Bard College at Simon’s Rock, which allows high school students to start college as early as 10th grade, announced last year that it would be moving to a recently-acquired facility next to the main Bard campus in Fall 2025. Bard Academy, its pre-college program for eighth and ninth graders, will also be moving to Annandale-on-Hudson.
For Physics Professor Michael Bergman, it’s a move that comes with mixed emotions. He is one of a handful of faculty members to get a job on the new campus. He’s worked for Simon’s Rock for more than 30 years, and he will continue to do so with an hour commute from his home in Great Barrington. Bergman says he’s got friends teaching on the main Bard campus, but he’ll miss his colleagues back home.
“I’m at an age where I didn’t want to move," says Bergman. "In the end, I decided to stick with this and try to get the new program going. Obviously, I’m not thrilled about the commute, and I thought that we had built a pretty good program here, and now it’s starting over in some sense. So that’s difficult. But I guess it’s exciting to see if we can get it off the ground.”
Bard Academy and Simon’s Rock says it is keeping just 40 of its roughly 140 faculty and staff in the move, as it seeks to downsize and consolidate its operations into the main Bard campus. Some staff will continue to work on the Great Barrington campus to help with the transition through 2025.
Harrison Levenstein, a ceramics assistant, artist in residence, and adjunct professor at Simon’s Rock, says his contract expires at the end of June. His position no longer exists at the new campus.
“On one hand, it didn’t seem like a huge surprise, and on the other hand, it felt like a huge punch in the gut," he adds.
John Weinstein, provost and vice president of Simon’s Rock, says declining enrollment was a deciding factor in the move. Last year, the program had just 280 students, and like a lot of smaller colleges nationwide, Weinstein says Simon’s Rock was faced with a choice: merge more into Bard, or fold.
“We were really starting to look at what might be a long-term plan for the next 50 years, and being a freestanding campus of a few hundred students just really wasn’t going to work, from an economic standpoint," he explains.
So far, he says most of their remaining students are making the jump to Annandale-on-Hudson – more so than they expected. He predicts a class of more than 200 students next year. Over time, Weinstein hopes the higher population of the Hudson Valley will bring those numbers up.
“I suspect we’ll see an increase in the day student population in the Hudson Valley. The Berkshires has had kind of a decline in school-age students in the population," Weinstein notes. "So certainly I will encourage Hudson Valley families to get to know us — because even though we do draw in [students] from across the country and around the world, there is a day student option that might interest people.”
Construction is underway to get Bard’s Massena campus ready for the fall. The college bought Massena, a former seminary, in 2023. Weinstein says the 260-acre location will maintain a separate feel from Bard, despite its proximity to the main campus. Eighth and ninth graders at Bard Academy will be housed separately from the older students at the main “Massena mansion” overlooking the Hudson River.
“That will be specifically their space. The early college students in their first year will be on one floor of the seminary building, and then they’ll be living in early-college-specific housing in their second year — but that will be located on the main campus, while yet distinct," Weinstein explains. "So, at each stage, there’s a little more closeness and more opportunities, but it also enables us to really provide a different environment for the students at the youngest age of the spectrum.”
As students progress more in their college studies, Weinstein says they will take more and more classes at the main Bard campus, and have the opportunity to join Bard clubs, musical groups, and sports teams.
Bergman says he’s especially excited to see his students again in the new location. As for Levenstein, he’s not going to the Hudson Valley, but he's grown to love western Massachusetts. After working in the area for five years, he’s decided to stay and is preparing to open a community ceramics studio in Great Barrington. He hopes to encourage the creative and environment he saw in some of his Simon’s Rock classes.
“It was such a unique community," he says of the old campus. "It really felt small, and the way people are on that campus, everyone is so sensitive and kind. And the way the students support each other was always so amazing to me."
