Commencement Season Across the Bard Global Network

This paper, which is part essay and part memoir, provides a series of snapshots from the 2024 commencement season across Bard’s global network, roughly a four-week period from the middle of May to the middle of June 2024. While the commencements described here occurred during a relatively short period of time, the very fact that so many students were able to graduate is the result of years of work in response to the tumult that occurred around the globe during the four years since most graduating seniors entered university in the fall of 2020. The past several years have been characterized by developments that severely disrupted students’ education, forced faculty to flee, and/or pushed institutions into in exile. The developments include: the coup in Myanmar in February 2021; the Russian Federation’s declaration of Bard as an “undesirable organization” and “enemy of the constitutional order” in June 2021; the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021; and Russia’s massive escalation and invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The response of the Bard and Open Society University Networks has been to work with students, faculty, and institutions to ensure that the educational process can continue despite the hardship and disruption produced by the cascade of conflict, violence, and displacement. The past weeks of commencement exercises have vividly demonstrated the unimaginable determination of students and faculty to preserve in learning and teaching, and the remarkable resilience of institutions that have often been targeted by governments who reject core principles of higher education—critical thinking and the production and dissemination of knowledge—precisely because they challenge authoritarianism.

Our approach begins with a basic question: What can academic institutions do together that we cannot do alone? Our experience shows that when academic institutions across the globe bring a commitment to work together, take risks, and act, they can support displaced students, threatened scholars, and institutions under assault. For Bard, it has meant that we have lived up to our mission to bring “rigorous liberal arts and sciences education to communities in which it has been underdeveloped, inaccessible, or absent.” The foundational belief undergirding this mission statement, and realized over decades of work with other threatened and refugee populations, is the conviction that institutions of higher education have a fundamental responsibility to engage in this work. In the context of growing instability around the world and further projected increases in displaced populations, we must learn from our current efforts and be prepared to do more.

May 18, Bard College Berlin
Bard College Berlin’s commencement ceremony marked the institution’s 25th year by honoring graduates from across the globe, including nine students from their Program for International Education and Social Change (PIESC), which enrolls nearly 50 students from areas of crisis and conflict, including Afghanistan, Yemen, Nigeria, Ukraine, Syria, Palestine, and Pakistan. Two of the PIESC graduates in Berlin were finalists for Rhodes Scholarships (following in the footsteps of the previous year’s PIESC student from Syria, who won a Rhodes, and in addition to an Afghan student from Bard Annandale). This rare achievement is worth noting because too many educational leaders reject the possibility or are tepid in their advocacy for displaced students out of a misplaced notion that such students do not reflect the academic “excellence” that they and their institutions purport to represent. Bard has rejected this unfounded conceit. We have viewed our engagements with displaced students not as an act of charity, but as a part of our commitment to education, based on the steadfast belief that the presence of displaced students in the classroom enhances the education of all of our students both within and outside of the classroom.

 Aisha Kurram, a Bard College Berlin graduate from Afghanistan, embodies this understanding, distinguishing herself not simply within the classroom but though a civic engagement project she leads. Her project, “Education Cannot Wait,” uses online teaching to prepare Afghan women for university-level courses, including courses offered through Bard’s Global Classroom. In recognition of Aisha’s work, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees selected her to represent refugee students from around the world by serving as the only student speaker at the opening plenary of the quadrennial Global Refugee Forum in December 2023. Appearing immediately after UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, Aisha advocated for efforts to continue providing education for Afghan women. As she said, “Education is as necessary as food and water. We are living in an age of conflicts, disasters, and crises where, every two seconds, someone is forced to flee their home. Higher education is an essential pathway for refugees and people in war-stricken countries, especially young women, to reclaim their agency and stability.” And she is not alone in her efforts: This year, nearly 50 Afghan student leaders from Bard and OSUN-affiliated institutions are involved in civic engagement projects that offer education to nearly 5,000 students, mainly women, who remain in Afghanistan or who are refugees in third countries.

May 25, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
May 25 marked the graduation of 58 displaced Afghan students at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Many of the Afghan students came via Bard’s partners the American University of Central Asia (AUCA) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF). After the fall of Kabul, Bard teamed with AUCA, AUAF, and the Open Society Foundations to help nearly 200 students, mostly women, navigate their way from Kabul to Bishkek so they could to continue their education. Many of these students ultimately ended up in Bard College Annandale, Bard College Berlin, and Bard College at Simon’s Rock.
 
A special event marking the students’ achievements took place the morning of Bard’s Commencement, featuring an array of speakers, including graduating students, Bard President Leon Botstein, and representatives of the US Embassy for Afghanistan (currently situated in Doha), Education Above All, and the Afghan Future Fund.

