By Mary Marvin, Mayor of Bronxville

Sept. 17, 2025: I recently had the good fortune to sit down with President Cristle Collins Judd of Sarah Lawrence College as we continue to work together to broaden the relationship between the village and the college.

Since it has been a while since I have written about our scholastic neighbor, the following is a snapshot refresher of all things Sarah Lawrence College.

At the helm is President Judd, who is in her ninth year and the 11th Sarah Lawrence President. She was born and raised in Texas and as she said, it’s quite clear when you hear her speak!

Having a Bachelor and Masters in Music from Rice and a PhD in Music from the University of London, Cristle and her husband went on together to faculty positions in Australia, England and California. Her quite illustrious career was also filled with many firsts.

She served on the University of Pennsylvania music faculty for 13 years and was the first woman tenured in their music department.

From Penn, she was recruited to Bowden to serve as Chief Academic Officer of the college – again the first woman and the first professor of music to hold this position where she stayed for nine years.

She was recruited from Bowden by the Mellon Foundation in New York City to be the Senior Program Officer for Higher Education, so the move to the Sarah Lawrence post was an easy transition.

Sarah Lawrence is about to celebrate its Centennial in 2026 and like President Judd, its first hundred years were also filled with academic firsts:

The Early Childhood Center was founded in 1937 establishing it as one of the first laboratory preschools in the country.

In 1969, the first masters level genetic counselor training program in the United States was founded at SLC and that program is still the largest in the nation, training more than half of our country’s genetic counselors.

Building on that history, Sarah Lawrence College recently launched a Masters program in genome health analysis in partnership with NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

With an undergraduate student enrollment of 1400 students and 300 masters students, a distinctive characteristic of SLC is a single undergraduate degree; a BA in the liberal arts for which students create their own pathways through the curriculum pursuing multidisciplinary paths. Students choose SLC often for the one on one work they will do with faculty members that allows them to dive into research often in their very first semester.

Famous alums include Carly Simon, Alice Walker, Linda McCartney, Barbara Walters, Rahm Emmanuel, Vera Wang, and JJ Abrams.

Sarah Lawrence has had a myriad of connections with the Bronxville School over the years and is very interested in deepening that association. Currently its swim complex serves as the practice and home pool for the Bronxville School swim team.

On the Sarah Lawrence campus, the college has a great deal to offer Village residents, young and mature.

The youngest Village residents, (children ages 2 to 6), can benefit from preschool, Junior K and kindergarten classes at the Early Childhood Center.

Teens can explore a variety of pre-college programs such as writing and filmmaking and writers at all levels and ages can attend the Writing Institute which recently celebrated 40 years of classes across a number of genres.

In addition to Masters programs, SLC offers professional development and certification opportunities.

For the fitness minded, the college offers lap swims, aquatic aerobics and children swimming lessons at the Campbell Sports Center and over the summer there are pickleball and tennis memberships available for neighbors to make use of the outdoor courts.

Those interested in environmental issues can head to the Hudson to the Center for the Urban River which offers science opportunities and local events.

In addition to the above learning opportunities, there is a full calendar of events at the college, many of which are free and open to the public. This year‘s Presidential Event Series started with the visit of Reverend Nontombi Tutu and a very special guest will be coming in the new year which will be announced shortly. Stay tuned!!

Sarah Lawrence students also share their filmmaking with screenings at our Picture House and many of their shorts have gone on to win awards.

The goal of the college is to have us, as neighbors, aware of and take advantage of all that the college has to offer as a cultural and intellectual hub. Events and performances provide a wonderful resource right in our own backyard as the college attracts smart, creative, passionate, and outside the box thinkers who come from almost every state and over 40 countries.

Everyone is welcome to cheer on the Gryphons - the student athletes who compete in basketball, volleyball, softball and soccer. There are also spaces for Villagers to hold events at the college, including the President’s House on Kimball Avenue, the charming marble Remy Theater along with larger spaces in the Barbara Walters Campus Center.

I closed my meeting with the President asking for some fun facts about her college.

Sarah Lawrence receives a lot of attention in pop culture, and it has even been an answer, or rather a question, on Jeopardy 15 times! The 90’s movie, 10 Things I Hate About You is particularly tied to Sarah Lawrence as the lead character dreamt of attending the college and in a fun twist, Larissa Oleynik, who starred in the movie went on to attend SLC and is a proud alum.

The College has actually been coed since 1968 and in fact first admitted male students in 1946 under the G.I. Bill.

President Judd has a monthly newsletter called “From the President’s Desk” that anyone can sign up for by visiting slc.edu/president.

In addition, the president has an Instagram account @SLCPrez that she runs herself and welcomes folks to follow her for a day in the life of a college president.

I left our meeting feeling very fortunate indeed to have Sarah Lawrence College in our backyard.