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May 2025 News for Bard Families & Friends |
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Senior Project Submission Day, April 30, 2025. Photo Credit Danni Chen '26 |
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Dear Families,
Congratulations to families with students who submitted their senior project on April 30 (captured in the photo above)! Did you know that you can search Bard senior projects online? If you are curious, click here to access the senior project archives.
Election@Bard members were present at senior project submission day to encourage their fellow Bardians to continue to be agents of change as they move out into the world. Help us remind graduating students to register to vote wherever they settle after graduation!
Bard celebrated its student athletes at the Athletics Awards Banquet on May 6. Students, coaches, faculty, and staff gathered in the Stevenson Athletic Center to enjoy a catered dinner and reflect on all that student athletes accomplished over the course of this academic year.
The College offered free sessions with professional photographers for graduating senior portraits earlier this week. You will be able to download digital copies for free and order prints for purchase from this page on our website when the photos are ready.
Does your student need assistance moving out of their residence hall? The Office of Residence Life and Housing has all the information your student needs to know as they prepare to move out of their room. Visit the website to review important move out dates and helpful resources, including details about Dorm Room Movers.
As a reminder, the full schedule for commencement is available online along with an FAQs page. Registration is now closed. Please take note of the important information below and direct questions to the Events Office at [email protected].
- The barbecue following commencement is free for graduating students, but they need to be registered for commencement in advance to receive their complimentary barbecue ticket. They will be prompted to register themselves closer to commencement.
- The commencement tent opens at 1:00pm and the procession begins at 2:30pm.
- Commencement tent seating is offered on a first-come, first-served basis.
- To provide the most enjoyable experience for all of our guests, we request limiting each party to 6.
- Please bring your favorite reusable bottles to the ceremony. Bard is reducing the use of plastic bottled water on campus. Bottle-filling stations will offer water refills around the perimeter of the commencement tent.
- Please keep in mind that the weather in the Hudson Valley can vary and change quickly over the course of a single day. We ask that you plan accordingly.
- Parking is limited and guests should plan to park their cars in one of the designated parking areas for the duration of the day and either walk or take one of the shuttle buses to the commencement tent.
- The ceremony will be live streamed.
Also for those attending commencement, Stark Blooms Flower Truck will be on campus on graduation day, Saturday, May 24 from Noon to 5pm. Flowers sell out quickly so consider placing an order for a bouquet now and collecting it at the truck on May 24. To place your order today, click here.
We welcome gifts to the College from all Bard families and, at this time of year, we encourage families to give to the College in honor of their student or someone (staff or faculty) who has helped their student thrive at Bard over the course of the academic year. Please use this link to give today and be sure to add a note indicating who your gift is honoring. Every donation makes a difference!
My Best,
Mackie Siebens ’12
Assistant Director of Development, Family Programs
845-758-7316
[email protected]
P.S. In case you missed it, this article was published in the New York Times in April by columnist and former Bard faculty member M. Gessen. Responding to the difficulties facing higher education, Gessen cites Bard’s successful efforts to expand access to liberal arts education as a model worth emulating by other colleges and universities.
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Dates to Remember
For the full 2024–2025 academic calendar, click here.
- Thursday, May 8, 2025 | Registration for Fall Classes Opens at 8 a.m.
- Wednesday, May 14, 2025 – Tuesday, May 20, 2025 | Completion Days—Regular Classes and Final Exams: All students and faculty remain on campus
- Tuesday, May 20, 2025 | Last Day of Spring Classes
- Thursday, May 22, 2025 | Baccalaureate Service and Senior Dinner
- Saturday, May 24, 2025 | Commencement
To view the full 2025–2026 academic calendar, click here. |
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Family Leadership Council
Members of the Family Leadership Council (FLC) play a leadership role in the Bard community through a range of activities. FLC members develop and participate in on-campus and regional recruiting and mentoring events, promote and provide career opportunities for students, and participate in peer-to-peer fundraising. Parents on the FLC play a role in the success of the Bard College Fund through annual gifts. The Family Leadership Council meets twice each year: once during Family Weekend in the fall and once in the spring. These meetings are open so all Bard families are welcome to attend.
Interested in joining or have questions? Contact Mackie Siebens '12, Assistant Director of Development for Family Programs, at [email protected] or 845-758-7316. |
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Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis. Photo by Josué Azor (for Pierre-Louis)
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Bard College Holds One Hundred Sixty-Fifth Commencement on Saturday, May 24, 2025
Former Prime Minister of Haiti Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis will give the 2025 Commencement address. Bard President Leon Botstein will confer 485 undergraduate degrees on the Class of 2025, 192 graduate degrees, and 53 associate degrees from its microcolleges. The program will begin at 2:30 pm in the commencement tent on the Seth Goldfine Memorial Rugby Field.
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Samantha Barrett ’26.