The event concluded with the launch of a book, Our Journey to Bard, in which many of the 125 displaced students from Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Russia who have studied at Bard’s main campus in Annandale-on- Hudson recount their stories and discuss the importance of education. As the editor of the book, AUCA and Bard alumna and Bard/OSUN employee, Zarlasht Sarmast so eloquently put it at the launch:Later in the day, during the main Bard Commencement ceremony, 32 Afghan graduates from AUCA received a resounding ovation as a testament to their commitment and determination. These students, affectionately known as the “night owls,” completed their education in part by taking classes late into the night after moving to Bard’s Annandale-on-Hudson campus from Kyrgyzstan, choosing to prioritize their education and experience life on an American campus as an important step in their transition to citizenship.

 During the Bard Commencement ceremony, Dr. Imad Abu-Kishek, President of Al-Quds University, was awarded an honorary degree, perhaps the only Palestinian to receive such an honor in the United States this graduation season. Bard’s recognition of Dr. Abu-Kishek coincided with the 15th year of operations of the unique dual-degree partnership between Bard College and Al-Quds University: the Al-Quds Bard College of Arts and Sciences, which since its inception has graduated thousands of Palestinian students from its undergraduate liberal arts and sciences program and its Master of Arts in Teaching program. The moment was particularly poignant because the in-person graduation for students at Al-Quds Bard, which was scheduled for October 10, 2023, on the Al-Quds campus had to be cancelled due to the ongoing violence throughout the region following the events of October 7.

The day before Bard Commencement, President Abu-Kishek and Bard President Leon Botstein signed a memorandum of understanding to launch a Bard High School Early College in Abu-Dis, Palestine. This new high school early college, which builds on Bard’s 20+ years successfully operating public high school early colleges in the United States, will work particularly closely with the Master of Arts in Teaching program, whose nearly 600 graduates occupy leadership positions and teach tens of thousands of students each year in Jerusalem and across the West Bank.


June 1, American University of Central Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
At the graduation ceremony at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, nearly 300 students graduated, including 51 Afghans, of whom 19 were still in Bishkek (the rest had moved to the United States, and participated in the Commencement ceremony in at Bard Annandale). An additional 150 Afghan students, many from the American University of Afghanistan, remain enrolled at AUCA, down from the 350 a year before, with others hoping to complete their education online or in person in the United States.


 At the AUCA Commencement ceremony, 32 graduates also received OSUN academic certificates, micro-credentials focusing on global challenges and themes related to open society, from sustainability to human rights to economic inequality. The OSUN certificates build on the Global Classroom program, through which nearly 8,000 students at OSUN partner institutions around the globe—many of them displaced students, students from institutions in exile, and students in the OSUN Hubs for Connected Learning that support students in refugee camps in Kenya and Bangladesh—took courses this academic year. In all, more than 300 students across OSUN have received certificates and/or are enrolled in certificate programs.


June 4, Parami University, Chiang Mai, Thailand
The first graduating class of Parami University received their associate’s degrees in Thailand, near the Myanmar border. Parami began in 2017 as an in-person post-baccalaureate program in Myanmar. The university’s leadership had planned to make the transition to a BA program until the coup of 2021, which left education throughout Myanmar in tatters. But the leadership of Myanmar, some of whom were forced into exile, remained unbowed, and Parami was reimagined as an online program, with learning hubs in Myanmar and Thailand, first for an associate’s degree and then for a bachelor’s. In all, 26 of the 43 graduates attended Parami University’s inaugural Commencement ceremony in person, with the rest participating virtually from Myanmar. The vast majority of the graduating class will enroll in Parami’s BA program next academic year. This summer, with the support of Bard, 10 Parami students will pursue internships in Washington, DC, living with American host families and developing professional skills from globally-minded organizations and mentors. Parami president (and Bard College at Simon’s Rock alumnus) Kyaw Moe Tun is overseeing the institution from Bard’s campus in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, where he has been in exile since 2021.
 
