# Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts

Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, commonly referred to as Lang, is the seminar-style, undergraduate, liberal arts college of The New School. It is located on-campus in Greenwich Village in New York City on West 11th Street off 6th Avenue.

## History

Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts was founded as the Freshman Year Program at The New School in 1972 as a pre-college program for high school graduates. Three years later, in 1975, the program was expanded to a full undergraduate program and renamed The Seminar College. In 1985, following a generous donation by Eugene Lang and his wife Theresa, the school was renamed Eugene Lang College. The college currently has an enrollment of over 1,555 students.
In 2005, the phrase "The New School" was inserted into the name of each division of The New School as part of a unification strategy initiated by the university's President Bob Kerrey; thus, Eugene Lang College was renamed Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts. In 2015, The New School rebranded again by renaming the schools to better clarify the relationship between the university and its schools. Eugene Lang College's formal title is The New School's Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts.

## Curriculum
### Academics

The only required classes are a First-Year Seminar and two semesters of Writing the Essay for first-year students. These intensive writing classes have titles such as "Memory and the Self," "Poetry and the Conditions of Possibility," "Human Rights," and "Technology, Surveillance, and Climate Change." Students are encouraged to tailor their academic programs to their own interests and goals.
Eugene Lang College hosts some of The New School's most experimental and avant-garde courses, including: "Heterodox Identities", "NYC: Graphic Gotham", "The Mind-Game Film" (taught by Silvia Vega-Llona), "The Illusion of Color", "Punk & Noise", "Masculinity in Asia," "Queer Culture", "Theories of Mind", and "Play and Toil in the Digital Sweatshop".
The college places emphasis on interdisciplinary learning with a "student-directed" curriculum. All of its courses are seminars. Students at Lang may also cross-register for courses sponsored by other divisions of The New School, including Parsons School of Design and The New School College of Performing Arts. Students are allowed to double-major, minor in programs across The New School, and enroll in the bachelor's/master's program, which allows Lang students to complete a BA and MA through The New School's graduate programs.

## Student publications

Several of The New School's major publications are produced by Lang students. Among these are:
* The New School Free Press , a student-run newspaper published by the journalism concentration of the Writing department, has grown from a DIY zine-style pamphlet to a professionally printed broadsheet in the years since its founding in 2002, when it was known as Inprint. It is published monthly in print and it aims to serve both Lang and the wider New School community. The Free Press operates a blog and makes digital copies of the newspaper available on the Lang website.
* 12th Street, nationally distributed literary journal; contains works from undergraduate writers in The New School's Riggio Writing & Democracy Honors Program
* Eleven and a Half, the literary journal of Eugene Lang College
* The Weekly Observer, an online newsletter showcasing major student and alumni achievements, special program announcements, and other university-wide news. Distributed via MyNewSchool web portal.

## Notable alumni and faculty
### Alumni

* Ani DiFranco, musician
* Elisa Donovan, actress
* Karen Maine, director and screenwriter
* Matisyahu, musician
* Sufjan Stevens, musician
* Jake Shears, musician
* Emily Gould, former co-editor of Gawker
* Mike Doughty, musician
* Jude Ellison Sady Doyle, feminist writer
* Graeme K., musician
* Stacey Farber, actress
* Melissa Febos, writer
* Travis Jeppesen, writer
* Paul Dano, actor
* Julio Torres, writer, comedian, actor
* Robert Schwartzman, musician and actor
* Bethany Cosentino, musician of Best Coast
* Borzou Daragahi, journalist
* Nina Arianda, actress
* Anita Glesta, artist
* Rufi Thorpe, novelist

### Faculty

* Jennifer Baumgardner, feminist writer and speaker
* Laurie Collyer, director/actress
* Siddhartha Deb, novelist
* Jill Eisenstadt, novelist, screenwriter, and journalist
* Jennifer Gilmore, novelist
* Shelley Jackson, novelist and short story writer
* Margo Jefferson, former theatre critic at The New York Times
* Hettie Jones, poet
* Barrie Karp, artist
* Greil Marcus, music critic
* Dominic Pettman, writer and theorist
* Kristin Prevallet, poet and writer
* Katy Pyle, dancer and choreographer
* Sara Ruddick, feminist philosopher
* Lynda Schor, short story writer and literary editor
* Christopher Sorrentino, novelist, short story writer
* Mark Statman, writer, translator, poet
* Sekou Sundiata, Grammy-nominated performance artist, poet
* Elizabeth Swados, writer, composer, musician, and theatre director
* McKenzie Wark, virtual media theorist
* Caveh Zahedi, director/actor

## Rankings

In some college ranking programs, The New School's eight divisions are ranked separately, since their attributes and standards of admission differ significantly.
The Princeton Review ranks Eugene Lang among "America's 371 Best Colleges" and the "Best Northeastern Colleges.". Miriam Weinstein also cites the Eugene Lang division in her book, Making a Difference Colleges: Distinctive Colleges to Make a Better World. Lang has also appeared on The Princeton Review's following national lists:
* "Dodgeball Targets" (#1)
* "Great College Towns" (#1)
* "Intercollegiate Sports Unpopular Or Nonexistent" (#1)
* "Class Discussions Encouraged" (#1)
* "Long Lines and Red Tape" (#1)
* "Students Most Nostalgic For Bill Clinton Politics" (#2)
* "Least Religious Students" (#2)
* "Nobody Plays Intramural Sports" (#2)
* "Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians" (#3)
* "Most Politically Active" (#7)
* "Town-Gown Relations Are Great" (#11)
* "Gay Community Accepted" (#13)
* "Most Liberal Students" (#16)
* "Students Dissatisfied with Financial Aid" (#18)
* "Lots of Race/Class Interaction" (#19)