While COVID forced us to postpone two in-prison commencements this spring, we’re proud to share this film looking back at past graduations and honoring the 58 BPI & micrcocollege graduates of 2020. This film celebrates twenty extraordinary years — and the completion of one… Read More
BPI Blog
Tag: Microcollege
Rethinking Education Virtual Lecture Series Presents: Saul Thorkelson
Join us on Zoom to Learn About the Bard at Brooklyn Microcollege and how to apply for 2020-2021! Saturday, April 25th 2020 4:00-5:00 PM Please email microcollege@bard.edu to register for the Zoom link Go here to learn more about the Bard Microcolleges and here to learn more about how to apply. Read More
Apply to Bard Microcollege at Brooklyn Public Library!
Admissions is now open for the Bard at Brooklyn Public Library Microcollege. Program Director Christopher Perez wrote this revised letter below encouraging interested future students to apply and explaining how the admissions process has been adjusted because of COVID-19. Check it out below and… Read More
College Behind Bars Coming to Holyoke Microcollege
Friday, March 20, 2020 1:30-3:30 p.m. Holyoke Library Community Room 250 Chestnut Street, Holyoke Please join us for a screening of highlights from the documentary film COLLEGE BEHIND BARS, about students in the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), one of the most rigorous prison education programs in America. The screening… Read More
Bard Microcollege Holyoke – Meet Candice
One of the first graduates of Bard Microcollege Holyoke, Candice Pelletier is now completing her Bachelor’s degree at Smith College on a full scholarship. Like many women who find The Care Center, Candice’s path to college took a few unusual turns. Despite Candice’s straight… Read More
A College in the Brooklyn Public Library
From Inside Higher Ed. The local public library is a treasured (if sometimes forgotten) American institution, free and open to all. Recognizing this, Bard College has opened a satellite college in the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library in New York City, offering disadvantaged… Read More
Bard and Brooklyn Public Library Partner for Microcollege
From the Library Journal. Bard College, a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, and Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) have partnered to launch a “microcollege”—an innovative undergraduate program for nontraditional students—at BPL’s Central Library in Prospect Heights. Bard at Brooklyn Public Library is designed to… Read More
Going Public: The Birth and Rebirth of Erasmus Hall
A Bard at Brooklyn Public Library open house event. Sat, Oct. 28 2017 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm Central Library, Trustees' Room 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn NY 11238 The Rethinking Education Lecture Series celebrates the launch of a full-scholarship Bard College degree program at Brooklyn Public… Read More
How This Radical College for Inmates is Taking Its Program Outside the Walls
Nationally, nearly half of all inmates released from prison return there after committing another crime. But the recidivism rate among those who’ve earned college degrees through the Bard Prison Initiative, an adjunct program operated by liberal arts school Bard College inside six medium and maximum security prisons in New York, is far lower: Since the program began in 2001, more than 400 convicts have graduated and eventually been released. Just 2% end up back behind bars.
Most also have no trouble finding work. “It’s not that they just don’t return to prison,” says BPI founder and executive director Max Kenner. “It’s that they become independent middle-class taxpaying citizens, neighbors, and pals. They’re engaged in their communities and all kinds civic and positive and educational ways.”
The program is structured to resemble a classic college curriculum for associate and bachelor level degrees. BPI has roughly 60 classes overall, which span the liberal arts spectrum from advanced calculus to genetics, and Mandarin Chinese. Students are encouraged to take a full load—about four to five classes per semester—to complete their degrees within the same timeframe as those might outside the walls. Common majors include mathematics, humanities, and social studies, which include a senior thesis that must be defended in front of an academic committee.