Health + Safety

Events Registration

All students are encouraged to sponsor on-campus activities.  For each activity, there must be at least two student Event Hosts. Students hosting a campus event must meet with a student intern in the Student Publicity and Activities Resource Center (SPARC), located in the main Student Activities Office (Campus Center, 218).  All campus-wide events (for example, in Kline Commons, Bertelsmann Campus Center, or residence hall social spaces) must be registered in advance following protocols established annually by the Office of Student Activities.
 
Event Hosts are responsible for the set-up, clean-up, and general oversight of their events.  This includes looking out for the safety of event attendees and enforcing college policy as needed.  Event Hosts are not permitted to perform at their own events, which includes acting as a DJ and/or playing in a band.  When appropriate, the Office of Student Activities will send a team of student Event Staff to assist with oversight of large events.  The role of Event Staff is to help the Event Hosts enforce policies and ensure safety of event attendees, but the ultimate responsibility for both of those tasks falls on the registered Event Hosts for the event.  Failure to adhere to Event Host responsibilities will result in disciplinary action that could include loss of Event Host privileges.
 
There are additional responsibilities for the Event Hosts of any event at which alcohol is served. Hosts are responsible for attending an alcohol training workshop run by the Office of Student Activities prior to their event.  They must then abide by all regulations as outlined during the workshop, including provisions for food and nonalcoholic beverages, responsibility for all guests, the appropriate advertisement, and more.  It is illegal to serve alcoholic beverages to underage individuals at any time; the reasonable measures established by the Office of Student Activities must be used to verify age at all events serving alcohol. The intention to serve alcohol at a College event must be stated when the event is registered with the SPARC Interns.  All kegs must be registered and served in approved locations; unregistered kegs will be confiscated.
 
All material posted or distributed on campus (such as flyers, posters, and banners) should include the name of the person or club responsible for the material; unsigned material may be removed.  Materials are to be posted on designated bulletin boards only -- no walls, windows, or doors.  If Safety and Security discovers an unregistered event, they will respond accordingly; hosts responsible for unregistered events may be subject to disciplinary action. Any event may be stopped if Safety and Security judges it to be too disruptive.  Interfering with Safety and Security’s responsibilities in this matter is a breach of campus policies and will jeopardize a host’s ability to sponsor future events and may result in further disciplinary action.
 
In planning an event, no student has the right to bind the College to a contract with an outside vendor (for example, a film distributor or a performer). All contract arrangements must have the approval of the Director or Associate Director of Student Activities.
 
Bard College strongly affirms the right of free speech for each member of the Bard community. This right includes the freedom, through College academic programs and organizations, to invite speakers and representatives of off-campus organizations to the campus as long as the visits do not disrupt the College’s regular academic or administrative functions.
 
As an independent academic institution, Bard College is under no obligation to make its facilities or services available to or act as the agent for off-campus organizations, whether private organizations or agencies of government.