(Bloomberg) -- Bard College at Simon’s Rock, an unconventional early college program, will close its campus in Western Massachusetts and relocate to upstate New York, after dwindling enrollment made the operation unsustainable.
The move, which the school describes as a “difficult, yet proactive decision,” is effective in the fall of 2025 and comes as the school has spent the past several years working on a “financially viable solution” for its Massachusetts campus, John Weinstein, Simon’s Rock provost and vice president said.
The school offers a non-traditional model with students often starting after their 10th or 11th grade in high school and receiving a bachelor of the arts degree in four years. Simon’s Rock is associated with Bard College — a private liberal arts school on the Hudson River in New York.
Starting next school year, students from the Massachusetts program will be absorbed after a recent real estate purchase allowed for the transition.
“We now have more flexibility in space that can allow for a more financially viable and educationally rich future for Simon’s Rock by placing it physically proximate to the institution that has owned and run it for 45 years,” Leon Botstein, Bard’s president said in a statement.
Enrollment at the Simon’s Rock campus fell to just under 300 students in the Fall of 2022, down from about 350 a decade ago, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. The Simon’s Rock campus was about a tenth of the size of the larger college in New York.
Positions for most employees will end on June 30, and there will not be transfers to Bard, according to a frequently-asked questions webpage about the transition. Faculty and staff will get first notification of positions on the new campus.
Bard College will work with local officials in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to sell its campus there.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.