Catalogue

The Bard College Catalogue contains detailed descriptions of the College’s undergraduate programs and courses, curriculum, admission and financial aid procedures, student activities and services, history, campus facilities, affiliated institutions including graduate programs, and faculty and administration.

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Bard College Catalogue 2024–25

Bard and the Local Community


Bard works to engage students with community partners and to respond to critical issues in local communities, such as food insecurity, sustainability, access to education, and immigration. Through March Match, Bard’s alternative spring break program, students are assigned to CCE-funded mini-internships with local partners based on their skills and interests. Through initiatives like VolunteerCorps, students can volunteer with community partners in the region for a one-time experience or on a consistent basis. These opportunities are created by a student-led team and based on the needs of community partners. 

Bard Debate Union: The Debate Union is a community of students, faculty, and staff committed to promoting civic discourse, dialogue, and debate at Bard, in the local community, and throughout Bard’s national and international networks. Since 2011, Bard debaters have been working with middle and high school students in local school districts to develop and support student debate clubs. In addition to offering individualized coaching support and mentorship at area schools, the Bard Debate Union also hosts a high school debate workshop every fall and a middle/high school debate tournament every spring. These events offer local students the opportunity to improve their debating skills under the guidance of Bard debaters and to debate students from other schools in a fun and inclusive environment.  Learn more at debate.bard.edu.

Brothers@Bard (BAB): Brothers@Bard is a dual-beneficiary, high school–retention and college-persistence organization with the mission of improving the academic and social-emotional outcomes of young men of color in both secondary and postsecondary education. The organization serves as a platform for hope, self-empowerment, and engagement—pressing needs among low-income and underrepresented students in secondary and higher education. The program was created by Bard students in 2014 as a project to foster brotherhood on the Bard campus. It expanded to Kingston, New York, and has since grown into a CCE institutional initiative that is expanding throughout New York State (since its inception, BAB has mentored more than 150 young men of color). All BAB collegians who volunteer for the program receive extensive training prior to becoming mentors. Find out more at cce.bard.edu/community/brothers-at-bard or brothersat.org/bard.

Election@bard: Election@bard represents the College’s efforts to inform students and the greater Bard community about local and national elections, and to help voters register, obtain absentee ballots, determine their correct polling sites, and become familiar with how to mark ballots and use ballot-scanning machines. The website provides links and information about current elected officials; candidates for local, state, and national offices; advocacy sites; a calendar of election-related events; and information on select voter issues. Bard students and staff have also sponsored on-campus Meet the Candidate sessions. Through Election@Bard’s partnership with CCE and the Andrew Goodman Foundation, the team was successful in obtaining an on-campus polling site for the 2020 and 2022 elections.  For details, see cce.bard.edu/community/election. 

La Voz: La Voz is an award-winning, Spanish-language magazine serving the 170,000 Hispanics living in the Hudson Valley. La Voz began as a student-led initiative in 2004 and is currently the only free Spanish-language print publication for the Spanish-speaking communities of the Mid-Hudson and Catskill Mountain regions. La Voz is currently distributed in the following 10 counties: Albany, Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rensselaer, Rockland, Sullivan, and Ulster. Paid student internships are available for writers, translators, and distribution helpers.  Learn more at lavoz.bard.edu.

Red Hook Together: This joint initiative of Bard College and the town and village of Red Hook aims to promote greater community collaboration. Spearheaded by the Center for Civic Engagement, Red Hook Together hosts shared community events including food donation drives, potluck dinners, repair cafés, town-wide e-waste collections, and local festivals. Learn more at cce.bard.edu/community/partners.

Sister2Sister: This mentorship program is dedicated to serving young women of color with the goal of liberating the next generation of young Black leaders. Sister2Sister organizes programming and outreach events in Kingston, New York, using performing arts, crafts, and writing as tools to facilitate conversations and conduct workshops on self-empowerment, college readiness, and career exploration. The program is unique in its purpose and approach to solving inequality and inequity in underrepresented communities as it promotes healing, growth, and unity among young women of color and youth alike. Programming is currently offered in three locations, including the Ulster County Boys & Girls Club and Kingston High School, engaging more than 30 young women of color annually.

West Point–Bard Initiative (WPBI): Founded in 2006, WPBI serves as a model of cooperation and collaboration between a US liberal arts college and a service academy, and provides unique opportunities for students to explore the complexities of civil-military relations in a democracy. Students and faculty from Bard and the United States Military Academy at West Point exchange ideas in the classroom and through public presentations, debates, and extracurricular activities. Initiative efforts also include annual leadership discussions between cadets and Bard’s Women and Leadership class; regular debates on a wide range of public policy issues between the West Point debate team and the Bard Debate Union, including the Bard Prison Initiative debate team at Eastern NY Correctional Facility; and Bard student participation in the annual West Point Student Conference on US Affairs (SCUSA). Both institutions regularly exchange faculty as guest lecturers in counterinsurgency, strategy, military history, and advanced international relations theory, and West Point professors often serve as faculty in Bard’s Globalization and International Affairs program in New York City. In 2023, two new elements of the initiative were established: a connection with the West Point Band, whose musicians gave a public concert at Bard’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts and held master classes for students in the Bard Conservatory; and the Frontiers of Grand Strategy program, a full-day workshop at West Point for Bard students of international affairs and grand strategy.  For more information, visit the WPBI website at cce.bard.edu/community/west-point-bard.

Student-led Projects in the Hudson Valley: Trustee Leader Scholar projects and other undergraduate clubs and initiatives provide a variety of opportunities for students to engage with local issues and address local needs. Specifically, the Education Outreach Fellows (including STEM Outreach Fellows and Bard Math Circle’s MAGPIES program for girls) bring science, technology, engineering, art, and math together by creating experiences and experiments that inspire wonder, spark curiosity, and challenge old ideas. Education Outreach Fellows also serve as tutors in English and math, among other subjects, to students at the elementary and secondary grade levels. CCE has launched a partnership with Red Hook Responds, which coordinates and supports local volunteer efforts to provide tutoring services. Fellows help students bridge the gap between studying in the classroom and exploring the world around them. Another initiative, Bard Music Connects Practice Partners, offers music instruction by Bard-trained student musicians to local kids. The Center for Civic Engagement, Career Development Office, and Bard Professionals of Color Committee also collaborate to support student entrepreneurial work through initiatives such as pitch competitions, student-maker craft fairs, seed awards, and business start-up training.