The planning for the establishment of Bennington College began in 1924 and took nine years to be realized. While many people were involved, the four central figures in the founding of Bennington were Vincent Ravi Booth, Mr. and Mrs. Hall Park McCullough, and William Heard Kilpatrick.[4]
A Women's Committee, headed by Mrs. Hall Park McCullough, organized the Colony Club Meeting in 1924, which brought together some 500 civic leaders and educators from across the country.[5] As a result of the Colony Club Meeting, a charter was secured and a board of trustees formed for Bennington College. One of the trustees, John Dewey, helped shape many of the college's signature programs such as The Plan Process and Field Work Term through his educational principles.[4]
In 1928, six years before the college would begin, Robert Devore Leigh was recruited by the Bennington College executive committee to serve as the first president of Bennington. Leigh presided over the forging of Bennington's structure and its early operation. In 1929 Leigh authored the Bennington College Prospectus which outlined the "Bennington idea".[4]
1930s
The first class of eighty-seven women arrived on campus in 1932. The college was the first to include the visual and performing arts as full-fledged elements of the liberal arts curriculum.
Every year since the college began in 1932, every Bennington College student has engaged in internships and volunteer opportunities each winter term. Originally called the Winter Field & Reading Period, the two-month term was described by President Robert Devore Leigh in his 1928 Bennington College Prospectus as "a long winter recess giving students and faculty opportunity for travel, field work, and educational advantages of metropolitan life". This internship was renamed twice, as Non-Resident term and, as it is called today, Field Work Term.[4]
Between 1935 and 1939 the famous social psychologist Theodore Newcomb conducted a study about the change of political attitude during the New Deal period.[6]
President Leigh resigned in 1941, at the age of 50, saying he thought no college should be "shackled by executive leadership gradually growing stale, feeble or lacking in initiative". He was succeeded by a member of the Bennington faculty, Dr. Lewis Webster Jones, economist and labor mediator.[7]
1940s–1980s
In 1946, Paula Jean Welden, a sophomore at the college, disappeared while on a hike of the nearby Long Trail. She was living in Dewey House at the time and had traveled alone. Many students assisted in the search, but Paula was never found. Frederick H. Burkhardt, who had been ready to decline an invitation to become president of the college, visited the campus was impressed with the cohesion and support of the community in the face of this tragedy and accepted the offer. At age 35, he became the youngest college president in the nation.[8]
In 1951 the U.S. State Department issued a documentary on Bennington highlighting its unique educational approach as a model for the Allied rebuilding of German society after the War.[9]
The college continued to expand its physical infrastructure. Built in 1959, the Edward Clark Crossett Library was designed by the modernist architect Pietro Belluschi. After opening, Crossett Library was featured in Architectural Forum and became a focus of study for many architecture students in the 1960s. Crossett Library went on to win the 1963 Honor Award for library design. In 1968, three new student houses were completed to help house the growing student population and were named in honor of William C. Fels, Jessie Smith Noyes, and Margaret Smith Sawtell. These houses were designed by the distinguished modernist architect, Edward Larrabee Barnes, who posthumously earned the 2007 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal.[citation needed]
In 1969, Bennington became fully coeducational, a move that attracted major national attention, including a major feature story in The New York Times Magazine.[10] The presidency of Gail Thain Parker from 1972 to 1976 was marked by controversy over curriculum reform, affirmative action, and relations between faculty and administration. [11]
1990s
In 1993, the Bennington College Board of Trustees initiated a process known as "The Symposium". Arguing that the college suffered from "a growing attachment to the status quo that, if unattended, is lethal to Bennington's purpose and pedagogy",[12] the board of trustees "solicit[ed] ... concerns and proposals on a wide and open-ended range of issues from every member of the faculty, every student, every staff member, every alumna and alumnus, and dozens of friends of the College."[13] According to the trustees, the process was intended to reinvent the college, and the board said it received over 600 contributions to this end.[13]
The results of the process were published in June 1994 in a 36-page document titled Symposium Report of the Bennington College Board of Trustees. Recommended changes included the following:
Abandonment of academic divisions in favor of "polymorphous, dynamically changing Faculty Program Groups";[15]
Replacement of the college's system of presumptive tenure with "an experimental contract system";[16] and
A 10% tuition reduction over the following five years.[17] In 1988, according to The New York Times, Bennington was the most expensive college in the country.[18]
Near the end of June 1994, 27 faculty members (approximately one-third of the total faculty body) were notified by certified mail that their contracts would not be renewed.[19] (The exact number of fired faculty members is listed as 25 or 26 in some reports, a discrepancy partly because at least one faculty member, photographer Neil Rappaport, was reinstated on appeal shortly after his firing.)[20] As recommended in the Symposium, the trustees abolished the presumptive tenure system, leaving the institution with no form of tenure. The firings attracted considerable media attention.
