An Ecosystem of Engagement

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Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 11, Number 1

Bard College: An Ecosystem of Engagement

ABSTRACT

Despite its moderate size and rural location, Bard’s civic engagement efforts resonate locally, nationally, and internationally, and have significant public policy impacts. Bard has achieved success by making engagement central to its institutional mission, viewing liberal arts and sciences education as both a means and an end of civic engagement efforts, and forging an “ecosystem of engagement” that encourages organizational engineers, links student-led and institutional initiatives, and unites a network of partners across the globe. Keywords: liberal arts, liberal education, early college, institutional engagement, civic engagement, international partnerships

Bard College identifies itself as “a forts; (2) Bard’s success in creating an private institution in the public interest.” “ecosystem of engagement” that has shaped Having spent most of its 160-year history as the institution’s main campus in Annandale a small institution, first as a preparatory col- -on-Hudson, New York, and Bard’s net- lege for the Episcopal church and then as an work of affiliates and partners across the institution emphasizing the arts and human- globe; and (3) the virtuous circle that links ities, it has grown into a vibrant liberal arts student engagement and institutional en- and sciences institution enrolling more than gagement. 6,000 students annually in degree programs Bard’s “ecosystem of engagement” across the United States and the world. is worth examining because it provides les- What is unique about Bard is that its leader- sons for other higher education institutions. ship has not simply paid lip service to the It demonstrates that with determination, for- link between education and civic engage- titude, and a willingness to tolerate risk, a ment and shunted engagement activities to a rural, primarily undergraduate institution few isolated offices (Musil, 2003; Battis- can be civically engaged in meaningful toni, Longo, & Jayanandhan, 2013). In- ways locally, nationally, and globally. It stead, it sees civic engagement as central to also demonstrates the unwavering power of its mission and has developed programs that liberal education as both a tool and objec- have significant impacts locally, nationally, tive of civic engagement efforts. Finally, it and globally. It has done this despite being demonstrates the capacity for institutions to under-resourced, with a fraction of the en- tap into the idealism of students to develop dowment of other highly selective liberal initiatives that have a salutary effect on arts colleges, let alone major universities. people and public policy. In this reflective essay, I will primarily seek to answer the following ques- LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES EDU- tion: What distinguishes Bard’s approach to CATION AS CIVIC ENGAGEMENT: civic engagement? In so doing, I will high- SCOPE AND IMPACT light three intertwined factors: (1) the use of liberal arts and sciences education, particu- Andrew Latham of Project Pericles larly in underserved communities, as both a states that civic engagement “is a contem- means and an end for civic engagement ef- porary expression of the historic liberal arts

© Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Copyright © by Indiana State University. All rights reserved. ISSN 1934-5283 Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 11, Number 1 mission of preparing students for public life to begin a rigorous liberal arts and sciences as citizens and leaders” and “responding to education. They are based on Bard College the social needs of the local and global at Simon’s Rock in Massachusetts, a 50- communities in which we live” (Latham, year-old institution granting Associate of 2003). His description highlights two im- Arts (AA) and Bachelor of Arts (BA) de- portant components of the understanding of grees that became part of Bard in 1979. The civic education: “student as citizen,” the BHSECs are four-year public high schools traditional notion of education as preparing that—in grades 11 and 12—provide stu- students to become engaged citizens who dents with a two-year, tuition-free college will contribute to their communities and course of study in the liberal arts and sci- country (Mathews, 2015); and “institution ences, taught by university-level faculty, as citizen” (Thomas, 2000), which positions that can lead to an associate’s degree. The colleges or universities not simply as facili- early colleges operate in cooperation with tators of civic engagement within and out- local boards of education and are situated in side the classroom, but as civic actors in five locations: Manhattan, Queens, Newark, their own right through what can be called Baltimore, and Cleveland, with a new early “institutional engagement.” college set to open in Washington, DC, in Bard seeks to merge these two by 2019. Bard has also launched new and inno- playing to its strength and harnessing the vative models of early college, building on progressive and democratizing values of the growth and success of the BHSEC mod- liberal education. Its mission statement as- el. These new approaches include partner- serts, “Bard acts at the intersection of edu- ships with charter schools and with consor- cation and civil society, extending liberal tia of rural schools and include an AA- arts and sciences education to communities granting campus in New Orleans and a half- in which it has been underdeveloped, inac- time early college program in Hudson, New cessible, or absent.” Bard’s engagement York. In all, Bard enrolls nearly 3,000 stu- with liberal arts and sciences education as a dents in early college programs, with more tool of social change can be witnessed than 1,250 in degree-granting programs. through numerous programs, from the Life- Bard’s Vice President for Early Colleges time Learning Institute in Annandale-on- Stephen Tremaine calls this extension of Hudson, which provides nearly 70 classes liberal education “community enrollment,” annually for 300 local lifetime learners, to which he explicitly juxtaposes with the the Clemente Course in the Humanities—a more common phrase and institutional prac- not-for-profit that, in collaboration with tice of “community service.” Community Bard, offers free, year-long credit-bearing enrollment means sharing the resources that courses in liberal arts and sciences educa- define an academic institution, instead of tion to non-traditional adult learners, en- “serving” a community in possibly useful, compassing more than 300 students in 20 but also potentially patronizing and even locations across the country. Before de- damaging, ways that, intentions notwith- scribing how Bard’s ecosystem operates, I standing, can exclude the community from will examine three areas that best illustrate the core institutional value: education Bard’s work in using liberal education as a (Tremaine, 2015). tool of social change: early college learn- Recent data and research demon- ing, prison education, and international lib- strate that the Bard Early College model is eral education. extraordinarily effective in positioning young people to succeed in higher educa- Early College Education tion. In the BHSEC Class of 2018, 83% of The Bard High School Early Colleg- students earned an AA degree along with a es (BHSECs) provide a unique opportunity high school diploma, with many others re- for high school students across the country ceiving more than a year-and-a-half of col-

© Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Copyright © by Indiana State University. All rights reserved. ISSN 1934-5283 Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 11, Number 1 lege credit. In Newark, where only 13% of grams in 15 states that brings other institu- the population holds a bachelor’s degree or tions, particularly liberal arts institutions, higher, 100% of the class of 2018 graduated into the prison education process. with a high school diploma and 72% also BPI not only provides an opportuni- received an associate’s degree. To date, ty for its incarcerated students to reach their more than 90% of BHSEC graduates have potential, but has also helped reshape the completed their baccalaureate degrees, a regional and national debate over the cost significantly higher percentage than the and impact of incarceration (an issue that, 59% national rate. This is particularly im- uncharacteristically for the United States, pressive given that the BHSECs are public has been taken up by both sides of the polit- schools and approximately 70% of BHSEC ical spectrum), established efficacy of pris- students come from underrepresented com- on education programs, and, most im- munities. Indeed, an independent, quasi- portantly, highlighted the capacity, dignity, experimental matched-pair analysis on the and worth of incarcerated individuals. BPI BHSEC campuses in New York City not students who have been released from pris- only demonstrated better outcomes in terms on have extraordinarily low recidivism of bachelor degree completion compared rates: 2.5% for those who have completed with traditional, selective, and specialized degrees and 4% for students who have tak- high schools, but that African-American en even one class. This compares favorably students at BHSECs were twice as Likely to with national rates of 40% to 50% finish a BA or Bachelor of Science (BS) as (Karpowitz, 2017; Zimmerman, 2017). their peers at traditional public schools, and More than 20 BPI graduates have gone on males were 40% more likely to do so. to pursue graduate degrees at places like To get a sense of the scope, in 2019, Columbia, New York University, and Yale, Bard’s network of public early colleges will with many specializing in public health. award over 500 AA degrees, tuition free, to The victory over Harvard by the BPI De- a student body of whom half are the first in bate Union at Eastern New York Correc- their families to earn a college degree. If tional Facility in the fall of 2015 brought this student body were eligible for federal tremendous national and international atten- Pell grants, 68% would qualify. Bard is tion to the program, but even before that, now working with the American Talent Ini- BPI’s success contributed to the Obama ad- tiative, the leading advocate for expanding ministration’s decision to create a pilot pro- “access and opportunity” to “top colleges gram to reintroduce federal Pell grants (that and universities” for lower-income stu- had been cut off in 1994) to support prison dents, to highlight the efficacy of early col- education (New York Times, 2015). BPI’s lege as a tool to promote social and eco- success and its advocacy dating back to the nomic diversity within student bodies. presidency of George W. Bush also helped pave the way for the bi-partisan criminal Prison Education justice reform efforts that became law in For incarcerated individuals, the 2018. BPI has also influenced a number of power of liberal arts and science education state governments, particularly in terms of is realized by the Bard Prison Initiative policies that support education of incarcer- (BPI). BPI operates AA and BA liberal arts ated individuals. programs in six correctional facilities in New York State, enrolling more than 300 International Liberal Education students annually, making it the largest de- Internationally, Bard offers four- gree-granting prison education program of year undergraduate degrees in liberal arts its kind in the country. BPI also founded and sciences—as well as select graduate and leads the Consortium for the Liberal programs in teaching and the arts—all of Arts in Prison, a network of partner pro- which represent radical alternatives to the

© Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Copyright © by Indiana State University. All rights reserved. ISSN 1934-5283 Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 11, Number 1 predominant educational models that exist Teaching Program at Al-Quds Bard College in the countries in which they operate. In- of Arts and Sciences (AQB), the first ac- stead of strict curriculums and lecture-based credited MAT program in the region, the teaching shaped by Humboldtian and Soviet 450+ in-service teachers who have partici- models, they feature flexible curriculums, pated in the program teach more than breadth as well as depth, and student- 95,000 students in 120 Palestinian schools centered approaches to teaching. The inter- on the West Bank and in Jerusalem, creat- national programs include dual-degree part- ing more interactive, student-centered nerships with the American University of learning environments that contribute to Central Asia (AUCA) in Kyrgyzstan, Al- higher motivation among students. Many of Quds University in Palestine, St. Petersburg the program’s graduates have become prin- State University in Russia, and Bard Col- cipals and regional educational leaders and lege Berlin (BCB), which is a branch cam- have contributed substantially to the recent pus offering U.S. and German accredited secondary school reforms implemented by degrees. Long-time Bard President Leon the Palestinian Ministry of Education. Botstein has made clear the link between education and civic engagement, stating: ECOSYSTEM OF ENGAGEMENT “That mission, the set of values that directs the college’s international work, is the con- Bard’s reach and impact are made viction that education—and the liberal arts, possible by what I term an “ecosystem of with its emphasis on critical thinking and engagement.” I use the metaphor of an eco- the open exchange of ideas, in particular— system to highlight the complex interac- can be a force for freedom and democra- tions that emerge between and among an cy” (Fischer, 2014). interconnected network of people and insti- Bard’s international programs reso- tutions forming a dynamic and complex nate on three levels. First, they successfully whole that is collectively more diverse, in- contribute to educational reform by helping novative, adaptive, and resilient than the establish liberal arts and sciences as an ac- constituent parts (Pickett & Cadenasso, credited form of education in places where 2002; Mars, Bronstein, & Lusch, 2012; it has shallow roots. In Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Isaksen, Puccio, & Treffinger, 1993). and Palestine, Bard’s partners have estab- The health and growth of the Bard lished the first accredited degrees of their ecosystem is made possible by an “enabling kind in the respective countries. St. Peters- environment” that encourages and values burg State University’s Faculty of Liberal creativity and social entrepreneurialism Arts and Sciences is the first such faculty at among faculty, administrators, and students, a major Russian university. Second, Bard’s and underlines the institution’s prepared- approach to academic partnerships, which ness to take risks, especially where im- emphasizes reciprocity, tolerance, and re- portant issues of public policy are at stake. spect (Gillespie, 2009), is viewed as a mod- This enabling environment begins with the el for collaboration and is often cited as foregrounding of civic engagement within such at academic conferences, in publica- Bard’s institutional priorities. The college tions, and in university-governmental fo- celebrates its historic role as a refuge for rums (Fisher, 2014; Becker & Gillespie, distinguished writers, artists, intellectuals, 2017). Finally, the international partner- and scientists fleeing Nazi Europe in the ships have tremendous impacts on students 1930s and 1940s; its decision in 1956 to and institutions, shaping graduates and radi- host more than 300 Hungarian student refu- ating the impact of liberal education beyond gees who participated in the revolt against the specific partnerships to other faculty the communist regime; and its role as a ha- and higher educational institutions in the ven for fleeing intellectuals from Eastern country. In the case of the Master of Arts in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa since

© Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Copyright © by Indiana State University. All rights reserved. ISSN 1934-5283 Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 11, Number 1 the 1980s. This tradition has been carried providing points of departure for collabora- forward by Bard College Berlin, which in tion and innovation. Included in these are a academic year 2018-19 has more than 30 vigorous promotion of student-centered refugees, primarily from Syria, in its Pro- learning, small classes, an emphasis on gram in International Education and Social written work, a general education curricu- Change, outstripping many public German lum, and several of Bard’s curricular pillars, universities. Currently, civic engagement including the following: features prominently in the college’s mis-  Language and Thinking, which un- sion statement, its website, promotional ma- derlines the iterative process be- terials, and recruitment and development tween thought and expression; campaigns. It remains important in internal  a general education curriculum that college deliberations as well, from faculty includes First- and in some cases meetings to the student newspaper, which Second-Year Seminars, which em- for many years had a regular section called phasize thematic analysis of core “Bardiverse.” texts, seminar-style discussions, and The “keystone” of Bard’s ecosystem extensive writing of analytic papers; of engagement is the undergraduate liberal  Distribution requirements that arts college on the main campus in Annan- oblige students to take courses in dale-on-Hudson, where Bard’s academic four areas: the arts; social sciences; and administrative centers are situated languages and literature; and the (Pickett & Cadenasso, 2002). However, natural sciences, mathematics and Bard’s ecosystem of engagement is much computing; broader: It encompasses an interconnected network of vibrant sub-ecosystems, com-  and for BA recipients, Moderation, prising affiliates and partner institutions, a process of being accepted into a and the faculty, staff, and students who major, and Senior Project, a year- populate them. The ecosystem and the sub- long, original focused project that ecosystems that constitute it are formally emerges from the student’s cumula- connected through a scaffolding of organi- tive academic experience. zational structures, partnership agreements, Most of the ecosystem explicitly embraces and, in most cases, common accreditation. civic engagement as a principle, with stu- The Bard degree is a pivotal element in dent-led initiatives and institutional engage- binding the ecosystem’s different elements ment helping to define the individual sub- and creating a resiliency that has seen pro- ecosystems’ identities. Ideas and practices jects endure not just years, but often dec- related to curricula, teaching methods, and ades. Memorandums of understanding, part- civic engagement cascade across the eco- nerships, and programs litter the academic system, strengthening and nourishing the landscape, but are too often linked to dis- sub-ecosystems and networks that bind the crete grants and projects and discarded at ecosystem together and generating new in- the first signs of adversity. Degree pro- novations and initiatives. The approach to grams, on the other hand, involve such an institutional engagement, in turn, expands investment and commitment that they can the boundaries of the ecosystem. For exam- better endure the inevitable challenges and ple, faculty from Smolny work in several controversies that academic endeavors en- Russian institutions, from Kaliningrad to tail. Siberia, promoting student-centered learn- Substantively, the ecosystem and ing and the Language and Thinking pro- sub-ecosystems are connected by a complex gram, while faculty at Al-Quds Bard work web of shared teaching principles and prac- with multiple Palestinian secondary institu- tices, and shared curricular elements that tions and refugee teachers in Jordan helping serve as common frames of reference, to further core institutional practices, partic-

© Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Copyright © by Indiana State University. All rights reserved. ISSN 1934-5283 Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 11, Number 1 ularly where it comes to student- ing environments. Several Annandale facul- empowering pedagogy. ty regularly teach in the Bard Prison Initia- The ecosystem of engagement de- tive and the Clemente program: This year, rives its energy from the power of ideas, 23 of 88 BPI faculty and six of the seven particularly the belief in the capacity of lib- faculty of the Clemente program in King- eral arts and sciences education to educate, ston, New York, are based in Annandale. A teach students how to think critically and number of BPI and early college faculty express themselves, encourage individual have gone on to teach in Annandale as agency, and promote informed citizenship. needs and opportunities emerge. A steady As I wrote in an essay entitled, “What a stream of faculty from international part- Liberal Arts and Sciences Education Is… ners have spent semesters in Annandale and and Is Not,” liberal arts and sciences educa- vice versa. Each year, a half-dozen early tion “is not a magic bullet that will solve all college, BPI, and international partner fac- of society’s problems. However, when ulty teach in Annandale’s Language and properly constituted, it offers a coherent Thinking program for first year students, approach that endows students with abilities and a BPI faculty alum now heads the pro- that will prepare them for a lifetime of civic gram. engagement, learning, and employ- The view that liberal education can ment” (Becker, 2014; Becker 2015). be an important and transformative tool is The most important connections underlined by leaders within the ecosystem across the network are made through the who are playing the role that Mars, Bron- faculty. For example, Bard’s first major in- stein, and Lusch call “organizational engi- ternational partnership, Smolny College neers,” and who “replicate and adapt inno- (now the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sci- vations across multiple settings” (Mars, ences), began as an effort to rethink the so- Bronstein, & Lusch, 2012). In this context, cial sciences in Russia, and was initiated by a wide array of people are engineers and faculty members from Bard and St. Peters- liberal arts proselytizers, espousing the burg State University. Faculty across the power of liberal education, adapting some network run and participate together in of Bard’s approaches to new environments, teaching and curricular workshops, academ- and generating new ideas that reverberate ic conferences, and joint research projects. across the ecosystem, including in Annan- They have also collaborated to develop dale proper. This includes Aleksei Kudrin, joint and common “network” courses on a Russia’s long-term finance minister and variety of themes, including hate, global Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts at St. citizenship, nationalism, migration, freedom Petersburg State University, who is a strong of expression, and civic engagement. In ac- proponent of spreading liberal arts and sci- ademic year 2018-19, 27 faculty taught four ences education across Russia (Kudrin, network courses to nearly 300 students 2015); Ruth Zisman, Faculty Adviser to the across six campuses. These courses share a Bard Debate Union, who has shaped debate number of readings, in-class activities, and not only as a competition, but as a form of homework assignments, and they link stu- learning and public engagement across dents through “virtual classes,” dialogical Bard’s national and international networks; notebooks, keynote lectures, and debates Thomas Keenan, head of Bard’s Human that expose them to different experiences Rights Program and Project, who created and perspectives that contextualize and ani- the United States’ first undergraduate major mate the themes studied. Additionally, sev- in human rights and helped adapt success- eral faculty have migrated from one part of fully the curriculum to AUCA, AQB, and the network to another, bringing lessons Smolny; and Francesca Gamber, the Princi- learned from teaching and adapting similar pal of the Bard High School Early College courses in different and, at times, challeng-

© Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Copyright © by Indiana State University. All rights reserved. ISSN 1934-5283 Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 11, Number 1 in Baltimore, who has helped pilot an early across the globe, from Berlin to Burma. college course on civic engagement. Denis Akhapkin helped develop a Russian The flow of information, ideas and version of L&T for Smolny, set up a Center people within the ecosystem is multi- for Writing and Thinking in St. Petersburg, directional: Inputs come from a variety of and, with Smolny colleagues, has helped sources and do not flow exclusively from establish an L&T curriculum and/or pro- Annandale. As Susan Gillespie, the found- mote other Institute for Writing and Think- ing director of Bard’s Institute for Interna- ing teaching methods at more than a dozen tional Liberal Education and herself an or- higher education institutions across Russia ganizational engineer, has written of Bard’s and Russian-speaking countries, as a part of international programs, Bard’s conception their larger efforts to promote liberal arts of partnership means that “we make a con- and sciences education. Similarly, at Al- scious attempt to listen, to be aware of the Quds, Lucy Nusseibeh, who at the time needs, goals, feelings, and ideas of our headed Al-Quds University’s Institute for overseas colleagues” and that “we con- Modern Media, led an effort to adapt L&T sciously seek to work in ways that serve not into Arabic, so that in addition to the 80 to only our own personal or institutional or 100 incoming first-year students at Al-Quds national ends (though these are all im- Bard participating in L&T in English, an portant), but those of our partners as well.” additional 2,000 entering students from all As stated above, these partnerships involve of Al-Quds University’s academic pro- reciprocity, tolerance, and respect, and grams take L&T in Arabic during their first “challenge and enable us to be more effec- year. L&T methods have also been incorpo- tive in learning with and from, not just rated into a number of student-led civic en- about, people in other countries” (Gillespie, gagement projects across the network, in 2009). which trained student leaders conduct As programs move across the net- workshops for middle and high school stu- work, they adapt to new environments and dents locally and internationally. needs. The teaching initiative that has had As the network has grown, shared the greatest resonance across the ecosystem learning and the dissemination of and partner and affiliate sub-ecosystems is knowledge within the ecosystem is increas- the Language and Thinking (L&T) pro- ingly taking place between institutions in gram. L&T is the signature program of interactions that are not mediated by or Bard’s Institute for Writing and Thinking, through Annandale. Al-Quds Bard, for ex- which examines the link between thought ample, has helped AUCA develop a Second and expression while encouraging a careful Year Seminar and a Master of Arts in reading of texts, regular writing, and small Teaching program, while AUCA has helped class discussions. At its core, it uses student Al-Quds Bard develop a preparatory pro- -centered liberal arts teaching methodolo- gram for students who are weak in English. gies to promote intellectual inquiry and crit- Smolny has helped a number of institutions ical thought, and, perhaps most importantly, in Russia and the former Soviet space de- to foster student agency, which is critical in velop student-centered teaching methods areas where students are used to being pas- and general education curriculums. Just as sive recipients of information. Bard’s inter- Bard in Annandale has helped partners and national partners, in particular, see L&T as affiliates develop and adapt student- an antidote to the rote learning that is the centered teaching methods and the core pil- norm in so many secondary school systems lars of its curriculum, it has been the benefi- across the globe and as an excellent intro- ciary of insights of faculty and administra- duction to liberal arts and sciences educa- tors from partner institutions and affiliates tion. Organizational engineers have helped who view these courses and processes from adapt the program to new environments different perspectives. Bard has incorpo-

© Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Copyright © by Indiana State University. All rights reserved. ISSN 1934-5283 Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 11, Number 1 rated some of these curricular and pedagog- Campbell, Marienthal, & Thomson, 2012). ic approaches and course materials originat- In Annandale, TLS annually sponsors 30-35 ing from the network into Annandale-based projects led by 50+ student leaders who in courses and programs. Bard College Ber- turn involve roughly 10 additional student lin’s interdisciplinary curriculum and robust participants per project. TLS forms the core second-year seminars, which grew out of its of student engagement: More than half of predecessor, the European College of Liber- Bard students participate in long-term pro- al Arts, has been a big motivation behind a jects, with many others participating in one- new general curricular review in Annan- day events like the Martin Luther King Day dale, as have the Second-Year seminars at of Engagement. Some TLS projects involve the BHSECs, BPI, and AQB. There is by students engaging with local organizations, necessity some level of oversight and quali- such as the Astor Services for Children and ty control from Annandale where degrees Families or the Red Hook ESL (English as are at stake, but such activities are second- a Second Language) Center; others are ary to collaborations and colleagueship. more national or international in scope, When directors of First Year Seminar from such as the Bard Palestinian Youth Initia- multiple institutions gather together, they tive, which brings 10-20 Bard students to do not discuss the adoption of one cookie- the West Bank each summer to run educa- cutter model, but meet as colleagues, shar- tional and civic engagement programs for ing overlapping but also distinct approaches students in isolated communities. The pro- to readings, assignments, and evaluation ject is now run in collaboration with AQB. rubrics. Similarly, when “network” courses TLS projects are distinguished by their sus- are being forged, they are done so on a ba- tained engagement: Roughly two-thirds of sis of mutual respect and equality. current TLS projects have been running five years or more, and one-third for 10 years or VIRTUOUS CIRCLE: STUDENT-LED more, which is particularly noteworthy INITIATIVES AND since the program was founded in 1997. INSTITUTIONAL IMPACTS The longevity is a testament to student empowerment that characterizes TLS and re- One of the important elements of dounds through the ecosystem: These pro- Bard’s ecosystem of engagement is the vir- jects have lives across multiple cohorts of tuous circle, or feedback loop, that exists TLS students and it is students, not the in- between student-led initiatives and institu- stitution, who decide to continue a project. tional initiatives, nourishing the ecosystem The TLS program is particularly and enhancing its stability. Student leaders important because it highlights how Bard’s serve as organizational engineers and stu- ecosystem contains a mutually reinforcing dent-led initiatives become institutional ini- flow between the notions of student as citi- tiatives that maintain student engagement. zen and institution as citizen described ear- The Trustee Leader Scholar (TLS) lier. Several of Bard’s most successful insti- program has served as a venue for student tutional initiatives—the Bard Prison Initia- engagement, a model for network partners, tive, the Bard Early College in New Orle- and a source of institutional innovation. Ac- ans, Brothers at Bard (an academic enrich- cording to Bard Dean for Social Action ment mentoring program for young men of Paul Marienthal, who oversees TLS in An- color from underserved backgrounds in the nandale, the program is guided by “an un- city of Kingston), La Voz (the only Spanish wavering belief in each student’s ability to language magazine in the Hudson Valley), own his or her own work,” and “a willing- and the Bard Farm (which produces more ness to take risks to make a difference in than 20,000 pounds annually of vegetables difficult circumstances locally, nationally, served on campus and sold in the local and internationally” (Becker, Cannan, community)—began as student ideas, incu-

© Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Copyright © by Indiana State University. All rights reserved. ISSN 1934-5283 Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 11, Number 1 bated as TLS projects, and then were adopt- Bard has a partnership but not a dual-degree ed and elevated by the institution, which program. Several students at Smolny have provides guidance, resources, and academic also initiated their own projects, although oversight and accreditation where appropri- circumstances in Russia limit their scope. ate. Most of the projects retain a student-led Projects cover a wide range of activities, component, but they transform into far larg- from gender empowerment to promoting er and high-impact endeavors, often with debate and Model United Nations (MUN) significant public policy impacts. In several in middle and high schools, to efforts that cases, the TLS students who began the pro- seek to open up spaces of free discussion jects have become Bard administrators. and dialogue for youth. There have also Some continue to oversee the projects they been cross-campus collaborations. For ex- founded, like Mariel Fiori, who founded La ample, students from AQB, BCB, and Bard Voz, and Dariel Vasquez, founder of Broth- in Annandale teamed together to organize ers at Bard. Others continue to have a con- the first university-level Model United Na- nection with their projects, but have taken tions conference in Palestine. Students from on larger institutional roles, including Max Bard, AQB, BCB, and Smolny participated Kenner, co-founder of the Bard Prison Initi- in the Bard Palestinian Youth Initiative, ative, who is now Executive Director of which runs ESL programs and debate pro- BPI and Vice President for Institutional Ini- grams for school children in isolated Pales- tiatives, and Stephen Tremaine, the founder tinian communities. All of the partner insti- of the Bard Early College in New Orleans, tutions are now modeling their debate pro- who is now Vice President for Early Col- grams on the Bard Debate Union, which, in leges. addition to supporting competitive debate, The virtuous circle that is formed emphasizes the importance of public de- between student-led initiatives and institu- bates on social, political, and cultural issues tional initiatives helps the college thrive. As and outreach to area schools. Most campus- Tremaine wrote: es have between 15 and 20 student mem- Blurring the lines between student bers, with Smolny’s attracting upwards of initiative and institutional action 50 students per year. Debate and Model UN has… been a powerful way for Bard are particularly important in some of the to challenge conservative tendencies venues where Bard’s partnerships operate, in the college, to broaden the institu- because they allow for the airing of issues tion’s imagination, and to exploit— that might not otherwise be addressed pub- to good effect—the potent naivety lically. Debaters from Bard regularly help of undergraduates looking to take on support the research of the debaters at East- ambitious issues. (Tremaine, 2015). ern NY Correctional Facility (who have no In supporting, adopting, and celebrating access to the Internet), have assisted inter- transformative projects initiated by stu- national partners with the development of dents, the college fosters further ideas and debate programs, and have participated in initiatives and creates new student commu- ‘virtual’ debates, which unite students from nities that strengthen and expand the bound- multiple campuses in public debates using aries of the ecosystem (Tremaine, 2015). videoconference technology. The TLS model of student-led initi- The TLS model is now being atives is being adopted and adapted by adapted to the early college environment, Bard’s international partners including with an experimental program launched at AUCA, AQB, and Bard College Berlin— BHSEC Baltimore in 2017-18, a new pro- which has made civic engagement one of its gram launched in Queens in 2018-19, and core organizing principles—and by the Eu- plans to grow in Cleveland and beyond in ropean Humanities University, a Belorusian 2019. The Baltimore program included the university in exile in Lithuania, with which first Civic Engagement academic course,

© Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Copyright © by Indiana State University. All rights reserved. ISSN 1934-5283 Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 11, Number 1 with new courses launched this year at when it comes to ambitious national and BHSEC Queens and in Annandale. It is international initiatives, particularly where likely that some of the initiatives that issues of public policy are at stake, institu- emerge from early college students will fol- tional engagement is pivotal, and old- low the pattern in Annandale and be trans- fashioned institutional leadership can play a formed into institutional initiatives. decisive role in determining success. Bard’s approach also demonstrates LESSONS FROM BARD additional institutional benefits within the most important constituencies for an aca- Bard College believes that higher demic institution: faculty and students. Its education institutions should serve as civi- reputation for civic engagement and en- cally engaged actors at the nexus of educa- gagement across different geographies has tion and civil society. Bard has been trans- helped it attract and retain outstanding fac- formed by making civic engagement a cen- ulty and attract innovative administrators tral part of the institution’s mission and who participate in and/or lead engagement identity and by deploying liberal education projects, contributing to the ecosystem’s as both an instrument and a goal of its civic dynamism. Engagement opportunities with- engagement efforts. Its academic and civic in the ecosystem have also served as missions are realized through mutually rein- sources of renewal and in some cases re- forcing efforts that bind students, faculty, invention, particularly for Annandale-based and administrators in the pursuit of learn- faculty from more traditional backgrounds, ing, idealism, and active civic participation. who have sometimes experienced a stale- Bard’s ecosystem of engagement resonates ness of repetitive teaching of undergradu- across the institution and radiates through ates. This in turn has positively impacted the sub-ecosystems of Bard’s affiliates and instruction of undergraduates on the Annan- partners, creating linkages, generating dale campus (Buruma, 2005). Conversely, learning opportunities, empowering stu- for some of the faculty based at some of the dents and faculty to be civically engaged, more distant hubs in the network, the op- fostering ideas, and deepening the impact of portunity to participate in international con- engagement projects. If, as Barnett conferences, joint teaching, and joint research tends, the “civic university” is “conscious with others in the network can help mini- of its responsibilities towards society and mize intellectual isolation and lead to a fulfilling a ‘public service’ role as a way of more sustained commitment where location acting out those responsibilities” (2007), and circumstances can be challenging. then Bard is a quintessential “civic col- Bard’s institutional engagement, lege.” though designed first and foremost for the As such, Bard’s “ecosystem of en- educational benefit of others, has also engagement” can provide important lessons hanced the educational experience of its for other institutions of higher education. It undergraduates in Annandale-on-Hudson. demonstrates that small institutions can im- Whether students are studying in the class- pact public policy nationally and have sig- room in New York with some of the nearly nificant impacts globally, but most of its 50 exchange students from Bard’s partner lessons are applicable to any size institu- institutions who spend a semester at Bard tion. It shows that liberal arts and sciences each year, participating in the study away education can be an effective tool of civic programs offered by Bard’s international engagement. It proves that students can be partners, taking a “network course” with vibrant sources of ideas and leadership and students and faculty from across the globe, demonstrates the capacity for student-led participating in a network “virtual debate,” projects to transform into robust institution- or sharing a class with, debating, tutoring, al initiatives. Bard also demonstrates that or performing music for incarcerated stu-

© Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Copyright © by Indiana State University. All rights reserved. ISSN 1934-5283 Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 11, Number 1 dents at BPI (which around 150 Annandale avoiding the appearance of a conflict of in- students do each year), they are learning terest. However, given the growth of the more effectively due to the diversity of per- early colleges, the fact that students are ex- spectives that the network brings to their posed to the same ideas and teaching meth- learning experience. Because of the net- ods as students studying in Annandale, and worked nature of the relationship, students the extraordinary diversity of the early col- are also forging bonds and friendships that lege student body, the early colleges are can take them from a classroom in Annan- now not only promoting the liberal arts and dale, to a joint assignment in a network civic engagement in underrepresented com- class, to a summer program in Bishkek, to a munities through “community enrollment,” network student civic engagement confer- they are positively impacting the diversity ence in Budapest. of the student body in Annandale while ex- These relationships speak to the im- panding opportunity for community enrol- portant lessons that Bard’s “deep partner- lees. ships” can have for how civically engaged Bard’s civic engagement projects institutions can cooperate internationally. It and the ecosystem as a whole have had tre- is true that these partnerships can be more mendous sustainability, durability, and flex- challenging than the stand-alone overseas ibility: Smolny, the longest-running of its branch campuses of many major American dual-degree partnerships, is in its 21st year; universities, which are often as much about the Bard Prison Initiative and Bard Early profit, or benefits to American students, as Colleges already celebrated their 15th year; they are about spreading knowledge. How- and many of the student-led projects of the ever, when partnerships succeed, there are TLS program, whose theme is “bold sus- multiple benefits in terms of curricular and tained engagement,” are more than a decade pedagogic innovation, professional devel- old. There are many reasons for this. First, opment opportunities, and the myriad learn- Bard’s ecosystem of engagement has as- ing and co-curricular opportunities offered sured that there are many people at Bard— to students. American students in particular students, faculty, administrators, and trus- benefit from the opportunity to study away tees—who are committed to the institu- at institutions in which they are immersed tion’s mission and to the specific projects among regular students and where the edu- that are part of that ecosystem. Second, cational environment feels familiar and Bard’s preparedness to place the quality of welcomes the open exchange of ideas, thus its degree at stake in prisons, high schools, allowing them to have greater access to the and its international partnerships signals the culture, history, and ideas of the host coun- institution’s commitment and enhances its try and its people. This provides an enrich- responsibilities and obligations to its part- ing educational experience and contrasts ner and civic programs. Third, the centrality with “island” programs in which students of engagement efforts to the institution’s and teachers from the host country may core mission makes them a fundraising pri- play a limited role. ority. Bard’s engagement activities have This is not to say that Bard’s eco- also helped with student enrollment in An- system of engagement is without challenges nandale-on-Hudson. The Bard Early Col- and frailties. One common criticism centers leges, which enroll more than 3,000 stu- on money: Critics, including parents of An- dents, have increasingly served as a source nandale students and some faculty and ad- of recruitment for Annandale. This is new. ministrators, complain that resources that For many years, Bard intentionally limited are meant to support “them” are spent on recruitment of early college students so as “others.” There are several answers for this. to enhance its national reputation and em- First, as stated above, many of the engage- phasize its public policy impact while ment activities enhance the learning experi-

© Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Copyright © by Indiana State University. All rights reserved. ISSN 1934-5283 Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 11, Number 1 ence of students in Annandale. Second, the prison education in the 2000s. Bard may network helps undergraduates in Annandale face financial challenges, as do many col- better understand the meaning of their edu- leges, but they are not due to civic engage- cational experience. A student in Annandale ment. knows that he or she has classmates— There are more salient challenges. members of the same academic community, Bard’s ecosystem of engagement, and the engaging with a similar curriculum and fac- sub-ecosystems that constitute it, receive ing similar intellectual challenges—who are negative inputs like any organizational or incarcerated, who are in high school in biological ecosystem. The institution’s Cleveland, or who are in Bishkek. They leaders at times feel spread thin; being en- meet them in person through exchanges, gaged around the globe means that the tasks through virtual classes, or when, in the case of administrators are not governed by nor- of BPI, released students walk across the mal daily rhythms, work-weeks, or academ- same stage as they at commencement. As a ic calendars. People who need order and number of alums have noted, this clear job descriptions often find Bard frus- knowledge and shared experience animates trating. Sometimes faculty and administra- their understanding of their own education tors are so busy establishing new programs and the connection between education and that they do not take full advantage of op- social change. They have come to see the portunities to deepen engagements and con- fact that close to 40% of all students en- nect parts of the network of partnerships rolled in US-based degree programs at Bard and affiliates as well as the opportunities are Pell-eligible as a cause for celebration that they afford. Faculty, administrators, and not of jealousy. Third, even at Bard the and students are human and can behave net financial effect of the civic engagement badly, damaging relationships that bind the programs is positive. Bard is and has al- sub-ecosystems together. Exogenous envi- ways been a relatively poor institution, in ronmental factors can also be disruptive: part because of its size and in part because Operating in high-impact, high-risk envi- of its origins as a preparatory school for the ronments poses myriad challenges, particu- Episcopal seminary (even Eleanor Roose- larly as geopolitical conditions across the velt supported Bard’s efforts to stave off globe worsen. Partnerships can create chal- bankruptcy in the 1930s). Paradoxically, lenges when there are leadership changes or this has been a blessing. Bard’s ecosystem partner institutions face internal difficulties. of engagement has survived and thrived due Bard was called on to quit its partnership to the philanthropy of trustees and donors with Al-Quds University when a small who have no formal relationship to the in- group of student-activists unrelated to the stitution and who give not because they are Al-Quds Bard partnership held protests that alumni, but because they believe in the in- advocated violence; and Bard was forced to stitution’s mission and support its social forego OSF support for Smolny when OSF impact. Bard’s largest foundational support- was banned from operating in Russia under er, the Open Society Foundations (OSF), the country’s new “undesirables” law. Even has supported Bard’s efforts not least be- locally, Bard has been exposed to the vicis- cause of an overlap in values and the sup- situdes of changing governance. The Bard port Bard has made to OSF’s programmatic early colleges are designed as partnerships development. Internationally, Bard helped with local governments, which can enhance convince OSF’s Higher Education Support long-term systemic impacts, but such ar- Program to promote liberal arts and scienc- rangements can create greater uncertainties: es education as a key component of educa- Elected officials leave office, appointees tional reform in Central and Eastern Europe can be replaced, and state legislatures may in the mid-1990s. Domestically, BPI helped shift budgetary and policy priorities. shape the OSF U.S. programs’ support for

In spite of these challenges, Bard has demonstrated that its ecosystem of en- REFERENCES gagement and its commitment to exploring and exploiting the synergies between liberal Barnett, R. (2007). Recovering the civic education and civic engagement have had university. In L. McIlrath & I. M. tremendous impacts on its main campus and Labhrainn (Eds.), Higher education on local, regional, national, and global com- and civic engagement: International munities. Bard in many ways has been for- perspectives (pp. 25-36). Aldershot: tunate in terms of its capacity to build its Ashgate. ecosystem of engagement. The fact that it Battistoni, R., Longo, N., & Jayanandhan, remains under-resourced in comparison to S. (2013). Acting locally in a flat its peer institutions has required it to be world: Global citizenship and the nimble and inventive and has fostered a democratic practice of service- preparedness to take risks. The programs in learning. Journal of Higher Educa- Bard’s ecosystem of engagement are central tion Outreach and Engagement, 17 to the mission of higher education to create (2), 111-133. and disseminate knowledge. This raises the Becker, J., & Gillespie, S. (2017). Adapting more salient question: If an institution as liberal arts and sciences as a system under-resourced as Bard can have such an of education. In T. Purinton (Ed.), impact, what might institutions that are sit- American universities abroad. Cai- ting on hundreds of millions and often bil- ro: AUC Press (forthcoming). lions of dollars in their endowments achieve Becker, J. (2014). What a liberal arts and were they to make bolder institutional com- sciences education is… and is not. mitments to civic engagement? At the end In J. Becker & P. Fedchin (Eds.), of the day, the profound impact of Bard’s Liberal arts and sciences in the engagement efforts are such that there are modern world: The experience of very few projects that would not have been the US and Europe in the context of worth pursuing even if future financial con- Russian higher education. St. Pe- straints meant that Bard could no longer tersburg: Center of Liberal Arts and continue its engagement efforts. The effect Sciences Education, Faculty of Lib- on people, institutions, and government pol- eral Arts and Sciences, St. Peters- icies will be lasting, whatever the future burg State University. may hold. Becker, J. (2015). Liberal arts and sciences: Bard demonstrates that by acting Responding to the challenges of the institutionally as engaged citizens, colleges XXIst century. Education Studies/ and universities can enhance student learn- Voprosy obrazovania, 4, 33-61. ing, increase faculty satisfaction, dissemi- Becker, J., Cannan, E., Campbell, R., Mari- nate knowledge, and help build a better so- enthal, P., & Thomson, V. (2012, ciety. It would be difficult to replicate what January). The Bard Bard has done, but by adapting elements of College Center for Civic Engage- Bard’s approach, particularly establishing ment: A model for higher education civic engagement as a core institutional ten- institutions acting in the public in- et, creating an ecosystem of engagement, terest. Presented at a meeting of the and fostering the link between student-led Association of American Colleges engagement and institutional engagement, & Universities. Washington, DC. other colleges, urban or rural, large or Buruma, I. (2005). Uncaptive minds. New small, could see new and unanticipated pro- York Times Magazine, February 20. jects emerge that would, in turn, create their Retrieved from http:// own virtuous circles, helping civic engage- www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/ ment, and the institutions, to thrive. magazine/uncaptive-minds.html

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main campus in Annandale-on- Hudson. In academic year 2018-19 he served as Acting President of the American University of Central Asia. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jona- than Becker. Bard College, PO Box 5000, An- nandale-on-Hudson, New York, 12504. E-mail: [email protected]