7bec3b03_s_to_fear___Academic_Jobs_Wiki___Department
[School] Bard C [Issue and Date] Bard is a troubled institution. There are many reasons for this: an unusually powerful and unstable administration, including the president and the Dean of the College, a complete lack of faculty governance and resulting infantilization of the faculty, and a culture of fealty, fear, and lies. The college has a disturbing history of firing/not retaining faculty of color and gay men in particular, although all probationary faculty are at risk, the college's own tenure and promotion guidelines are regularly violated during third-year and tenure reviews, and the college has a peculiarly strong sense of itself (fit) grounded in the whims of its well-known and long-tenured president that works to enforce narrow senses of faculty roles and placement (i.e., racism and homophobia). It's relationship to curriculum programming is parochial; many of its older, tenured faculty are remarkably conservative in a disciplinary sense, and do not nor want to understand contemporary training of graduate students; searches are regularly voided by the president, and search committees themselves often engage in blatant and openly discriminatory hiring practices (for instance, not considering any applications from women of color, in the example of one search); and the differences between those empowered and those disempowered is based not in performance, teaching, or research, but in one's proximity to the president and his acolytes, in particular the current Dean. The Dean's Office regularly lies to faculty, does not follow established college procedures, and engages in patently illegal personal decisions. The college has such a troubled litigation history that there is an academic labor lawyer in New York City that *specializes* in Bard cases. Confidentiality agreements usually contain this disturbing trend (none is being broached here, btw). Use caution when applying and/or considering an offer from the college, especially for interdisciplinary-based applicants, applicants who are gay men or of color, and anyone who desires a healthy working atmosphere. I interviewed for Bard (German) a few years ago and heard lots of troubling stories about arbitrary decision-making by the administration there. I didn't get an offer and probably wouldn't have gone there anyway, so I can't confirm this out of experience. But I can say that it was one of the worst interview experiences I've ever had. Did not bode well for collegiality. The most toxic environment imaginable. President and dean consistently intimidate and manipulate faculty in the worst imaginable ways. Several faculty members simply play into their hands and contribute to the hostility. My best advice: STAY AWAY. [Department] 
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