.S. Ambassador Brooke Anderson. Sarah Lawrence College’s award-winning faculty of scholars and practitioners—recognized in their fields by prizes ranging from Pulitzers and Guggenheims to Academy Award and Tony nominations, and grants and awards from major organizations, including the National Science Foundation—are routinely named the #1 Best Faculty by the Princeton Review.
Since its inception, Sarah Lawrence College has been committed to lifelong learning and serves as an educational resource for the broader community, from the youngest learners through the College’s Early Childhood Center to pre-college, undergraduate, master’s degrees, postgraduate, and beyond.
For a full history of Sarah Lawrence College, visit the SLC100 site at http://www.slc.edu/100.