Bard College at Simon’s Rock closes

The closure of Bard’s campus at Simon’s Rock has left faculty facing an uncertain future.
Photo courtesy of the Berkshire Eagle
The closure of Bard’s campus at Simon’s Rock has left faculty facing an uncertain future.
GREAT BARRINGTON — An online petition by a student trying to save the livelihoods of Bard College at Simon’s Rock faculty has gained 912 signatures since it was first released on Tuesday, Nov 19.
And another student is working on a campaign to establish a fund that employees of the school who lose jobs and health insurance can draw from.
After the Nov. 19 announcement that the school would close its early college at the end of spring semester, employees and students have been grappling with the news, attending frequent meetings and trying to help those whose jobs are likely on the chopping block.
There is much sorrow, anger and frustration in the atmosphere, students said.
“It’s been really, really sad,” said Isabella Zeisset, 18, a sophomore, who started the Change.org petition asking Bard to renew faculty contracts. “The students are really worried about the faculty.”
Numerous faculty contacted by The Eagle said it is too early to talk about what’s happening.
And, the students said, it is also too painful. Many longtime faculty and staff at the school are facing layoffs as the school moves its entire operation to Bard’s new Massena Campus at Annandale-On-Hudson, N.Y.
It’s a move that Bard has been mulling for several years.
Bard said in its announcement and on its website that faculty positions will not be transferred from Simon’s Rock, and that they have to apply anew for any available teaching slots.
A spokesperson for Bard has not answered specific questions the number of positions at the New York campus, about 40 miles southwest of Great Barrington.
Rumors are flying through campus about these numbers, students and other sources told The Eagle. The Bard website showed roughly 50 job openings as of Thursday evening.
A Simon’s Rock spokesperson said the school currently has 238 employees. It was unclear exactly how many staff and faculty may lose their jobs.
Those who do get rehired at Bard could lose seniority in terms of benefits. It will be up to the discretion of Bard, the website says.
For these reasons and more the announcement on Tuesday rattled the entire campus and town, given Simon’s Rock’s immense economic and cultural significance in town since the 1960s.
School officials cited declining enrollment as a primary reason.
Students who continue on will transfer to the new Bard campus in the fall to finish their studies. Summer housing will be available “on a limited basis and prioritized for students with the greatest need,” the school website says.
The school is one of Great Barrington’s largest employers. And over the decades its students have worked and shopped at businesses in town. Many returned to the town later to raise families and open businesses.
“It’s a huge deal,” said Erik Bruun, who owns SoCo Creamery downtown and has employed Simon’s Rock Students. “And once you start pulling back the layers of the impacts, [the closing] really almost affects every element of the community. It’s a great loss.”
“The school made a big difference,” Bruun said, “in a lot of people’s lives.”
But Bruun, who wrote about the school in the 1980s when he worked as an Eagle reporter, remembers that the school has long struggled with money.
“It was sort of touch and go in the 80s,” Bruun said. And apparently also for the last “several years,” according to the school’s website.
The school’s board of overseers and college administration “have been working to find a solution for a path forward for Simon’s Rock … after it became clear that the current state of enrollment and fundraising was not sustainable”
The school, as a nonprofit, did not pay property taxes and has not made any payments in lieu of taxes, according to the town.
Another big question is what will happen to the campus. It will be sold, but the question is to whom and for what. Great Barrington residents have floated a variety of ideas, such as affordable housing and even as the new location for a Monument Mountain Regional High School, which could cost around $140 million to rebuild.
In response to questions, Bard spokeswomen Liz Benjamin said that there are no offers currently on the table to buy the campus or any part of it.
The Kilpatrick Athletic Center will carry on with its regular programming through the end of summer. “More information will be shared as it becomes available,” she said.
The Daniel Arts Center, Benjamin added, “will honor all performances and rental agreements through the end of 2025 summer season.”
There are various other campus programs, including a farming program, whose fate is uncertain.
Bard has not responded to the the student petition. Benjamin said that school officials are aware of it, and that “this situation is developing, but faculty and staff will have the opportunity to apply for positions at the new campus.”
Some petition supporters expressed their concerns and anger in comments.
“Shameful,” wrote one. “The school knew full well and hid this from us when our daughter started a few months ago. At the least they should offer the teachers the new jobs and allow all students to enter Bard full time ASAP.”
“The faculty at the Rock,” wrote another, “are the school’s heart and soul. I was there twenty years ago and can attest to the lifelong impact of the incredible professors I had back then.”
The petition’s author, Zeisset, said she has “deep connection” to the school. Her parents met at Simon’s Rock when they were students. She will continue to Bard next fall, but worries about the employees and faculty here. She hopes the petition will help pressure Bard to hire them.
“A lot have dedicated half their lives to Simon’s Rock,” Zeisset said. “Just the idea of leaving their life’s work behind has been really difficult.”
Salem Lockney, a junior, said she’s working on the fundraising aspect of this for the employees. A professor is helping her figure out the “ethics” conundrum of who would be able to draw money from a fund and how much.
“I’m not sure what that looks like yet,” said Lockney, 18, who also attended the pre-college Simon’s Rock Academy. “I have so much anger about the whole thing and I wanted to do something about it.”
