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October 2025 News for Bard Families & Friends |
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Club Fair, September 2025. Photo Credit: Gaspard Bason '29. |
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Dear Bard Families and Friends,
We’ve enjoyed some exciting events over the last few weeks. In particular, I want to highlight recordings of conversations that took place in September. Erika McEntarfer ’95, former Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, spoke at Bard on The Importance of Official Data in Assessing Economic Conditions in her first public remarks since being dismissed from her role by President Trump. The full recording of the program is now available here.
On Friday, September 19, President Leon Botstein spoke with Bloomberg TV host David Westin about the current threats facing higher education on the latest episode of Wall Street Week. The interview aired as the final segment, closing out the program and cautioning against the government's weaponization of money in issues of censorship and freedom. This program aired on Bloomberg TV and PBS. Watch President Botstein’s interview on Wall Street Week or listen to the podcast.
Turning to October news, registration for BardWorks 2026 (January 20-23, 2026) opened yesterday, October 1, so students are now able to sign up to participate in this fantastic career preparation program. Information about BardWorks 2026 has already reached students but if you would like to learn more, visit the BardWorks website.
Athletics and Recreation has a busy schedule this month. The third annual golf tournament takes place on Friday, October 10 and faculty, staff, and Bard families are invited to a social hour in the instructional classroom in the Stevenson Athletic Center following the tournament and before the Women's Volleyball game at 7pm. Men's Soccer and Women's Volleyball play league games on Saturday, October 11 at 2pm and Baseball has a scrimmage at 11am. All are welcome to enjoy a tailgate that day at 12pm.
The Hannah Arendt Center’s 17th annual fall conference, JOY: Loving the World in Dark Times, will take place from Thursday, October 16 through Friday, October 17. More information can be found here.
We hope that you can join us on campus to experience first-hand all that Bard has to offer during Family and Alumni/ae Weekend: October 24-26, 2025. You will have the opportunity to enjoy sample classes, tours, concerts, athletic events, and more. Sign up to attend by midnight on Friday, October 17. Advance registration is required.
As a reminder, the Bard College Conservatory of Music marks its 20th anniversary with two concerts at Bard Fisher Center’s Sosnoff Theater during Family and Alumni/ae Weekend and a final landmark concert at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center on Wednesday, October 29. These concerts honor two milestones: the founding of the Conservatory of Music in 2005 and Leon Botstein’s 50th year as President of Bard College. For more information about the performances taking place on campus during Family and Alumni/ae Weekend click here, and to purchase tickets for the performance at Lincoln Center click here.
I look forward to connecting with many of you at these October events. Please reach out to me if you have any questions.
Best wishes for a happy and healthy fall,
Mackie Siebens '12
She/Her/Hers
Assistant Director of Development for Family Programs
Office of Development and Alumni/ae Affairs
Bard College
[email protected]
845-758-7316
P.S. In collaboration with Village Apothecary, Bard’s Health Services Team is organizing a second COVID and flu vaccine clinic on Friday, October 24 from 9am-3pm in the gym at the Stevenson Athletic Center. Emails containing more information about this clinic as well as a link to schedule an appointment have already been circulated to students and reminders will follow closer to the clinic date.
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Dates to Remember
To view the full 2025–2026 academic calendar, click here.
Monday, October 13, 2025 – Tuesday, October 14, 2025 | Fall Break
Friday, October 24, 2025 | Midterm Grades and Criteria Sheets Due from faculty
Friday, October 24, 2025 – Sunday, October 26, 2025 | Family and Alumni/ae Weekend
Thursday, November 27, 2025 – Sunday, November 30, 2025 | Thanksgiving Recess (classes end at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, November 26)
Friday, December 5, 2025 | Last Day to Withdraw from a Class
Monday, December 8, 2025 | Senior Projects Due
Wednesday, December 10, 2025 | Advising Day
Thursday, December 11, 2025 | Registration for Spring Classes Opens
Monday, December 15, 2025 – Friday, December 19, 2025 | Completion Days—Regular Classes and Final Exams |
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From Left to Right: Rob, Henry '25, Janice and Walter Mielarczyk. Rob and Janice are Co-Chairs of the Family Leadership Council. |
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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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Bard College President Leon Botstein Featured on Bloomberg TV’s Wall Street Week
Bard College President Leon Botstein speaks with host David Westin about the current threats facing higher education. Drawing on his 50 years of leadership in higher education as the president of Bard College, Botstein offers a broader view on the importance of the university in America and its relationship to government funding. “If America was and is great, one of the sources of its greatness is its university system, its knowledge production, and the connection to the economy,” says Botstein.
