Bard Juniors Earn Gilman Scholarships
Students Honored
Telo Hoy ’19 and Meagan Kenney ’19 have been awarded Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships to study abroad for the fall 2017 semester. Hoy, a music major from Santa Fe, New Mexico, was awarded $3,000 to study composition at the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavic. Kenney, a mathematics major from Richmond, Virginia, was awarded $4,500 to pursue math and Hungarian language studies at the Budapest Semester in Mathematics. Gilman Scholars receive up to $5,000 to apply toward their study abroad or internship program costs, with additional funding available for the study of a critical language overseas. Since 2001, Gilman scholarships have enabled more than 24,000 outstanding Americans of limited financial means to engage in a meaningful educational experience abroad. The late Congressman Gilman, for whom the scholarship is named, served in the House of Representatives for 30 years and chaired the House Foreign Relations Committee. The Gilman Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is supported in its implementation by the Institute of International Education.
C Mandler ’18 has won an inaugural GLAAD Rising Star Grant. The annual grants empower LGBTQ youth and support initiatives that champion intersectional LGBTQ issues. Mandler, a double major in philosophy and written arts, manages the Root Cellar, Bard’s student-run music venue. They recently presented at Princeton University’s Compass Philosophy Workshop for women, nonbinary, and trans people in philosophy and is in the process of self-publishing their third book of poetry. Miranda Fey Whitus ’18 was awarded a 2017 Barnabas McHenry Hudson Valley Award from the Open Space Institute for her work in historic preservation. Whitus will research the heritage and history of the Hudson Valley by analyzing the design aesthetic, artistic practices, and material possessions of families who lived on the Montgomery Place estate during the 19th and 20th centuries. Tonery Rogers ’19 is the first Bard student to win a David L. Boren Scholarship. Rogers will receive $20,000 to study Arabic in Jordan. The Boren scholarship is a federal initiative that provides U.S. undergraduate and graduate students with resources and encouragement to acquire language skills and experience in countries critical to the future security and stability of our nation. In exchange for funding, Boren Award recipients agree to work in the federal government for a period of at least one year.
Telo Hoy ’19. photo Tasnim Clarke
Meagan Kenney ’19. photo Noah Libby
Middle States Reaccreditation Every 10 years Bard undertakes a self-assessment as part of the reaccreditation process overseen by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). Although the exercise requires a look back, it is also a powerful tool to help move the College forward. After a steering committee appointed by President Leon Botstein, completed this year’s campus self-study, MSCHE evaluators—college presidents, financial officers, deans, faculty; essentially a panel of peers—visited the campus for a few days to talk with Bard faculty, staff, students, and administrators. “The evaluators’ charge,” says Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Studies David Shein, “is to make sure we are fulfilling our mission.” The last self-evaluation, in 2007, noted that the College’s mission was “implicit in its day-to-day operations.” Ten years later, the College’s mission is explicit (visit bard.edu/about/mission), concise, and ends with these words: “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.” “Middle States looks at finances, academics, curriculum, extracurricular student life,” says Shein, “and evaluates whether we are providing the resources to allow us to fulfill our mission.” Botstein writes, in the final report to MSCHE, “The College’s commitment to excellence and equity in education is manifest in its budget, the two largest
C Mandler ’18 photo David-Simon Dayan
Miranda Fey Whitus ’18 photo Tierney Weymueller
Tonery Rogers ’19 photo Annah Heckman
components of which are faculty compensation and student financial aid. Because the College lacks the sort of endowment enjoyed by its peers, to defray annual costs it has relied on generous philanthropic investment by those who share the College’s ambitious vision of the role of higher education in civil society. In order to ensure the sustainability of its important and wide-ranging work, the College is preparing to build an endowment to secure for the long term its educational achievements.” The last decade has been one of growth for the College. The size of the Annandale undergraduate student body has increased by 25 percent; graduate programs have gone from seven to 13; the number of Early Colleges has grown from two to nine; Clemente courses and Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) locations have increased substantially (an outgrowth of BPI, “microcolleges” based in the Care Center in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and the Brooklyn Public Library may serve as a model for similar initiatives); and international campuses and partnerships have expanded to four. Such efforts are the lifeblood of the College. “Bard College,” Botsetin writes, “will continue to create educational opportunities where they are most needed, not where doing so is easy or financially rewarding.” So how does MSCHE think Bard is doing? “They said this is the right model,” says Shein. “It’s hard, but given what we do we’re not going to have a model like a traditional college.” “The way we do things has to reflect what we do,” adds Dean of the College S. Rebecca Thomas. “Middle States recognizes that.” on and off campus 27