Alice Ilchman, 71, President of Sarah Lawrence College

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Alice Ilchman, who died August 11 at 71, was an expert on international affairs who served as president of Sarah Lawrence College between 1981 and 1998.

At Sarah Lawrence, where she was the longest-serving president in the history of the college, Ilchman established two new buildings and 10 faculty chairs, and increased the college’s endowment ten-fold to $30 million from $3 million.

A defender of the traditional liberalarts curriculum, she will be remembered at the college for helping to preserve its student-directed pedagogy, in which students design their own courses of study in concert with faculty members.

Prior to coming to Sarah Lawrence, Ilchman served in the Carter administration as assistant secretary of state for education and cultural affairs, where she managed the Fulbright program. She also was dean and professor of economics at Wellesley College, and a Peace Corps trainer for India.

Ilchman was educated at Mount Holyoke and Syracuse University, and held a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics.

Ilchman served on several boards, including the Public Broadcasting Service and Save the Children USA. She was chairman of the board at the Rockefeller Foundation from 1995–2000.


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