Campus Life

Photo by Karl Rabe

Campus Life

Bard provides a beautiful setting in which students pursue their academic interests and craft a rich cultural and social life.

From its historic Hudson Valley setting to its state-of-the-art science and arts facilities, the College offers an idyllic environment where students can enjoy a rich social life interwoven with their cultural and intellectual pursuits. 

Explore Campus Life

About the Bard Farm Civic Engagement
Get Involved at Bard Athletics and Recreation
Bard Houses The Arts at Bard
About our Campus
Bard’s campus covers approximately 1,200 acres of fields and forested land bordering the Hudson River in New York State, and features such state-of-the-art facilities as the Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation, Center for Experimental Humanities at New Annandale House, and Frank Gehry–designed Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. The campus is a center from which students explore the rich natural and cultural life of the Hudson Valley and also have access by car or train to New York City, about 90 miles to the south.
Campus Map

About the Bard Farm

Student run. Community centered. We have 1,000 acres and a working farm that provides sustainably grown produce to the campus community through our dining service provider and a seasonal farm stand. Our farm is a working demonstration of Bard’s commitment to sustainability and climate solutions. 

Visit the Bard Farm

Civic Engagement

Civic engagement is at the core of Bard’s identity as a private institution that acts in the public interest. Bard envisions a unique role for colleges and universities at the nexus of education and civil society. In its endeavors in the United States and abroad, Bard reflects a commitment to innovation, a willingness to take risks, and a fundamental belief in the link between liberal education and democracy. 

Visit Bard CCE

Get Involved at Bard

Bard provides students with a wide range of activities and opportunities to engage in challenging and rewarding ways with peers, the community, and the world at large. It also provides a support system of advisers, tutors, counselors, and related programs to help students successfully navigate their undergraduate experience.

Learn More About Campus Activities

Athletics and Recreation

The Department of Athletics and Recreation offers a variety of programs to meet the needs of students, staff, and community members, ranging from intercollegiate competition to instructional classes and weight training. The College sponsors 18 varsity intercollegiate athletic teams, with men’s and women’s teams in soccer, cross-country, volleyball, swimming, squash, tennis, track and field, and basketball, as well as baseball and women’s lacrosse. 

Explore Bard Athletics

Bard Houses

Bard Houses provide students with support, intellectual and social connections, and the opportunity to meet with faculty outside of the classroom from the moment they arrive at Bard. All entering students are assigned to one of five “houses” (communities, rather than buildings), each named for a distinguished alumnus/a or friend of the College and led by house professors who organize events—within and across communities—that emphasize informal interactions in faculty homes and in common meeting spaces around campus.

Learn More About the Bard Houses

The Arts at Bard

Whatever your interest—dance, music, film, studio arts, theater—our academic programs and state-of-the-art studio and performance spaces offer students a host of opportunities to engage in the arts.

Explore the Division of Arts
Inclusive Excellence at Bard
First Gen Senior Reception, 2023. Photo by Joseph Nartey ’26

Inclusive Excellence at Bard

We embrace plurality, respect divergent viewpoints, and are committed to understanding the rich spectrum of experiences that comprise our community. Inclusive Excellence at Bard seeks to materialize our commitment to plurality, dialogue, and rigorous study. We strive to create a learning environment that upholds the College’s mission to meaningfully include the voices, works, and ideas of communities and cultures historically marginalized in liberal arts and sciences education.

Shaping the World

  • We have an incredible array of options and opportunities for students to get involved, a vibrant campus life that invites students to be ambitious and to enjoy the power and thrill of discovering how very large the world is and how capable they are of shaping it. 
    —David Shein, Dean of Studies
  • How Students Get Involved