Honored

Above: Alice Ilchman, flanked by daughter Sarah and husband Warren. Far left: Former Board Chair George Adams, Sr., was among the many who paid tribute to Ilchman.

On a warm and sunny May afternoon, the College welcomed an overflow crowd to the science center, celebrating the building's naming in honor of President Emerita Alice Stone Ilchman. Ilchman, though ill, was able to attend, and heard tributes from faculty, former trustees and friends of the College. Board of Trustees Chairman Robert Riggs read the following proclamation from the Board:

WHEREAS, 25 years ago, Alice Stone Ilchman came to Sarah Lawrence and served as our president from 1981 to 1998, invigorating the College with a new global perspective and her conviction that fostering the life of the mind is central to Sarah Lawrence College’s every endeavor;

WHEREAS, she brought to Sarah Lawrence College her belief that our curriculum must give full place to the natural sciences and mathematics so that students could develop the full range of their talents, and she took the lead in ensuring that a building dedicated to their study be erected;

WHEREAS, her vision for science sparked a campus renaissance that has resulted in the expansion of the curriculum, the creation of new interdisciplinary areas of study, new funds for research, and a lively culture of science and mathematics that has enhanced campus life for all;

WHEREAS, her trust in the ability of the individual to challenge the limitations of society, her faith in the intrinsic value of humanity, her innate wisdom and boundless intellectual curiosity, and her deep love for education, and for Sarah Lawrence College in particular, sustained the institution throughout her tenure and resulted in an extraordinary-and permanent-endowment for the College;

THEREFORE, be it proclaimed that the Board of Trustees of Sarah Lawrence College hereby names our science building The Alice Stone Ilchman Science Center.

For Alice Ilchman’s obituary, click here.