Some students and alumni protested, and the college was censured for its actions by the American Association of University Professors, who said, "academic freedom is insecure, and academic tenure is nonexistent today at Bennington College."[21] Critics of the Symposium, and the 1994 firings, have alleged that the Symposium was essentially a sham, designed to provide a pretext for the removal of faculty members to whom the college's president, Elizabeth Coleman, was hostile.[22] Some have questioned the timing of the firings, arguing that by waiting until the end of June, the college made it impossible for students affected by the firings to transfer to other institutions.[23]
President Coleman responded that the decision was fundamentally "about ideas", stating that "Bennington became mediocre over time" and that the college was in need of radical change.[22] Coleman argued that the college was in dire financial straits, saying that "had Bennington done nothing ... the future of this institution was seriously in doubt."[24] In a letter to The New York Times, John Barr, chairman of the board of trustees, asserted that Coleman was "not responsible for the redesign of the college ... It was the board of trustees".[25]
In May 1996, 17 of the faculty members terminated in the 1994 firings filed a lawsuit against Bennington College, seeking $3.7 million in damages and reinstatement to their former positions.[26] In December 2000, the case was settled out of court; as part of the settlement, the fired faculty members received $1.89 million and an apology from the college.[27] In the immediate wake of the controversy, for the 1994–1995 academic year, the college's enrollment dropped to a record low of 370 undergraduates,[28] and the following year (1995–1996), undergraduate enrollment declined to 285.[29][30] According to Coleman, a student body of 600 undergraduates was required for the college to break even.[28]
2000s and 2010s
As of 2015[update], the college reports a total enrollment of 755 students with steady increases in quality student applications.[31] Bennington College appeared on the Princeton Review's 2018 Best Northeastern Colleges List,[32] which includes the schools that it considers "academically outstanding and well worth consideration in your college search". Bennington also appeared on Princeton's "Green Schools" list.[33] Notably, Bennington was also featured in a 2016 article by Forbes as one of "Tomorrow's Hot Colleges" highlighting the institution's recent flourishing "under bold, entrepreneurial leadership".[34]
In 2015 Bennington College announced a $5 million gift from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation. The largest single gift ever awarded by the foundation has helped establish the Helen Frankenthaler Fund for the Visual Arts and provides support for all aspects of the school's visual arts program including curricula, facilities, programs, and faculty. In recognition of the gift, the visual arts wing of the college's 120,000-square-foot arts facility was renamed the Helen Frankenthaler Visual Arts Center.[35]
In 2015, the college had a student to faculty ratio of 8:1 and an average class size of 13 students.[40] Bennington College is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.[41] In 2021, U.S. News & World Report ranked Bennington #76 in National Liberal Arts Colleges and #38 in Best Undergraduate Teaching Programs for National Liberal Arts Colleges.[42]
Plan Process
At Bennington, students receive graduate-style advising from a faculty member who assists with course selection, internship and job applications, graduate school preparation, and more. Bennington does not have traditional academic majors for undergraduate students. Instead, the Plan Process is an alternative to majors, which encourages students to lead their own education, rather than choosing from pre-existing paths.
Within the Plan Process, there are no required courses, so from the moment students arrive, they are free to begin crafting their plan of study to meet their interests and explore new fields.[43] In their second year, students must submit an essay-style Plan proposal, which details their desired primary and secondary areas of study, a summary of their interests and previous coursework, and a framework for how their studies should progress to culminate in senior work in one of the existing disciplines such as Society, Culture and Thought, Advancement of Public Action, Dance, Environmental Studies, Visual Arts, and others.[44] Students then meet with a committee of faculty members and their academic adviser to review the proposed Plan and make any necessary changes. After their Plan is improved, students regularly meet with their adviser to choose relevant courses and meet again with the Plan committee each fall to discuss their progress towards completion. Because of the Plan Process, no two students at Bennington will graduate with the same exact mix of learning.[43]
Field Work Term
Field Work Term is a required annual internship program that gives students the opportunity to gain professional experience beyond the classroom before graduating. Field Work Term experiences often inform students' decisions about career planning and can even lead to job opportunities post graduation. Bennington is the only college that has required an annual internship for students since its founding.[45]
Isabelle Kaplan Center for Languages and Culture[47]
The Museum Fellows Term
Quantum Leap Program
Graduate programs
Jennings, the college's music building
Bennington college offers the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in multiple disciplines and the Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program.[48] Previously an MAT or BA/MAT was offered in Education through the Center for Creative Teaching, until discontinued around 2012.[49]
Bennington Writing Seminars
Bennington Writing Seminars is a low-residency Master of Fine Arts program in writing founded by Poet Liam Rector in 1994. After Rector's death in August 2007, Sven Birkerts was director until 2017. Poet Mark Wunderlich is the current director of Bennington Writing Seminars.[50] U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall was a long time writer-in-residence.
