Bard College at Simon's Rock

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Bard College at Simon's Rock
Established: 1964
Type: Private, Liberal Arts
President: Leon Botstein
Provost and Vice President: Mary Marcy
Faculty: 76
Students: Approximately 400
Location: Great Barrington, MA, USA
Campus: Rural, 275 acres
Mascot: Llama (semi-official)
Website: www.simons-rock.edu

Bard College at Simon's Rock, also known as Simon's Rock and previously as Simon's Rock College of Bard (see below), is a small liberal arts college located in the small town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in the United States. The foremost of the many unusual things about Simon's Rock is that it is designed for students to enroll after completing the tenth or eleventh grade of high school, rather than after graduating. Students who attend Simon's Rock rarely earn a high school diploma, and enter, on average, at the age of 16.

The college's founder, Elizabeth Blodgett Hall, had formerly been a private girls' school headmistress at Concord Academy. She concluded from her experience, and that of her colleagues, that for many students the latter two years of high school are wasted on repetitious and overly constrained work. Many young students, she thought, are ready to pursue college-level academic work some time before the usual system asks it of them.

While Simon's Rock is still the only college to take this approach with all of its students, it is now only one of a number of early college entrance programs that provide opportunities for students to enter college one or more years ahead of their traditional high school graduation date.

Because Simon's Rock provides this accelerated program, it also attracts many students who might not consider a "liberal arts" education if they had to wait two more years. Computer science, pre-med, and math students read Plato, Dante and Nietzsche, alongside dancers, artists, and literary students. A majority of students transfer to larger institutions after receiving an associate's degree degree after two years, although some stay for four.

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[edit] The name

The name "Simon's Rock" comes from a large glacial erratic, currently in the woods on the campus, a short walk from the main part of the campus. At the time that Simon's Rock earned its name (in the early 1920s), the woods that now surround it were part of the vast area of land called Great Pine Farm. The rock was a favorite spot for people who lived nearby, especially children. One neighborhood child, named Simon, claimed the rock as his own.

When envisioning the college in the early 1960s, Elizabeth Blodgett Hall deliberately named it nothing more than "Simon's Rock." Her reasoning for this was that even she didn't know if it would be a high school, a college, or something else.

Throughout its short history, Simon's Rock has gone through names such as "Simon's Rock," "Simon's Rock Early College," "Simon's Rock of Bard College" (for a period after 1979, when it was acquired by Bard College) and "Simon's Rock College of Bard."

In 2006, it was announced that the school would once again change its name, making it "Bard College at Simon's Rock"[1]. Vice President and Provost Mary Marcy said that the reasons for the change include an effort "to be more clear about identity" and "to be very clear about the Bard College system." Reactions were mixed among students, employees and alumni, many of whom were staunchly opposed to the name. The relationship with Bard College, which is more clear than it has ever been with the new name, has become a point of contention among members of the school community. The name change officially went into effect in August 2007.

[edit] Location

Simon's Rock is located on a 275-acre (1.1-km²) campus in Great Barrington, a small town (pop. 7,500) in the Berkshires region of Massachusetts. The town of Great Barrington is neighbored by the towns of Lee, Stockbridge and West Stockbridge to the north, Alford and Egremont to the west, Sheffield and New Marlborough to the south, and Monterey and Tyringham to the east.

The main section of the campus is on Alford Road, about two miles from downtown Great Barrington, on an area that used to be a large farm. A few buildings are in an area known as Upper Campus, which is three-quarters of a mile from the main section of the campus. However, the direct road between the two sections, Drab Avenue, has been deemed unsafe for automobile traffic, so vehicles must use an alternate two-mile route to reach Upper Campus.

Bus service is available through request for transportation between the college campus and the town center, as well as other points throughout the Berkshires, by the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority.

