From campus to village: These Simon’s Rock alumni have a vision for the campus

By By Talia Lissauer The Berkshire Eagle

GREAT BARRINGTON — A group of Simon’s Rock alumni are working to turn the former school’s campus into a multipurpose village.

The idea began with a group known as Youbilee, whose members have come together to create the Simon’s Rock Village Committee.

Its mission: Turn dorms into affordable intergenerational housing and continue operation of athletic and arts facilities for the community.

“Our immediate priority right now is, how do we stop the campus from closing in six weeks,” said Jonathan Lothrop, a committee member and former Pittsfield city councilor.

He noted it’s much harder and more expensive to restart a facility if it closes. “We’re trying to find a way to help the school understand that, basically, partnering with us is a better option for everybody.”

Bard College at Simon’s Rock announced last November it would be closing and selling the campus at the end of the school year, due to declining enrollment. The early college had 281 students enrolled in its final year at the 275-acre campus and 238 employees. Most of the students are expected to move to a Bard campus in New York.

Even though the final school year has wrapped up, the future of the campus remains unclear. Facilities, including Kilpatrick Athletic Center and Daniel Arts Center, will remain open this summer, and the alumni hope to build on that transition.

The group’s vision for the campus, which would be named Simon’s Rock Village, would be phased in over two years.

The first year would be about laying the foundation by showing the vitality of the campus. In addition to keeping the athletic and arts centers open, the plan calls for reactivating some housing. The second year would be about expanding education opportunities available.

Bard told The Eagle in May that the campus would be put up for sale soon and it would be laying off 116 employees between June 30 and the end of the year. College officials did not respond to requests for comment.

There are 10 core people working as volunteers on this project and another 400 that are involved in other ways, such as being active on social media and making financial pledges, said Stephen Lieberman, a Simon’s Rock alum who has spearheaded the effort.

The physical campus remains an important place for many alumni who want to take a place they love and make it a place of value for the community.

When it ramps up its fundraising efforts, the group expects many more alumni to support the plan. So far between pledges and donations, around “tens of thousands of dollars” have come in.

“We’ve really built some momentum, especially in the last month since the reunion,” Lothrop said, referring to the sold-out reunion that brought hundreds of alumni back to campus.

The property was valued at $48 million by the Great Barrington town assessor’s office. On top of that cost, the older buildings on campus require lots of maintenance and every building requires upkeep.

Since the announcement that the campus would be closing, the group has kept its work quiet while it organized and created the the committee and its goals. While members have made sure Bard knows they are interested in the property, they said they haven’t gotten much in return.

Simon’s Rock Village would convert the dorms into various levels of housing and continue operating facilities that are for the community. Another goal is to continue being one of the larger employers for Southern Berkshires.

“Right now the plan [by the college] is to pull out, fire everybody else and lock the gates at the end of the summer,” Lieberman said. “That’s not good for the community. That’s not good for anybody.”

The group is looking into partnerships with local organizations to continue operating facilities and looking into grants and government funding to help keep the campus open during this transition time.

In its pitch, the group said the campus is “an economic and cultural engine” for the Southern Berkshires and letting parts of the campus close could lead to “deterioration and lost community benefits.”

For the last six months, it has done initial fundraising and laid out a capital campaign, began project planning and outreach and started community and stakeholder engagement.

“We’re busily laying the foundation for what we hope will be the rebirth of the campus,” Lothrop said. “The idea is to kind of take those Simon‘s Rock values and infuse it back into this village model.”

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