Overheard at Bard

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[overheardatbard]

New Moderator Contest

Hey Bard College. Been a while, eh?

This blog disappeared when I graduated and stopped overhearing things at Bard. 

Today, I'm announcing a contest to decide who the new moderator will be.

Whoever sends me the best/funniest/stupidest 300 word essay about why Bard is a great school wins the contest and gets the login credentials to this account. It’s that simple. Here are the rules:

-- I’ll publish every single essay that gets sent to me on this blog. (All essays will be published anonymously.)

-- You have to be a current Bard student. I’ll ask for proof if I need to.

Cheers, and good luck! I’m looking forward to reading your essays.

[overheardatbard]

"Botstein’s moral outrage, which he expresses in vivid, syntactically complex speech, conceals a relentless idealism, and to spend time in his company is to be convinced moment by moment that he is operating within an insane and crooked system rigged by villains and run by fools. There are certain subjects the mere mention of which increases his heart rate. The college ranking system is one of them, and does to Botstein’s blood pressure what filing back taxes might do to someone else’s. In the process of verbally dismantling the quantification of higher education, he compared Ivy League universities to Gucci handbags and sneaked in concise dismissals of the College Board (“offensive, essentially”), the college essay (“an awful genre”), the S.A.T. (“a totally useless event”), and multiple-choice tests in general (“a grave error in the name of so-called objectivity”). He began to fiddle with his handkerchief."

-- Alice Gregory, "Pictures from an Institution," The New Yorker

[overheardatbard]

Quit Clownin' Around

"While we believe there was no malicious intent on the part of our clown, only the clown knows for sure."

-- Ken Cooper, Security Notification e-mail titled "Not so Funny Clown"

[bardfirstyear]

Photos from Opening Day 2014.

A warm welcome to the Class of 2018 — hope L&T is treating all of you well! 

[bardlux]

“Phooey, I say, on all white-shoe college boys who edit their campus literary magazines. Give me an honest con man any day.” ― J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey Are you interested in publishing? Do you write or create visual art? Did you run your high school lit-mag? Do you enjoy being ruthlessly critical, crying about good prose, seasonal color accents, and steel shelving? Lux Literary Magazine (Bard’s semiannual undergraduate lit-mag) is looking for a batch of new first-year editors, as well as submissions of art and writing for our fall issue. This informational session will introduce Lux’s purpose, mission, and structure, and show various ways to get involved in what we do. If you are unable to attend this informational session, but would like to receive more information on applying to be an editor, please contact us at [email protected] If you are interested in submitting your work for publication, please send it to [email protected] for review. Thank you!

[bardlux]

SUNDAY, AUGUST 24th, RED ROOM, CAMPUS CENTER BE THERE

[bardfirstyear]

First-Year Dean Mary Ann Krisa watches the Class of 2018 assemble for a class photo on the rugby field from the top of the library.

[overheardatbard]

And they say a degree in the arts is worthless! Hah!

(Carolee Schneemann graduated from Bard in 1959.)

[bardlux]

Princeton Review: Top 10 Colleges With the Best Classrom Experience

The Princeton Review recently ranked the colleges with the best classroom experience using reviews from about 130,000 students at 379 top colleges. The college at which students reported the highest satisfaction in classroom environment was Bard College in New York. 

The private, liberal arts institution also ranked high in the “Most Liberal Students” list and “Most Accessible Professors.”

[bardfirstyear]

A walk around the Lorenzo Ferrari Soccer Complex.

[bardfirstyear]

A view of the sunset from behind Hudson.

[bardfirstyear]

In the survey we sent out last week, we asked you who would win in a fight between Charles Darwin and Franz Kafka. (Don’t worry, there’s still time if you’d like to fill it out — just click here.)

We’ll tally up the votes on Monday and post them here, but here are some of our favorite responses so far:

"Darwin. He has win in his name."

"Kafka. The Germans have made a bit of a habit out of humiliating the British in battle."