[edit] History

Simon's Rock was officially founded in 1964. From 1964 to 1970, the buildings of the campus were built on Great Pine Farm, a farm that was owned by Hall's family. These buildings were the college center, the library, the classroom buildings, three dormitories (now dormitories primarily for first-year students: Crosby, Dolliver, and Kendrick) and the dining hall. Some of the farm's buildings, such as Hall's own home, were incorporated into the college campus as well. Hall was the president of the college at its founding.

In 1966, the first class, all women, were admitted to Simon's Rock. These women, along with some of the other early classes, went through a four-year program that resulted in the associate's degree, at which point students desiring a further degree would have to transfer to another school. This differs from the current system, in which students receive an associate's degree typically after two years, and a bachelor's degree after four years of study.

1970 saw both the first commencement ceremonies at Simon's Rock as well as the first coeducational entering class.

Hall retired as Simon's Rock's president in 1972, handing the post off to Dr. Baird W. Whitlock, whose presidency ended in 1977. Though only serving for five years, Whitlock was very influential to Simon's Rock's development. He oversaw a complete change in the associate's program, which was condensed into two years, eliminating the high school components. He also oversaw the beginning of the bachelor's degree program, which was accredited in 1974 by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

Dr. Samuel McGill was Simon's Rock's president from 1977 to 1979, at which point Bard College acquired Simon's Rock. The acquisition was completed as an attempt to bring Simon's Rock out of the major financial struggle it was experiencing. At the time that Simon's Rock was looking for a school to acquire it, some of the possible schools included Boston University and Yale University. The Bard acquisition took about one month from start to finish. This made Leon Botstein, the president of Bard, the ex officio president of Simon's Rock, and he still holds both offices today.

In 1981, with the help of various donors, Simon's Rock purchased the 75-acre Upper Campus, a former seminary three quarters of a mile uphill from the original Simon's Rock campus. This added a gymnasium, chapel and various forms of housing to Simon's Rock's assets.

In 1989, an arts and humanities building was built directly across Alford Road, near the college's other arts buildings. In the same year, the student union was established in the lower level of the dining hall.

In 1993, the then-unused chapel from upper campus was relocated to the main part of campus and renovated, becoming the college's music building. That same year, a number of the campus's arts and dormitory buildings were also renovated.

Since then, many buildings have been built or renovated. These include the Fisher Science and Academic Center (completed 1998), the Kilpatrick Athletic Center (completed 1999), the Daniel Arts Center (completed 2005), an apartment-like dormitory for upperclassmen (Pibly House, completed 2000), the Livingston Hall Student Union (completed 2006), and others.

Simon's Rock became the first US college to officially recognize International Workers' Day in 2000.

On April 11 2006, part of Carriage House, a residence in upper campus, burned in an electrical fire in the early morning. No one was hurt in the incident, but some student possessions were partially or entirely destroyed. The residence is not currently in use, and its future is unclear.

[edit] 1992 shooting

Main article: Wayne Lo

In December of 1992, Simon's Rock student Wayne Lo shot four students, one professor, and one security guard at the college, killing student Galen Gibson and faculty member Nacunan Saez. This school shooting led to a major upheaval in the college community, including lawsuits against the college for failing to prevent it: the college administration knew that Lo possessed ammunition. The incident led Gibson's father, Gregory Gibson to write the nonfiction book Gone Boy (ISBN 1-56836-292-7) about his experiences before and after the incident, including conflict with the college administration.

[edit] Academics

Faculty at Bard College at Simon's Rock are primarily appointed to one of the following four academic divisions: the Division of the Arts, the Division of Languages and Literature, the Division of Science, Mathematics and Computing, and the Division of Social Studies. Students may also hold one of several concentrations available under Interdivisonal Studies. [1] Over 40 distinct concentrations are available, including art history, Asian studies, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and theater. The school offers study abroad and independent study opportunities, as well as a 3/2 dual-degree program with Columbia University for those who wish to pursue engineering. Similar programs are available with Dartmouth College and Washington University in St. Louis. Students are encouraged to broaden their academic horizons by studying abroad such as spending a semester at Lincoln College, Oxford, or at other institutions during their time as a Simon's Rock enrollee.

