Sarah Lawrence College

William Van Duzer Lawrence, 84, retired Manhattan drug and hotel man, last month read a magazine article which enhanced a major apprehension of his thoughtful age. Young women of intellect, college women (said the article), were more and more avoiding what Mr. Lawrence believes is "their real career"--marriage. Spurred, Mr. Lawrence did what he had long thought of doing. He founded a college.

It is to be at Bronxville, N. Y., named in memory of Mr. Lawrence's late wife, Sarah. He gave it $1,250,000 in property, securities and corporate stock, including his Bronxville home. He formed a board of trustees, with President Henry Noble MacCracken of Vassar College for chairman. He obtained Principal Marion Coats, of Bradford Academy (Bradford, Mass.) for first president. It was Miss Coats who, last week, announced that Sarah Lawrence College would open in 1928 for some 250 young ladies. To make them appreciate their opportunities, tuition would be $1,500 per annum (no expenses to be borne by endowment). They would be instructed in liberal arts only--to inculcate interest in right social behavior, non-sectarian religion, non-partisan politics, good morals and the esthetic consumption of leisure hours by useful and becoming "hob-bies." These aims, it was judged, could be compassed in two years and the New York Board of Regents had been persuaded to issue an irregular* charter, for the first "junior college" in the state.

*Like many another state, New York has a rule requiring four-year courses of instruction at chartered colleges. With the rising popularity and evident success of "junior colleges," especially in the West, for post-high-school-and-pre-university study, these rules are vanishing.