"Franz Kafka, because he would unleash all of the pent up anger he had towards his dad on Darwin. He’d be sobbing the whole fight, but he’d win."

"I’ll let you know when I finish both books."

"Kafka could defeat anyone with the force of his dark wit."

"Franz Kafka, because Darwin had been dead for about a year after Kafka was born, so it would be pretty easy for Kafka to beat him since he has pretty much already won."

“Whoever had some previous brawling experience would probably win.”

“Charles Darwin, because glorious facial hair will get you everything in life.”

“It bugs me to say that Kafka would Darwin.”

"I think it would be a pretty fair fight, but neither of these guys stand a chance against President Botstein so yeah."

Take the weekend to fill out the survey if you haven’t already, and many thanks to the Class of 2018 for the laughs.

[idyllify]

WHY DOES EVERYONE IN MY HOMETOWN THINK I GO TO BARNARD WHEN I SPECIFICALLY SAY THAT I GO TO BARD PREVIOUSLY IN THE CONVERSATION. WHY.

[overheardatbard]

The struggle is real.

[bardfirstyear]

Class of 2018!

Are you bored?

Do you have five minutes?

Do you like to answer surveys?

Do you like filling out surveys even when there isn’t a prize?

Are you vaguely interested in helping us help you?

Do you have an opinion about who would win in a fight between Charles Darwin and Franz Kafka?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, we’d love it if you took a tiny bit of time to fill out this survey that we’ll use to make sure Language and Thinking—and the rest of your time at Bard—is as swell as possible.

Just click here to be taken to the survey page.

[goldenfutureme]

Forget the SAT. Forget Your GPA. Write Four Good Papers, and Bard College Will Let You In.

Do you struggle on traditional exams, but excel at writing? Bard College, ranked #38 for Liberal Arts Colleges, may be for you. Read about their revolutionary application option.

[bardfirstyear]

A sneak peek of the 2014 Language and Thinking Program anthology. The anthology is a collection of written material that first-year students read during August. The authors and texts featured in the anthology change every year, but if you’re curious, click here to view the table of contents for the 2013 edition. Last year, first-year students read Judith Butler, Thomas Kuhn, Gertrude Stein, Martin Luther King, Jr., Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault, Junot Diaz, Ralph Ellison, and many other writers and thinkers from a wide variety of eras, backgrounds, and disciplines.

All of the material found in the anthology speaks to the central question of L&T: What does it mean to be human in the year 2014?

34 days until the Class of 2018 arrives on campus!

[overheardatbard]

Remember, Class of 2018, there's only one right answer to the question, and you will be tested on it at the end of L&T. Better start studying now just to be safe.

[bardfirstyear]

First Year Dean Mary Ann Krisa triumphantly basks in the afternoon sunlight at the end of another day spent planning the Language and Thinking Program. 

[overheardatbard]

Every college should have an administrator who keeps a banjo in their office.

[bardfirstyear]

Greetings from Annandale-on-Hudson, incoming Bardians!

In honor of Bard’s motto, we thought it’d be fitting to celebrate the first post of the summer with a picture of one of the many “places to think” on campus — the Anna Margaret Jones Memorial Meditation Garden. 

The Anna Jones Meditation Garden is perfectly suited for relaxing, quiet contemplation, reading, writing, playing music, eating snacks, meeting friends, cloud watching, stargazing, navel gazing, sitting down, standing up, and pretty much everything else. 

The Bard First Year Blog will be updated daily during the week with pictures of campus, interviews with students and staff, as well as bits and pieces of Bard news and information.

If you’re an incoming student or the family member of an incoming student and have questions about anything, you can give us a call at the Center for Student Life and Advising (845-758-7454) or shoot us an e-mail at [email protected]. You can also message us here on Tumblr. Be sure to let us know whether you’d prefer us to respond privately or post the answer so other folks can see it.

39 days until the Class of 2018 arrives on campus!