Some alumni of Bard College at Simon's Rock are reacting to news its Great Barrington campus will be closing in the spring.
The school is geared towards young people looking to get an early start on college, as early as after the 10th grade. It also operates an academy for 9th and 10th graders. Citing dwindling enrollment, it plans to shutter its 270-acre campus, while moving operations to Bard College’s Massena Campus in New York, not far from its main campus.
Humorist and journalist Henry Alford attended Simon's Rock in the early 1980's.
"It doesn't come as a huge surprise, and in Simon's Rock's case, it was such a tiny institution. That was both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness," he said.
Other alums also took to Facebook to express sadness about the decision. And some are upset faculty members will not be guaranteed jobs at the new location. An online petition calling on the schools to keep the instructors employed had more than 700 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon.
Simon’s Rock said employees could apply for jobs at the new location, but there was no guarantee of employment. There are 238 workers in all that will be impacted.
Great Barrington Select Board Chairman Stephen Bannon said the closure and job losses will have an economic impact on the community.
"Some of that can be absorbed, because Great Barrington like many other towns in our area, have trouble filling positions,” Bannon said. But there will also be a number of people unemployed who are skilled and there are not those skilled jobs in our town."
Bannon added the town was not given advanced notice about the closure, but there had been rumors in recent years about financial struggles.
Bannon said from a town perspective, he'd like to see the property return to the tax rolls, while also maintaining public access to a large auditorium and athletic complex. Beyond that, Bannon says the campus could be used for several different purposes, including housing.
In a letter to the college community, Simon’s Rock’s provost and vice president, John B. Weinstein called the decision to leave Great Barrington “heartbreaking” but necessary.
“This move is the only course of action for the school to preserve the viability of a residential early college experience in an unpredictable time for institutions of higher education nationwide.”
Weinstein said the college worked for several years to find a viable financial solution to stay in the town, but its partnership with Bard College will allow it to continue the original mission of Simon’s Rock.