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Distinguished Visiting Writer M. Gessen. Still from New York Times Opinion Video
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M. Gessen on New York Times Opinion Video: “Jimmy Kimmel and the Rise of Corporate Censorship”
Drawing comparisons to Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension and the cancellation of the Russian show Куклы (Puppets) in 2002 by Vladimir Putin, M. Gessen, distinguished visiting writer at Bard College, spoke about the power of satire to deflate authoritarian imagery. “That’s the real power of comedians in an autocracy, is that they reduce the tyrant to human size, or even to less than human size,” Gessen says.
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Bohuslav Martinů. Photo courtesy of Bohuslav Martinů Centre, Polička
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2025 Bard Music Festival Featured in the New Yorker
Bard SummerScape’s 2025 Bard Music Festival, a two-week exploration of “Martinů and His World,” was featured in the New Yorker. Martinů is “the kind of figure who profits from Botstein’s summertime festivals, which, for 35 years, have demonstrated how much great music exists outside the standard repertory,” writes Alex Ross. “After days of immersion, I wanted to hear still more.”
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Ian Bostridge.
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Bard College Presents Anthony Hecht Lectures in the Humanities Featuring Singer and Scholar Ian Bostridge
This October, Bard College presents renowned tenor and musical scholar Ian Bostridge delivering the Anthony Hecht Lectures in the Humanities in honor of preeminent poet, alumnus, and former Bard faculty member Anthony Hecht ’44. In his lecture series, “Ancestral Voices Prophesying: Notes on Britten's War Requiem,” Bostridge—who has performed War Requiem nearly a hundred times since 1994—will examine the layers of meaning and context in the piece.
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Jack Ferver.
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Jack Ferver’s Dance Performance My Town Included in a New York Times Roundup
The upcoming dance performance My Town by Assistant Professor of Theater and Performance Jack Ferver was included in a roundup by the New York Times. My Town is a queer reimagining of Thorton Wilder’s play Our Town. The Times describes the performance as “Ferver’s surreal brand of dark humor” that presents “a raw and exacting piece of dance-theater that looks at small-town life, [exploring] a more haunting side of existence.”
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Margaret Hamilton Distinguished Professor of Computer Science Valerie Barr.
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Valerie Barr Publishes an Op-Ed on AI in Communications of the ACM
Professor Valerie Barr wrote an opinion piece about AI and technological adoption in computer science programs for Communications of the ACM. In “Feeling Cranky About AI in CS Education,” Barr explains how during her 30 years of teaching, the field has been eager to adopt new technology quickly. But rather than pursuing the next big thing, she says instructors should think about what their students really need to learn.
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September Supporters
Thank you to Bard families and friends who supported Bard in September. We are grateful for your generosity to the College!
#donorsmakedegreespossible
Anonymous (5) • Pat M. Woodward and Lisa W. Lunt • Alan Winkler and Vicki M. Banner • Bryan L. Proctor and Aimee G. Walters • Liam Harte and Emily B. Todd • Peter Nadin and Anne E. Kennedy • Richard J. Leider and Jane E. Leider • Kimberly L. Haas • Rand Whipple and Anne Dowd • Ilya Levinson and Martine Benmann • Judith Joa • Geraldine Brodsky • Jeffrey S. Shenberger and Diane M. Shenberger • Jennifer C. Dunlop Fletcher '99 and David F. Fletcher • Frank Komola • Jeffrey Gerber and Alisa Peet • Kenji Fujita and Vivian Heller • Amar Gupta and Padmini Gupta • Sam Sternberg • Eugene Kim and Ann Da • Michael R. Mueller and Laura H. Mueller • Harold Rosenthal and Kimberly Schwab • James C. Krieg and Erika A. Krieg • Jp P. Kiernan and Chloe R. Wheatley • Gregory Fields and Rozanna Leo-Fields • Dan Junkins and Minette Junkins • James Wilmerding • Joerg Deerberg and Ellen L. Fisher-Deerberg • Wes P. Callender and Pat P. Davis • Peter W. Greenwald and Gail M. Newman • Dan Salvatore Salvatore • Raymond A. Levites and Tracy H. Levites • David Berntsen • Douglas Jacobs and Tilia K. Jacobs • Emily L. Sunderman • Sarah Norvell • David W. Jacobowitz '65 and Linda Rodd • Ken Rabinowitz and Susan Rabinowitz • Jason T. Robison and Anne S. Robison • Michael Galantich • Aldo Daniel Real Gonzales • Nicholas Ward • Stephen Magro and Sally Bachner • Richard Shanley • David C. Young • Jane Kim • Marty Leandri • John K. Borowicz and Wendy L. Borowicz • Julia M. Hess • David Meikle • Donald E. Carpenter
To give to Bard today, visit giving.bard.edu/bcf. |
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