Bard College has a mission to invest in programs that are in the public interest and serve underserved and underrepresented populations. That commitment to civic engagement received a huge boost this week with the announcement of a $60 million challenge grant from George Soros, chairman of the Open Society Foundation.
Bard expects to strengthen its wide network of civic projects, which includes the well-known Bard Prison Initiative and early college programs in New Orleans public high schools and other urban centers.
The 151-year-old New York state-based college for the liberal arts and sciences administers the prison outreach effort and its early college programs as part of the new Bard Center for Civic Engagement, which serves as an umbrella for the college’s array of initiatives. The formation of the Center was approved by the college’s board of trustees this past January and officially launched this spring.
“The Center for Civic Engagement allows Bard to tell the story of the breadth of activities that we are taking,” says Dr. Jonathan Becker, vice president for International Affairs and Civic Engagement and executive director of the Center. “It’s facilitating coordination and cooperation amongst the various endeavors.”
Soros’ grant requires Bard to match it with $120 million from other donors. The first round of funding is expected to come at the beginning of the new academic year. The Center will make Bard’s civic engagement mission much more visible and impactful, school officials say.
“Our hope and our belief is that this grant will inspire other philanthropy,” Becker says. “This grant ensures that we will be able to continue what we’ve been doing and do it even more effectively.”
The Bard Prison Initiative was started by Max Kenner in 1999, when he was a student at Bard, and has been an official part of the college since 2001. Becker says it is the largest degree-granting program for incarcerated students in the U.S. There are currently more than 200 men and women enrolled at five prisons in New York State. BPI also runs the Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison, where it supports other colleges establishing similar programs.