“The staff and faculty,” Lockney said, “have really changed my life.”
Built in 1820, 1168 Bangall Amenia Road sold for $875,000 on July 31 with the transfer recorded in August. It has a Millbrook post office and is located in the Webutuck school district.
STANFORD — The Town of Stanford with nine transfers in two months reached a median price in August of $573,000 for single family homes, still below Stanford’s all-time median high in August 2024 of $640,000.
At the beginning of October there is a large inventory of single-family homes listed for sale with only six of the 18 homes listed for below the median price of $573,000 and seven above $1 million.
July transfers
79 Ernest Road — 4 bedroom/2.5 bath home on 6.87 acres in 2 parcels sold to Matthew C. Marinetti for $1,225,000.
29 Drake Road — 3 bedroom/3.5 bath home on 2 acres sold to Harper Montgomery for $850,000.
6042 Route 82 — 4 bedroom/2 bath home on 1.09 acres sold to Spencer Thompson for $795,000.
125 Tick Tock Way — 3 bedroom/2.5 bath ranch on 1.9 acres sold to Fleur Touchard for $475,000.
August transfers
102 Prospect Hill Road — 3 bedroom/2 bath home on 6.35 acres sold to Karl Creighton Pfister for $565,000.
252 Ernest Road — 2 bedroom/1 bath cottage on .85 acres sold to Meg Bumie for $465,000.
1196 Bangall Amenia Road — 4 bedroom/2.5 bath home on 2.16 acres sold to Roderick Alleyne for $875,000.
Hunns Lake Road (#759929) — 59.1 acres of residential land sold to Argos Farm LLC for $3,325,000.
* Town of Stanford recorded real estate transfers from July 1 to August 31 provided by Dutchess County Real Property Office monthly transfer reports. Details on each property from Dutchess Parcel Access - properties with an # indicate location on Dutchess Parcel Access. Market data from One Key MLS and Infosparks .Compiled by Christine Bates, Real Estate Advisor with William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, Licensed in Connecticut and New York.
Hunt club members and friends gathered near Pugsley Hill at the historic Wethersfield Estate and Gardens in Amenia for the opening meet of the 2025-2026 Millbrook Hunt Club season on Saturday, Oct. 4. Foxhunters took off from Wethersfield’s hilltop gardens just after 8 a.m. for a hunting jaunt around Amenia’s countryside.
Joining in the fun at the dedication of the new pollinator pathway garden at The Millbrook Library on Saturday, Oct. 4, local expert gardener Maryanne Snow Pitts provides information about a planting to Lorraine Mirabella of Poughkeepsie.
MILLBROOK — Participating in a patchwork of libraries that have planted pollinator pathway gardens to attract insects and birds to their native plantings was one of the accomplishments being celebrated at the dedication of a new pollinator garden at the Millbrook Library on Saturday, Oct. 4.
“A lot of work went into it,” said Emma Sweeney, past President of the Millbrook Garden Club, who started the local library’s initiative two years ago.
The Pollinator Pathway program is a national effort to plant native plants that native insects depend upon for sustenance and preferred plants for their own seasonal reproduction.
Jana Hogan of Ridgefield, Connecticut, Executive Director of the Pollinator Pathway program, was on hand to present a plaque to the library for its successful participation.
“A garden is not just a garden,” said garden designer Andy Durbridge of Wassaic, designer of the library’s garden. “It may serve as a model for other gardens along the line.”
Speaking to the 50 visitors at the dedication, Durbridge said that the library’s garden has a mission, that it is a working garden, planned to serve insects and birds over their seasons. The earliest plants support pollinators, while the full range of plants continues to serve the needs of those they attract, offering habitat, shelter and food.
A pollinator garden is akin to a prairie, rather than a formalized European garden, Durbridge noted.
The garden project was supported by the library’s Friends group using funds raised during the Holiday Silent Auction and ongoing book sale. A grant from the Millbrook Garden Club also provided support.
Smithfield Church
AMENIA — Fans of the smooth sounds and rhythms of Brazilian Jazz will enjoy “Rio Jazz: Intimate Brazilian Jazz,” a concert at The Smithfield Church on Saturday, Oct. 11, beginning at 3 p.m.
The concert is one of the acclaimed Bang Family Concerts, an ongoing series offering an eclectic range of performances by regional artists. The historic 19th-century church sanctuary offers perfect acoustics, thanks to its dimensions as a classic Greek square.
Assembled in 1988, Rio Jazz is led by Matt Finley, a pioneer in Brazilian jazz, who has brought together a combo of world-class performers for an hour of live music including a sampling of his own compositions. The Brazilian genre began in 1963, with the rise of the bossa nova and its growth in popularity in the U.S.
Members of the combo performing live are pianist Larry Ham, double bassist Lou Pappas, and drummer Jeff Siegel. Guitarist Jeff Ciampa from Orange County is playing for the Smithfield audience for the first time. And vocalist Denise Jordan Finley will join her husband in performing a collaborative composition.
The Smithfield Church is located at 656 Smithfield Valley Road in Amenia. A suggested donation of $20 will support future Bang Family concerts. A meet-the-artists reception will follow the concert. For more information, go to www.thesmithfieldchurch.org/concerts.