While some students receive A.A. degrees after two years and transfer to other institutions, others successfully apply for and advance to the Upper College at Simon's Rock and pursue a B.A. degree. [2]Those who wish to remain eligible for a bachelor's degree must complete senior theses, which become professionally printed, archived, and remain available to the public in the Alumni Library.

Classes are discussion-oriented, with lecture based offerings largely limited to the sciences. The system is predicated on the idea that the students bring as much value to the class as the professors. In fact, orientation for incoming students is a mandatory weeklong writing and thinking workshop, designed to readjust students to pedagogical, cooperative bidirectional learning.

It is a school policy that teachers are referred to on a first-name basis. For example, students don't refer to the former dean as "Dr. Bernard Rodgers," but instead call him "Bernie."

There are only about 400 students, resulting in a very low student-to-faculty ratio. Class sizes do not exceed 30 students, but usually have no more than 15, and average around 12. It is not unheard of for a class at Simon's Rock to have as few as three students.

[edit] Student life

[edit] Athletics

The llama is the mascot of Bard College at Simon's Rock. This is due to the proximity of the college soccer fields to Seekonk Veterinary Hospital, a veterinary clinic that, at one time, had a llama pasture. Interscholastic sports offered at the school include soccer, basketball, and swimming (the "Swimming Llamas").

All students at Simon's Rock are required to fulfill athletic requirements through the "Recreational Athletic Program."[3] RAP courses include traditional gym classes, such as fencing, martial arts, swimming lessons, weight training, and so on, but extend to things like bowling, dodgeball, hackeysack, and scuba diving.

[edit] Student clubs and organizations

Since the majority of students at Simon's Rock only attend for two years, student clubs rarely last very long. Some clubs active as of the fall semester of 2007 include:

  • Anime Club
  • Dance Company
  • Women's Center
  • Free Trial (a cappella group)
  • QueerSA (queer-straight alliance)
  • Language Club
  • The Llama Ledger (newspaper)
  • Women in the Sciences
  • Politics Society
  • Environmentally Conscious Students
  • Model United Nations
  • International Students Club
  • Bible Study
  • Black Student Union
  • Race Task Force
  • Latino Student Alliance
  • Owl's Nest Coalition
  • Amnesty International
  • Yearbook Committee
  • Inadequacy Club

[edit] Housing

The vast majority of students at Simon's Rock live on-campus, and all students (except those with local families) are required to live on-campus during their first three years.

Eight dormitories are currently used to house students. Three of these are predominantly for first-year students, while the others are for other classes:

  • Crosby House is a women's dormitory, mainly for first-years
  • Dolliver House is a men's dormitory, mainly for first-years
  • Kendrick House is a coeducational dormitory, also mainly for first-years
  • Hill House is a coeducational dormitory for sophomores, juniors and seniors, and in exceptional cases, first-years
  • Foster Houses (colloquially known as "The Mods") is a set of 12 townhouses, each built to house four non-first-year students
  • Orchard Houses can each house five to seven non-first-years. Of the three that were built, two currently house staff members and their families, while one still houses students of both sexes.
  • Pibly House is a coeducational dormitory, consisting of eight two- or three-bedroom apartments for juniors and seniors
  • The Cottage was used as coeducational housing during the 2007-2008 scholastic year for three upper-class students. Whether it will continue to be used for student housing is unknown. Before 2007, it was mainly used for staff members.

Both Pibly House and The Cottage are on Upper Campus, a portion of the campus that is about 3/4 mile from the main section of the campus. Other buildings on Upper Campus include the provost's house, the Annex (a small building that houses staff), and the remaining, damaged portion of Carriage House, an indefinitely closed dormitory which sustained damage from an electrical fire in 2006.

[edit] Notable alumni and faculty

[edit] Alumni

[edit] Faculty

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Smith, Jenn. "Simon's Rock to change its name", The Berkshire Eagle, Dec. 6, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-06. 

[edit] External links