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Bard College Student Samantha Barrett ’26 Wins 2025 PEN/Robert J Dau Short Story Prize
Written arts major Samantha Barrett ’26 has won the 2025 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers for her story “Invert.” This award recognizes 12 emerging writers each year for their debut short story published in a literary magazine, journal, or cultural website, and aims to support the launch of their careers as fiction writers. Each winner receives a $2,000 cash prize and is published by Catapult in their annual anthology, Best Debut Short Stories: The PEN America Dau Prize.
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Sonita Alizadeh ’23 Named 2025 Cannes LionHeart
Sonita Alizadeh ’23, Bard College alumna and human rights activist, has been announced as the 2025 Cannes LionHeart by the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The honor is awarded to a recipient who harnesses their position to make a positive difference to the world, and Alizadeh has used her platforms as the first professional Afghan rapper, an activist, and an author to fight child marriage and gender injustice and be a global voice for women’s rights.
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Assistant Professor of Classics Robert Cioffi.
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Robert Cioffi Reviews The Red Sea Scrolls for the London Review of Books
Robert Cioffi reviewed The Red Sea Scrolls: How Ancient Papyri Reveal the Secrets of the Pyramids by Pierre Tallet and Mark Lehner for the London Review of Books. The book explores the papyri of Wadi el-Jarf, written between 2607 and 2605 BCE, which Cioffi says are "a first-hand account of the men who built the Great Pyramid of Giza.” Thanks to the papyri, “For the first time in 4500 years, Khufu’s pyramid has its voices again: not of priests or pharaohs but of the men who made it possible.”
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Visiting Artist In Residence Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo. Photo by Soph Rocha
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Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo Named a Wynn Newhouse Award Winner
Visiting Artist In Residence Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo was named one of the Wynn Newhouse Award winners for 2024. The award is a one-time grant to exceptional fine artists with disabilities, acknowledging their merit and giving them funding with no strings attached. “Through performance, painting, installation building, printmaking, interdisciplinary processes and cultural work, I strive to re-create and re-tell my personal tales and those of the people that surround me,” Branfman-Verissimo says.
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April Supporters
Thank you to Bard families and friends who supported Bard in April. We are grateful for your generosity to the College! #donorsmakedegreespossible
Anonymous (2) • Bruce E. Watson and Julie A. Kumble • Jim C. Chambers '81 and Nabila Khashoggi • Tomas Wise • Daniel Kotlowitz and Kathleen Cunneen • Christian Kelly and Jennifer Kelly • Kimberly L. Haas • Bonnie T. Goad and Daniel Donohue • Jane A. Brien '89 and Stewart Verrilli • Judith Joa • James Sottile and Noell H. Sottile • Geraldine Brodsky • John Canney • Paula Feinstein and Bob Feinstein • Judith Feldman • Clive A. Spagnoli '86 and Theresa Dimasi • Stephen Berman and Monica Von Thun Calderón • Frank Komola • Michael Sauder and Jean M. Littlejohn • Jason Malinowski and Jennifer Malinowski • Peggy Lubman '80 and Bruce Lubman • Robert Mielarczyk and Janice Mielarczyk and Rob Mielarczyk • Michael H. Steger and Anya Steger • Rich E. Collins and Becky A. Collins • Kit Boyatt and Linda Riefler • Gregory Fields and Rozanna Leo Fields • Richard Dower and Laura E. Dower • Dan Junkins and Minette Junkins • Jim Etkin and Kim Larsen • Andrew S. Szegedy-Maszak and Elizabeth A. Bobrick • Dale F. Sorenson and Heidi C. Sorenson • Richard Narramore and Kathryn Narramore • Monica Hausner • Joanne T. Stern • Bert Glassberg • Peter W. Greenwald and Gail M. Newman • Joel Shirasu-Hiza and Mimi Shirasu-Hiza • Maryanne Peters • Shael Oswal • Jason Lannert and Suzanne Pelletier • Tri C. Nguyen and Maura C. Ryan • Jessica M. Payne • David W. Jacobowitz '65 and Linda Rodd • Sydney Tarzwell • Nancy H. Marshall • Don Hurowitz '65 and Elizabeth Hurowitz • Jason T. Robison and Anne S. Robison • Jamie J. O'Donnell and Sarah Y. O'Donnell • Phillip Henderson and Elizabeth Henry • David Gracer '88 • Fei Liu • Amy C. Herman and Seth Herman • Jeffrey and Pat Parks • Amparo Vollert • Eric Simon and Amanda Marsh • Cindy Nardella • Jacaranda Caracciolo Falck • Shelby Davis and Gale Davis • Alan Gilbert • Jane Kim • Risa Mandell • Brett Elliott and Katie Elliott • Taffy S. Miller
To give to Bard today, visit giving.bard.edu/bcf! |
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