Historical Exploration of Undergraduate Education at The New School

The New School's Public Seminar published a fascinating essay by Mark Larrimore, Program Director of Religious Studies in the Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at The New School, on September 12, 2019, "The New School's Long Road to a Four-Year College."

The New School was founded in 1919 as the New School for Social Research in New York City. Larrimore notes that the founders were not interested in traditional students and the first degrees offered after the mid-1930s were awarded at the graduate level.  Various approaches to undergraduate began to surface after the 1950s and even now, "...4-year New School degree isn’t the default."

"The New School did things pretty much back to front. It took the better part of its first 100 years to establish a 4-year undergraduate college." As a result, Larrimore's description of curricular and programmatic changes at the institution can offer interesting ideas for those questioning modes of undergraduate education prevailing on most campuses.