Reflection
Four years ago, we could not imagine what would take place. Liberal arts and sciences education has become the target of authoritarians across the globe, whether in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Russia, or Florida, destroying institutions and displacing students and faculty. The vignettes discussed above in no way offer a complete accounting of Bard and OSUN’s activities in support of students and institutions in crisis and conflict, even during a short commencement season. Bard and OSUN have tried to step in where we can, and these vignettes discussed above capture only part of what we have been able to achieve. There are other developments worth noting:

• As I write this on June 8, I am attending a conference in Berlin on the uses and abuses of propaganda, particularly in contemporary Russia, hosted by Smolny Beyond Borders (SBB), Bard College Berlin, and Humboldt University. SBB is a project that uses technology and online learning to keep alive the embers of liberal education in Russia, after the evisceration of Bard’s unique and longstanding dual-degree program at Smolny College following the expulsion of Bard from Russia in 2021. SBB educated more than 1,000 students this year in credit-bearing classes, and hopes to emulate Parami’s success with degree-granting programs in the future. Many of the participants in the conference are former faculty and students of Smolny, and students of SBB, carrying on a Bard tradition going back to the 1990s of holding international conferences on issues of public importance.
• On June 11, nearly 40 students will graduate from the American University of Afghanistan, which is currently in exile in Doha after students, faculty, staff, and administrators fled Kabul and had their campus taken over by the Taliban in 2021. Many graduates will enroll in graduate programs at AUCA as they await their opportunity to move to the United States.
• Back on May 16, Bard Senior Fellow Masha Gessen gave a stirring speech at the alternative commencement for students from New College Florida, a public liberal arts institution dismantled by a governor and trustees openly inspired by the work of Hungarian strongman Victor Orban who, among other things, kicked the Central European University out of Hungary. What Gessen said to the students so poignantly could apply as much to Russia or Afghanistan or Myanmar as it could to Florida: “You learned that institutions are fragile and this includes institutions that shape our lives. As faculty left and the curriculum changed and classes got bigger, you learned that autocratic politics has a dumbing-down effect: the ideas and aesthetics of autocracy are always mediocre. And ... most politically damaging: you learned that you can’t trust the state to provide you with the best possible education ... These people hate education as you and I understand it: learning to think critically and reason originally.”
• Throughout May and June, commencements are also taking during place at Bard Prison Initiative sites at the Green Haven, Woodbourne, and Albion correctional facilities in New York State and at Bard High School Early Colleges in New York, Newark, Baltimore, Cleveland, New Orleans, and Washington DC, fulfilling the same mission to make rigorous liberal arts and sciences education accessible to underserved communities.

Why?
Students often ask me why Bard has been so engaged with these projects. In my speeches at the special ceremony for Afghan students in Annandale-on-Hudson and the Parami graduation, I tried to answer this question:

• We do this because we reject cynicism and we want people to believe that institutions, including private colleges and universities, can operate in the public interest
• We do this because Bard has a long history of reaching out to the displaced, be it faculty fleeing Europe during WWII, students leaving Hungary after the Soviet invasion in 1956, dissidents departing Eastern Europe in the 1980s, or students fleeing Syria in the 2010s.
• We do this because students and faculty who are displaced enrich the learning for all of our students, who benefit from their presence in the classroom, including their unique insights into contemporary global challenges, whether in-person and or in our global classroom.
• We do this because we want to believe in a better future for Afghanistan, Myanmar, Ukraine, and Russia, as well as for ourselves and for the world, and because students who have demonstrated incredible tenacity to continue their education under the most adverse of circumstances, represent that hope.

I and my colleagues across the globe are proud of what we have helped displaced students and scholars accomplish, but more importantly we are inspired by the tenacity of our students and faculty, who embody an unshakable commitment to the values of liberal education. Even so, we remain saddened by the fact that so many are separated from their families and loved ones, and by the knowledge that so many displaced students still do not have access to education. We hope the glimpses I have described here will provide some hope and inspiration to others.

This work was only possible with the support of faculty and administrators spread across the globe, the institutional support of our partners in the Bard and Open Society University Networks, and the generosity of individual donors, governments, and foundations, particularly the Open Society Foundations and Education Above All. We are thankful for the support of the Advisory Board of Bard’s Center for Civic Engagement, and to the Bard’s Board of Trustees for its steadfast support of these efforts and of Bard’s broader mission as a private institution acting in the public interest. We only wish that more academic institutions would step forward to help achieve the UNHCR goal of 15 percent enrollment of refugees in higher education by 2030.

As we look to the future, we have confidence that the talented students with whom we have been so fortunate to meet, teach, and engage will carry this work onward, as will their teachers. As Masooma Hassan Zada, an Afghan student who graduated from Bard with an MS in Economic Theory and Policy, said in her speech back at Bard, “Education is about transforming lives. Let us carry the torch of education and continue to advocate for those who are still fighting for their right to learn.”

—Jonathan Becker, June 2024
Jonathan Becker is executive vice president and vice president for academic affairs at Bard College, and vice chancellor of the Open Society University Network (jbecker@bard.edu).
 

Post Date: 06-14-2024