Bard College at Simon’s Rock announced it is closing after the spring semester and relocating its programs to a new campus at Bard in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.
GREAT BARRINGTON — Bard College at Simon’s Rock is closing after the spring semester and relocating its programs to a new campus at Bard in Annandale-On-Hudson, N.Y., the college announced Tuesday.
School leaders cited declining enrollment as a reason the early college for high school-age students, long a critical part of the town’s culture and economy, will close and consolidate with Bard at its new Massena Campus.
In a press release, school officials said that current students can continue their studies until the end of the spring semester, then transfer to the new campus in New York starting in the fall if they so choose.
In a press release issued Tuesday afternoon, school officials said that current students can continue their studies until the end of the semester, then transfer to Bard’s new Massena campus if they so choose.
The school plans maintain the property and then sell it, the announcement said.
The college presently has 281 students and 238 employees, college spokesperson Liz Benjamin said. It was unclear exactly how many staff and faculty may lose their jobs, and Benjamin could not immediately provide such information. She said the announcement is a “developing situation” that had the school community tied up in meetings and grappling with the news.
John B. Weinstein, Simon’s Rock’s provost and vice president, said in a letter to the community posted to the school’s website that it is “with mixed emotions of heartbreak and hope” that Bard College board of trustees and the Bard College at Simon’s Rock board of overseers jointly made the decision to move.
“After many years of declining enrollment revenue and the competitive market of early college offerings around the country,” Weinstein said, “sustaining the campus in Great Barrington is no longer feasible.” The move would keep the school “viable,” he added.
Bard College at Simon’s Rock announced it is closing after the spring semester and relocating its programs to a new campus at Bard in Annandale-On-Hudson, N.Y.
In the statement, Bard College President Leon Botstein said the school’s success as a pioneering early college led to duplication, and a more crowded marketplace in which a residential early college faced greater competition. He cited as examples the 10 public, early college high school campuses founded by Bard in six states, and more than 1 million high school students nationwide taking early college courses this year.
“Because of that success, and the larger national movement which it inspired, demand for the original residential model is less strong than it was when Elizabeth Blodgett Hall founded Simon’s Rock in the 1960s,” Botstein said.
The move to Bard’s new Massena campus will give the school “flexibility in space that can allow for a more financially viable and educationally rich future for Simon’s Rock by placing it physically closer to Bard’s main campus, he said.
“By moving the institution,” Botstein added, “we are giving Simon’s Rock the opportunity to continue its mission.”
JOB LOSSES UNCLEAR
The school is an early college day and boarding school for students who can attend after grades 10 or 11. The college also launched the Simon’s Rock Academy in 2015 to prepare younger students in grades 9 and 10 to attend the college. Tuition is $65,616 per year.
The school opened in 1966, on land formerly known as Great Pine Farm. Bard College acquired the school in 1979. The campus sits on 275 acres of woodland to the west of downtown Great Barrington.
The school opened in 1966, on land formerly known as Great Pine Farm. Bard College acquired the school in 1979. It now sits on 275 acres of woodland to the west of downtown Great Barrington.
Weinstein said the school will work with “faculty and staff to assist them in their next steps in the coming months, including helping students who are unable or unwilling to make the move to the New York campus identify suitable alternatives in Massachusetts.”
The school posted to its website a series of answers to FAQs for the entire community, including employees. It says that for employees, “there will be no position transfers,” but new positions will be posted at the Massena campus as early as July 1.
Students started a Change.org petition to “reinstate faculty contracts” at the new Bard location.
School officials said in the announcement that they would “continue to secure and maintain” the Great Barrington campus after closing it, and will consult with town leaders “during the search for a suitable new owner for the property.”
“Bard and Simon’s Rock will also work with New York officials in the village of Red Hook to ensure the timely renovation of Massena campus facilities,” the statement said, “and a smooth transition for faculty, staff, and students to their new home.”
Bill Meier, Simon’s Rock’s athletic director, says he thinks Bard is making a good decision, despite the abrupt shakeup. Meier, a 26-year employee, said he had just received notice of staff meetings with Botstein on Monday night when he looked out his window and saw East Mountain burning.
“It’s like everything is burning down,” Meier said.
“I think Leon [Botstein] sees the benefit of the early college,” said Meier, who helped create the beloved community swimming programs on campus. “I just hope that we can look at that [campus] property as a potential for the community in positive way.”
That new home is the 260-acre former Unification Theological Seminary property, in the adjacent hamlet of Barrytown, which Bard announced last year that it was buying for $14 million, according to the Hudson Valley Pilot. The original home on the property was built in 1796 by John Livingston, the Pilot reported, and called “Massena.”
In 1975, Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church made the property its U.S. headquarters, according to the Pilot.
“We had looked at it three times before as a way to solve our housing problem,” Botstein told the Pilot. “But now we are in the midst of a capital campaign to create new facilities for teaching and learning and everything from faculty offices to studio space and it will be terrific for that.”
The future of the Great Barrington campus, a haven for the arts, is uncertain. The campus features a ceramics studio, wood shop, the Kilpatrick Athletic Center, as well the Daniel Arts Center, a 300-seat theater that draws a wide range of artists and speakers.
The school is known for its creative alums, including filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, who reportedly drew their inspiration for “The Big Lebowski” from spending time at Cove Bowling Lanes while attending the school.
The school received national attention in 1992 after a shooting rampage by Wayne Lo that killed two and wounded four others. It also has been the center of other crises.
In 2019 a Black student said she had been the victim of racially motivated attack in the woods. While it turned out to be a false claim, students of color at the school reported feeling unsafe at the school.
The father of a student who killed herself at the school in 2016 has sued Simon’s Rock, alleging negligence by school authorities. That case is moving to trial.
And last year, students staged a sit-in at the school to protest the administration’s alleged mishandling and cover-ups of sexual abuse complaints.