Top news—Institutional: Related Content
Bennington College is the only college Michael Pollan ’76 applied to. Pollan’s mother had attended Bennington in the fifties, and he remembered reading through her college papers, which were kept in the attic of his childhood home, and thinking about how extraordinary it was to have been taught, as she was, by poet Howard Nemerov and literary critic Kenneth Burke.
by Laura Walker
“The largest life lesson I got from attending Bennington was the sense of possibility,” said Brian Rogers ’95, cofounder of The Chocolate Factory Theater, an innovative space built by and for artists, in Long Island City. He can’t imagine making a career as innovative as his “had it not been for the Bennington experience.” (Read more on page 28.) So many of you echo that sentiment. Today, I am writing to ask you to translate those feelings into support for Bennington.
On Friday, October 25, Bennington College will host a Podcast Symposium for students, podcasters, writers, journalists, and anyone interested in learning about podcasting.
Classroom experience, public action, college theater, environmentalism, and LGBTQ friendliness set Bennington apart.
Housekeeper Michele Hurley is one of eleven children born and raised in Bennington. She started working at the College in the Fall of 1979, and four of her siblings—Mike, Nick, Jenny, and Tim—have all graced the staff roster at various times from the seventies through today. We sat down with her in Commons to learn more about her remarkable contributions over the last 44 years and counting.
Poetry at Bennington, an endowed program of short-term residencies that brings established and emerging poets to Bennington College for public readings and close work with students, has announced its Fall 2024 lineup of featured poets. All Poetry at Bennington events are free and open to the public. They take place in various locations on the College’s campus.
Almost a century ago, under the looming threat of fascism, Franklin D. Roosevelt warned Americans about global conflicts pitting representative governments founded on individual liberty against emerging fascist dictatorships. Reflecting on John Dewey’s progressive education philosophy, FDR said, “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.”
Bennington, VT: Two Bennington alumni, both entrepreneurial leaders, have been elected to join the Bennington College Board of Trustees. They are Bryn Mooser ’01 and Eddie Ubell ’09.
The Dance and Drama programs at Bennington College are pleased to welcome director and artist Robert Wilson for a lecture and performance 7:00–9:00 pm Friday, September 20, at the Martha Hill Dance Theater in the campus’s Visual and Performing Arts Center. The New York Times has described Wilson as "[America]'s—or even the world's—foremost vanguard 'theater artist.'” The event is free and open to the public thanks to funding from the Peter Drucker Fund for Excellence and Innovation.
Exhibition reveals the personal collections of Bennington College community members September 17–November 23.
Saving Democracy Together, an innovative non-partisan online and in-person course open to students, alumni, and the public, attracted more than 250 online registrants and 100 in-person participants in its first of seven sessions on Thursday, September 5.
David Buckwald has been named Vice President for Enrollment Management and Marketing at Bennington College. As part of the College’s leadership team, Buckwald will take responsibility for enrollment, financial aid, and marketing and communications. He will report to President Laura Walker.
Bennington College is delighted to announce Allison Gomes has stepped into the role of Vice President for Institutional Advancement. Gomes joined Bennington as Associate Vice President for Development in June 2023 and served as Interim Vice President for Institutional Advancement for a time before taking the role. Gomes is a member of the President’s Cabinet and reports to President Laura Walker.
Bennington College is pleased to announce Shay Totten ’91 as its new Director of Alumni and Constituent Engagement. Shay Totten starts at the College on Monday, September 9, and reports to Vice President for Institutional Advancement Allison Gomes.
Bennington College welcomed a robust and diverse class of 222 new first-year and transfer students this fall.
After the University of the Arts in Philadelphia closed, Bennington College announced the school’s dance program will be revived as the College absorbs the dance school, three staff members and nearly 50 students.
Seven-week program features high-profile speakers to inspire Gen Z engagement in crucial election year.
In a rapid effort to preserve the dance programs shut down by the unexpected closure of the University of the Arts (UArts) on June 7, Bennington College summoned its forces, in collaboration with the UArts dance program, and will welcome students and faculty from the shuttered college’s BFA program this fall.
On Saturday, June 1, 2024, 122 members of Bennington College’s Class of 2024 gathered, along with their family members and friends, faculty, staff, and leadership on a green expanse of lawn at the southern end of campus to receive their degrees.
On May 31 and June 1, Bennington College will celebrate the achievements of the Class of 2024 at the 89th Commencement. Learn more about graduate outcomes across the years.
On May 17 and 18, Bennington's Prison Education Initiative (PEI) gathered together a small group to engage in conversation around access and opportunities to higher education for people serving life or virtual life sentences in America.
Those who knew Reginald Shepherd and those who know his work shared their insights at the 2024 Ben Belitt Colloquium on Arts and Literary Culture.
On Tuesday, April 23, around ninety Jewish and non-Jewish people from every constituency—students, faculty, staff, administration, members of local Jewish congregations, and community members—gathered in the Student Center and took seats around a gigantic ring of white-clothed tables with careful place settings for a Passover Seder.
BENNINGTON, VT— At 8:00 pm Thursday, May 2, Professor Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux from the Department of Geography and Geosciences at the University of Vermont, will give a lecture covering the latest climate change science coming out of the 2023 National Climate Assessment and the implementation of Vermont’s first ever Climate Action Plan, which was adopted in December 2021. The event, this year’s Robert H. Woodworth Lecture in the Sciences, is free and open to the public. It is scheduled for the Tishman Lecture Hall, which is labeled #3 on the campus map.
On a chilly early spring day at Purple Carrot Farm, Lilliana Kelly ’25 took a break from the crew repositioning a silage tarp to recount her history with the place.
Recognizing this urgent moment for American higher education and our democracy, Bennington College is joining sixty other college presidents of diverse institutions from across the country to advance higher education’s pivotal role in preparing students to be engaged citizens and to uphold free expression on campus.