From the President's Desk | Sarah Lawrence College

Dec 11, 2025

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Dear Members of the Sarah Lawrence Community,

No matter the season, life at Sarah Lawrence is vibrant. But there’s always something about the days before winter break that feels especially electric as the campus hums with creative energy. Students are deep in their work — writing, filming, composing, experimenting, rehearsing — and everywhere you turn a new project, performance, presentation, or idea is taking shape. Living on this remarkable campus is one of my greatest privileges, and this month I wanted to offer a small window into that experience by sharing a “day in the life” look at last Tuesday, December 2 — a day that, in its richness of activity, offers a capsule view of who we are.

My day began with a burst of energy as students from the Early Childhood Center’s 5’s and 6’s class arrived in my office for a visit. They brought hand-made works of art depicting winter scenes for the annual exhibition outside my office in Westlands, and we settled in to read a story together. Spending time with our youngest learners always reminds me of Sarah Lawrence’s enduring commitment to lifelong learning, the timely and timeless dimension of our work through which curiosity and creativity flourish at every age and every stage.

Midday, I headed over to Reisinger for Music Tuesday, which featured the Chamber Choir performing works by Britten, Trotta, and Orban, their voices beautifully filling Reisinger, and students from nine Chamber Music Ensembles performing works by Mozart, Handel, Versel, Beethoven, Menotti, Finzi, Corelli, Martinu, and Piazzolla — an astonishing range that reflects the depth of our program and the dedication of our student musicians and their faculty mentors.

Later that afternoon, I made my way to the Heimbold Visual Arts Center for Open Studios, part of Visual and Studio Arts’ Fall Critique Week. Throughout the week, 25 visiting artists and faculty engaged in 480 critiques, alongside panels, exhibitions, and a lecture by artist Melissa Brown. Open Studios is always a sight to behold as Heimbold is covered floor to ceiling in art, every corner of the building alive with student work and imagination.

My last stop that evening was the Barbara Walters Campus Center for our celebration of the Sarah Lawrence Interdisciplinary Collaborative on the Environment (SLICE) and the work, done in partnership with Bronx Community College (BCC), supported by the Mellon Foundation’s Humanities for All Times grant. Over the past four years, this $1.5 million grant has supported new collaborative, interdisciplinary courses, community-engaged projects, and shared pedagogies across institutions. I was delighted to welcome the president, provost, and faculty from BCC for an evening filled with reflections on work that has truly expanded how we teach and learn, connecting the humanities to climate and environmental justice and strengthening partnerships across the region.

A highlight of the evening was a student-led tour of Vital Forms, an exhibition in the Barbara Walters Gallery curated by faculty member Mitchell Herrmann and the students in his Anthropocene Aesthetics seminar. Their work was a vivid example of the inquiry-driven, hands-on learning that defines a Sarah Lawrence education and prepares students for success after college.

That so much can unfold in just one Tuesday in December speaks volumes about the commitment of our students, faculty, and staff. As we head into winter break, I’ll leave you with the affectionate Sarah Lawrence toast that I’ve gratefully repeated a number of times this week at celebrations with alumni, students, faculty, and staff, including last night’s Winter Toast for December graduates: