Bard College

Bard College seeks to inspire curiosity, a love of learning, idealism, and a commitment to the link between higher education and civic participation. The undergraduate curriculum is designed to address central, enduring questions facing succeeding generations of students. Academic disciplines are interconnected through multidisciplinary programs; a balance in the curriculum is sought between general education and individual specialization. Students pursue a rigorous course of study reflecting diverse traditions of scholarship, research, speculation, and artistic expression. They engage philosophies of human existence, theories of human behavior and society, the making of art, and the study of the humanities, science, nature, and history.

Bard’s approach to learning focuses on the individual, primarily through small group seminars. These are structured to encourage thoughtful, critical discourse in an inclusive environment. Faculty are active in their fields and stress the connection between the contemplative life of the mind and active engagement outside the classroom. They strive to foster rigorous and free inquiry, intellectual ambition, and creativity.

Bard acts at the intersection of education and civil society, extending liberal arts and sciences education to communities in which it has been underdeveloped, inaccessible, or absent. Through its undergraduate college, distinctive graduate programs, commitment to the fine and performing arts, civic and public engagement programs, and network of international dual-degree partnerships, early colleges, and prison education initiatives, Bard offers unique opportunities for students and faculty to study, experience, and realize the principle that higher-education institutions can and should operate in the public interest.

Many young people arrive at college with a single-minded focus on career and preprofessional education. Parents and students often harbor the illusion that the purpose of college, in contrast to that of high school, is to prepare oneself for the practical business of life, a phrase that is often reduced to the earning of money. Too many educators overreact to this legitimate utilitarian claim by preaching about learning for its own sake. This is a sort of high-minded, old-fashioned special pleading that is actually counterproductive. Learning for its own sake is wonderful, desirable, and enjoyable, but only after an individual has found a way to connect learning and life in a manner that influences everyday life, including earning a living.

Bard's undergraduate faculty-to-student ratio is 1:10 and courses are taught by full faculty members. Among the many distinguished faculty at Bard College are four MacArthur Fellows—poet Ann Lauterbach, novelist and memoirist Norman Manea, painter and multimedia artist Judy Pfaff, and journalist Mark Danner. Other notable faculty members include soprano Dawn Upshaw, journalist Ian Buruma, composers Joan Tower and George Tsontakis, poet Robert Kelly, and writers Luc Sante and Francine Prose. Over the years, four recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature have taught at Bard—Saul Bellow, Isaac Bashevis Singer, José Saramago, and Orhan Pamuk.

The Bard College of today reflects in many ways its varied past.Bard was founded as St. Stephen’s College in 1860, a time of national crisis. While there are no written records of the founders’ attitude toward the Civil War, a passage from the College’s catalogue of 1943 applies also to the time of the institution’s establishment.

Bard has also expanded its presence abroad under Botstein’s leadership, and furthered its efforts to promote freedom of inquiry internationally. In 1991, under the newly developed Program in International Education (PIE), the College began bringing students from emerging democracies in Eastern and Central Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East to Bard for one semester of study. This program is one of many overseen by the Institute for International Liberal Education, which was founded in 1998 to develop long-term collaborations between Bard and other leading institutions around the world.

These partner campuses now include the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences of St. Petersburg State University (Smolny College), the first liberal arts program in Russia, founded as a joint venture of Bard and St. Petersburg State University; Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem, which collaborated with Bard in 2009 to create the Al-Quds Bard College for Arts and Sciences and a Master of Arts in Teaching Program; American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where Bard established a dual-degree program in 2010; and Bard College Berlin: A Liberal Arts University, a partner institution since 2011.

Bard made national headlines in 2013 by offering a new application option that bypasses standardized tests and admission processes, enabling motivated students to gain admission through an essay test. Members of the Bard faculty evaluate the essays, and applicants who score B+ or higher receive an offer of admission. Also in 2013, Bard forged a partnership with the Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academies and launched BardWorks, a career-oriented professional development program for juniors and seniors. Bard Early College Cleveland debuted in 2014, as did the Levy Economics Institute Master of Science in Economic Theory and Policy.

In 2015, the College inaugurated Bard Launch, a fund-raising platform to support student-led projects; began a multiyear partnership with the Trisha Brown Dance Company, which includes undergraduate courses, interdisciplinary collaborations, and public performances; opened Bard High School Early College Baltimore; and initiated The Orchestra Now, which offers experiential orchestra training to postgraduate musicians and leads to a master of music degree.

In June 2016, Botstein and the Bard College Conservatory Orchestra traveled to Cuba to perform in that country’s top concert halls, collaborate with Cuban artists, and foster student and faculty exchange. In fall 2016, Bard in Hudson Civic Academy opened in a dedicated site in downtown Hudson, New York. The half-day program is modeled on Bard Early College in New Orleans and grants both Bard and high school credits. Bard Microcollege Holyoke (Massachusetts) launched in August to offer tuition-free Bard associate in arts degrees to members of underserved communities.

The year 2017 saw the establishment of a second BHSEC in Cleveland and, in partnership with the Brooklyn Public Library, of Bard Microcollege Brooklyn. With the purchase of Montgomery Place, a 380-acre property just south of the main campus, in 2016, the College has begun work on a master plan to guide the integration of the two campuses and utilize the new facilities—among them, a 19th-century mansion, coach house, greenhouse, farm, gardens, walking trails, and outbuildings—in a manner consistent with its commitment to historic preservation, public access, and the environment.