Message from Bard's Board of Trustees on Transition and President Botstein's Legacy
To the Bard Community,
In our message of April 30, we committed to updating you promptly on next steps for Bard's leadership transition. We have updates to share.
How the Transition Will Unfold
We have appointed a Transition Committee of five individuals on the Board of Trustees who are deeply engaged in the process and will report to the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees and full Board at regular intervals and for all key decisions. We want to walk you through the road ahead, which has three distinct phases:
· Beginning July 1 — Acting President. We are currently considering candidates from within the Bard community to serve as Acting President beginning July 1. We will soon present those candidates to the full Board, and we expect to announce the Acting President later this month. This will provide immediate, stable and familiar leadership while the next phase of the search gets underway.
· Starting later this summer through approximately 2027 — Interim President. We will simultaneously conduct a search for an Interim President — an experienced leader who will serve for roughly two years. The Interim President will focus on institutional continuity, putting systems in place, and preparing Bard for its next chapter. To support this process, we expect to engage a search firm in the coming week with deep expertise in higher education.
· Beginning in 2027, for a 2028 start — Permanent President. During the Interim President's tenure, we will launch a formal search for Bard's next permanent president, with the goal of that individual taking office in 2028. A dedicated search committee will be formed with broad stakeholder representation including students, faculty, staff, and alumni/ae, to guide that process. The Board will determine the appropriate search support for that effort as the time approaches.
We recognize this is a lot of change in a short period of time. We also believe that moving thoughtfully and in stages — rather than rushing a single consequential decision — will serve Bard well for decades to come. We will continue to keep you informed at each milestone.
A Note on President Botstein's Legacy
This transition follows the long tenure of an extraordinary president. As members of the Board of Trustees, we wish to substantiate and amplify the brief acknowledgment in our April 30 message of President Leon Botstein's leadership over more than half a century. President Botstein has inspired, built, and fiercely defended what became, on his watch, arguably the most distinctive liberal arts college in our nation committed to serving the public good — and whose campus today includes architecturally significant buildings by Frank Gehry, Maya Lin, and other world-renowned artists and architects that stand as a testament to his vision.
All that President Botstein has accomplished has been done with Bard's wonderful faculty, staff, and students, who have shared, innovated, and implemented new ideas to advance the mission of the institution. Bard High School Early Colleges have enlarged the opportunities available to talented high school students in under-resourced communities across the country. The Bard Prison Initiative has made a liberal arts education available to incarcerated learners hungry for meaning and hope in their lives. Bard's superb music programs, its internationally recognized Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, and its Center for Curatorial Studies offer unparalleled interdisciplinary education in the arts. Bard College Berlin and Bard's international programs offer such an education across the world to students from places where access to a liberal arts education is otherwise unavailable or suppressed. On Bard's home campus, the commitment to academic excellence and a rigorous curriculum — from the arts to the experimental sciences — stand out in today's higher education landscape of few requirements and inflated grades.
Starting decades ago with limited resources, President Botstein led Bard toward all these achievements. Over time, his tireless fundraising allowed the institution to reach more communities and students with financial need. Recently, aided by a generous match from the Open Society Foundations, he completed a boldly ambitious endowment campaign that goes a long way toward securing Bard's future. We wish to stress that we have never doubted that President Botstein's motive, first and last, has always been to serve the institution.
We respect his decision to retire as President after 51 years and are grateful for his willingness to continue to serve and support the institution that has been his life for 51 of his 80 years.
We wish to express our congratulations and deep thanks to President Botstein — the most transformative leader in the recent history of American higher education.
— The Bard College Board of Trustees
Post Date: 05-11-2026
In our message of April 30, we committed to updating you promptly on next steps for Bard's leadership transition. We have updates to share.
How the Transition Will Unfold
We have appointed a Transition Committee of five individuals on the Board of Trustees who are deeply engaged in the process and will report to the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees and full Board at regular intervals and for all key decisions. We want to walk you through the road ahead, which has three distinct phases:
· Beginning July 1 — Acting President. We are currently considering candidates from within the Bard community to serve as Acting President beginning July 1. We will soon present those candidates to the full Board, and we expect to announce the Acting President later this month. This will provide immediate, stable and familiar leadership while the next phase of the search gets underway.
· Starting later this summer through approximately 2027 — Interim President. We will simultaneously conduct a search for an Interim President — an experienced leader who will serve for roughly two years. The Interim President will focus on institutional continuity, putting systems in place, and preparing Bard for its next chapter. To support this process, we expect to engage a search firm in the coming week with deep expertise in higher education.
· Beginning in 2027, for a 2028 start — Permanent President. During the Interim President's tenure, we will launch a formal search for Bard's next permanent president, with the goal of that individual taking office in 2028. A dedicated search committee will be formed with broad stakeholder representation including students, faculty, staff, and alumni/ae, to guide that process. The Board will determine the appropriate search support for that effort as the time approaches.
We recognize this is a lot of change in a short period of time. We also believe that moving thoughtfully and in stages — rather than rushing a single consequential decision — will serve Bard well for decades to come. We will continue to keep you informed at each milestone.
A Note on President Botstein's Legacy
This transition follows the long tenure of an extraordinary president. As members of the Board of Trustees, we wish to substantiate and amplify the brief acknowledgment in our April 30 message of President Leon Botstein's leadership over more than half a century. President Botstein has inspired, built, and fiercely defended what became, on his watch, arguably the most distinctive liberal arts college in our nation committed to serving the public good — and whose campus today includes architecturally significant buildings by Frank Gehry, Maya Lin, and other world-renowned artists and architects that stand as a testament to his vision.
All that President Botstein has accomplished has been done with Bard's wonderful faculty, staff, and students, who have shared, innovated, and implemented new ideas to advance the mission of the institution. Bard High School Early Colleges have enlarged the opportunities available to talented high school students in under-resourced communities across the country. The Bard Prison Initiative has made a liberal arts education available to incarcerated learners hungry for meaning and hope in their lives. Bard's superb music programs, its internationally recognized Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, and its Center for Curatorial Studies offer unparalleled interdisciplinary education in the arts. Bard College Berlin and Bard's international programs offer such an education across the world to students from places where access to a liberal arts education is otherwise unavailable or suppressed. On Bard's home campus, the commitment to academic excellence and a rigorous curriculum — from the arts to the experimental sciences — stand out in today's higher education landscape of few requirements and inflated grades.
Starting decades ago with limited resources, President Botstein led Bard toward all these achievements. Over time, his tireless fundraising allowed the institution to reach more communities and students with financial need. Recently, aided by a generous match from the Open Society Foundations, he completed a boldly ambitious endowment campaign that goes a long way toward securing Bard's future. We wish to stress that we have never doubted that President Botstein's motive, first and last, has always been to serve the institution.
We respect his decision to retire as President after 51 years and are grateful for his willingness to continue to serve and support the institution that has been his life for 51 of his 80 years.
We wish to express our congratulations and deep thanks to President Botstein — the most transformative leader in the recent history of American higher education.
— The Bard College Board of Trustees
Post Date: 05-11-2026