ABSTRACT
The New School for Social Research, at the northern edge of Greenwich Village in New York City, was founded in 1919 by a handful of dissident Columbia University professors to offer evening courses for adults who wanted to choose what they wanted to learn without having to take prescribed programs. It prides itself on being the oldest continuing education center for women in the country. Since its creation, the Human Relations Center has changed its character dramatically from a leisure- and volunteer-activity orientation to a no-nonsense commitment to devising ways for women to get back into the mainstream. Ruth Van Doren, the director of the Center, has a clear sense of the need it fills. The certificate program is aimed specifically at the woman who has been out of school for some time and is designed to allow her to explore new vocational interests or to prepare for advanced academic training.
