More than 100 full-time, and 100 part-time employees to be laid off in Bard College at Simon’s Rock closure

“This is going to be a significant layoff for this region,” Weinstein said. “There’s no getting around that. There may be some retirements for some of the full-time employees.”

Written by
Shaw Israel Izikson
November 21, 2024


Bard College at Simon's Rock. Photo by Terry Cowgill.

Great Barrington — On Tuesday, Nov. 19, Bard College at Simon’s Rock announced that the college would be shutting down its Great Barrington campus after the end of the spring semester next year. The college will be relocating its campus to Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., starting in fall 2025.

In an interview with The Berkshire Edge, Bard College at Simon’s Rock Provost and Vice President John Weinstein cited declining enrollment for shutting down the Great Barrington campus. “Institutions of higher education with under 500 students, or even under 1,000 students, have certainly been challenged financially over the past decade or two,” Weinstein said. “Our high numbers of enrollment had been in the mid-400 students for short periods of time.”

Weinstein said that, before the pandemic, the college would typically have 390 students enrolled each semester. This semester, however, the college currently has 281 students enrolled. “It seems like within the current demographics, there was no likelihood of that going up in the near future,” he said. “Moving to the New York campus is the most viable way to continue to offer high-quality academic learning.”

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