News and Events

Fog transports microbes over long distances and deposits them in new environments, according to the new study.

The MBA in Sustainability program at Bard College has won a competitive bid to deliver an on-site, low-residency graduate business degree to a cohort of future energy sector leaders from the New York Power Authority (NYPA), the largest state-owned electric utility in the United States. Between 10 and 15 NYPA employees will begin the two-and-a-half-year, part-time program in February 2019, with a graduation date set for May 2021. Courses will be taught one weekend a month at NYPA’s offices in White Plains, and online two evenings a week. The curriculum features a yearlong lab course in mission-focused consulting, in which students will work in small teams on two semester projects for NYPA partners in marketing, finance, operations, or strategy. bard.edu/mba

Goats have worked summers since 2016 at Bard’s Blithewood Estate, preserving the scenic view by eating invasive weeds on the uneven slope.

On Saturday, October 6, Bard College, in partnership with Rose Hill Farm and the National Young Farmers Coalition, presents the Montgomery Place 2018 Salon Series on Agriculture. The event will gather farmers, community members, scientists, legal scholars, journalists, and business people to explore a multitude of issues related to establishing a thriving regional agriculture system. Speakers will address, among other questions: Can the Northeast feed itself? If so, should it? What are the environmental, social, political, and other costs and benefits? The discussion takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Bard College: The Montgomery Place Campus, River Road, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Admission is $18, with reduced prices for farmers and students, and is free for Bard students. Registration is required. For more information and to sign up, visit theagriculturesalonseries.splashthat.com.

“The focus of this event, regional agriculture, is of great immediacy to the Hudson Valley and surrounding communities, as well as to other areas within 150 miles of any North American urban center, potentially encompassing about 15 percent of the high-quality cropland in North America,” says Gidon Eshel, research professor of physics at Bard College and Agriculture Salon Series program curator. “The speakers, recognized leaders in their respective fields, all have interesting, unique angles on the issue. Perspectives they will bring to bear on the problem include legal, conservation/land access, financial/monetary, economic, ecological, environmental, racial/gender, and equality/justice. This one-day event looks to promote a vigorous and productive dialogue on local agriculture.”

In addition to Eshel, speakers include:
Ruth DeFries, Denning Family Professor of Sustainable Development and professor of ecology, evolution, and environmental biology, Columbia University; member, National Academy of Sciences; and 2007 MacArthur Fellow
David Gould, head of investor relations, Amerra Capital
Tamar Haspel, food and science journalist; author of the Washington Post monthly column “Unearthed”; and Cape Cod oyster farmer
Leah Penniman, codirector and program manager, Soul Fire Farm; author, Farming While Black
Eric Posner, Kirkland & Ellis Distinguished Service Professor of Law, Arthur and Esther Kane Research Chair, University of Chicago; member, Committee on International Relations
Steve Rosenberg, senior vice president and executive director, Scenic Hudson Land Trust; board member, Land Trust Alliance
Steffen Schneider, director of farming operations, Hawthorne Valley Farm; senior director, Institute for Mindful Agriculture; president, Biodynamic Association of North America

Located on River Road, Annandale-on-Hudson, Montgomery Place, a 380-acre estate adjacent to the main Bard College campus and overlooking the Hudson River, is a designated National Historic Landmark set amid rolling lawns, woodlands, and gardens, against the spectacular backdrop of the Catskill Mountains. Renowned architects, landscape designers, and horticulturists worked to create an elegant and inspiring country estate consisting of a mansion, farm, orchards, farmhouse, and other buildings. The Montgomery Place estate was owned by members of the Livingston family from 1802 until the 1980s. In 1986, Livingston heir John Dennis Delafield transferred the estate to Historic Hudson Valley, in whose hands it remained until 2016, when Bard College acquired the property. For more information, visit bard.edu/montgomeryplace.