AUCA Graduates 128 Students with Bard Degrees A parade preceded the commencement ceremony at American University of Central Asia (AUCA) in Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan, with the Tien Shan mountain range rising up as a spectacular backdrop. The event took place on June 2 at the Kyrgyz National Philharmonic. Graduates, family, and friends listened to speeches from AUCA President Andrew B. Wachtel, U.S. Ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic Pamela L. Spratlen, and Bard College Executive Vice President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou. Of the 195 students who graduated from AUCA this year, 128 received dual degrees—a B.A. from Bard and diploma from the Kyrgyz Ministry of Education—as a result of the innovative partnership between Bard College and AUCA, which grants Bard-accredited degrees to eligible students in nine academic programs. Bard also was represented by Jonathan Becker, vice president and dean for international affairs and civic engagement; Celia Bland, writer in residence; and Peg Peoples, who was director of college writing and academic resources at AUCA for the past two years and now heads Bard’s Institute for Writing and Thinking. “The ceremony began with a parade of young women in a variety of national costumes carrying flags representing the various homelands of AUCA students,” says Bland. “These were followed by the graduating seniors, all marching in the Philharmonic, a huge marble building decorated with portraits of famous Kyrgyz poets, pennants proclaiming the different program names—Bard College’s banner
Andrew B. Wachtel (left) and Dimitri B. Papadimitriou (right) with graduate Nargiza Metyakubova at AUCA commencement. photo Zhamby Dzusubalieva
among them—and bouquets of flowers. When the degrees were awarded, the seniors threw their mortarboards into the air to whoops of triumph, wild applause, and blinding flashes from countless cameras held by family members.”
Smolny Commencement at Newly Restored Bobrinskiy Palace
Smolny commencement. photo Joseph Taylor
Bobrinskiy Palace opening ceremony. photo Joseph Taylor
The Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences of St. Petersburg State University (Smolny College) conferred degrees upon 88 undergraduate and 40 graduate students during its 2012 commencement. Undergraduates received two diplomas—a bachelor of arts degree from Bard College and a bachelor of arts and humanitarian sciences from St. Petersburg State University. Speakers at the June 30 ceremony included Bard President Leon Botstein; Valery Mikhailovich Monakhov, director of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences; and Sergei Bogdanov, dean of the Philology Department at St. Petersburg State University. The commencement took place at Smolny College’s main academic building, the newly restored Bobrinskiy Palace. Located in one of the city’s oldest districts, Bobrinskiy Palace is one of St. Petersburg’s great buildings. Named after the distinguished family who resided there from 1798 to 1917, the palace was a gift from the Empress Maria Fedorovna to the family’s founding father, Count Aleksei Grigorievich Bobrinskiy, an illegitimate son of Catherine the Great and G. G. Orlov. It has a rich provenance—entertaining famous diplomats, literary figures (including Alexander Pushkin), and emperors in its grand halls during the 19th century. In 2001, the Federal Commission for the Administration of Government Property presented the Bobrinskiy Palace to St. Petersburg State University as the campus of Smolny College, now the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences. In the major renovation completed this year, seven halls were fully restored—including floors, walls, and marble columns—by the firm Renaissance Restoration and its chief architect, Ivan Selilo. “When we first saw the palace, we were struck by how perfectly suited it is to be the campus of Russia’s first liberal arts college,” says Susan Gillespie, Bard’s vice president for special global initiatives. “The palace has five wings. One, of landmark importance, houses the library, conference hall, and music performance space. The other four wings are just right for seminar classes and faculty and staff offices. A vaulted space on the ground floor gives the cafeteria a historic feel. The arts are present in the images of cherubs playing musical instruments, and of women dancing.” Adds Michaela Walker ’15, “The Smolny building was so amazingly beautiful to begin with, I was skeptical about how they could make it any more so. But they did. It was so gorgeous, and had so many secret studying spots, that it was a joy to explore and take classes there.” on and off campus 31