Bard College - Student Life

Student Life

Over 120 student clubs are financed through Bard's Convocation Fund, which is distributed once a semester by an elected student body and ratified during a rowdy public forum. Bard students have one print newspaper, the Bard Free Press, which won Best Campus Publication in SPIN Magazine's first annual Campus Awards in 2003. Literary magazines include the semiannual Lux, the annual Bard Papers, The Moderator, and Sui Generis, a journal of translations and of original poetry in languages other than English. The Bard Journal of the Social Sciences, "Bard Science Journal", and "Qualia", a philosophy journal, are also student-published.

Other prominent student groups include the International Students Organization and other cultural organizations, KLOUDS (Kids Laying Out Under Daytime Skies), High Tea, the Bard Film Committee, the Bard Queer-Straight Alliance, Student Labor Dialogue, Surrealist Training Circus, Student-run Bike Co-op and college radio station WXBC.

Bard is also home to the Root Cellar, a completely student-run, multipurpose space that serves as an Infoshop, vegan café, and venue for small-scale shows. It houses an extensive zine library, which once was touted as "the largest zine library on the East Coast." While technically defined as a club by the Office of Student Activities, the "club heads" of the Root Cellar hold no more power than any other students involved, and decisions are made by consensus at weekly meetings. The space is a haven for radical political action and education, and an outlook much like that of ABC No Rio or Bluestockings bookstore in New York City.

Bard has a strong independent music scene considering its isolation and size. The college's Old Gym was once a popular location for concerts and parties in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. In 2004, the Old Gym was shut down and in spring 2006 transformed into a student-run theater by students Julie Rossman and Kell Condon. Many activities that once took place there now occur in the smaller SMOG building. SMOG is now primarily used as a music venue. Student-run theater is also popular: dozens of student directed and written productions are put on each semester and a 24 Hour Theater Festival is held at least once a year.