The MFA in Dance is designed as a two-year, four-term program; however, those who cannot commit to four consecutive terms are encouraged to propose an alternative schedule when applying.[53]
Music
Like the MFA in Dance program, the MFA in Music is a two-year, four-term program. Students pursue work at an advanced level in either composition or voice. (In exceptional cases, students wishing to pursue postgraduate work in other performance areas may be considered.) [54]
Public Action
The Center for the Advancement of Public Action at Bennington College established a Master of Fine Arts in Public Action in 2018. Directed by Susan Sgorbati,[55] the program aims to support artists working in social justice.[56]
PostBac PreMed
Bennington's PostBac program was suspended indefinitely in 2021. It was a one-year program, beginning and ending in June, and it covered the basic requirements for medical school and other health profession tracks.[57]
Campus
The groundbreaking ceremony for Bennington College took place on August 16, 1931, and construction of the original Bennington College campus was completed by 1936. The Boston architectural firm, J.W. Ames and E.S. Dodge designed Commons, the 12 original student houses, as well as the reconfiguration of the Barn from a working farm building into classrooms and administrative offices. The original student houses were named for the people integral to the founding of the college. The campus was built by more than 100 local craftsmen, many of whom had been out of work since the stock market crash of 1929.[4] The campus stretches 440 acres with main campus centered on 10 acres. There are 300 wooded acres, 15 acres of wetland, and 5 acres of tilled farmland.
94% of students live on campus. There are 21 student houses and all dorms are co-educational. Each dorm hosts a weekly "Coffee Hour" on Sunday evenings where students discuss campus and house issues together. There are also 15 staff/faculty houses.[59][60]
Bennington College has a total undergraduate enrollment of 668, with a gender distribution of 32.9 percent male students and 67.1 percent female students. 94.0 percent of the students live in college-owned, -operated, or -affiliated housing and 6.0 percent of students live off campus.[61] In 2021 the director of campus security resigned after hiring a white supremacist to the campus safety staff.[62] Unfortunately, in the past ten years Bennington has had a high student suicide rate. The college goes to great lengths not to involve local media when this occurs, however, there have been at least 6 student suicides in the last 7 years. [63][64][65]
In 2017, Bennington College acquired the Robert Frost Stone House Museum through a gift from the Friends of Robert Frost. Robert Frost lived in the colonial era home in Shaftsbury, VT from 1920 to 1929, during which time he wrote many of his well known works including the poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening".[69]
Frost was involved in the founding of Bennington during the 1930s, suggesting the use of narrative evaluations which became a core aspect of the college's academic process.[69]
In literature
Camden College, a fictionalized version of Bennington, appears in the works of Bret Easton Ellis, Jill Eisenstadt, and Jonathan Lethem.[70][71] Whereas Ellis's Camden College is located in New Hampshire, Lethem's Camden is in Vermont, and is notable for being the most expensive college in the United States. All three of the writers attended Bennington College, which is really located in Vermont, and was at one time notorious for being the most expensive college in the United States.[citation needed] Bennington graduate Donna Tartt uses the same Bennington-inspired backdrop for her 1992 novel The Secret History, but for her it is Hampden College. However, Eisenstadt and Lethem use 'Camden' in From Rockaway (1987) and The Fortress of Solitude (2003), respectively.
Camden is first mentioned in Ellis's debut novelLess than Zero (1985), and is the central setting of his next, The Rules of Attraction (1987). Eisenstadt's From Rockaway and Tartt's The Secret History both depict working class young people who gain scholarships to the fictionalized liberal arts college; both are alluded to in The Rules of Attraction (Ellis having read the first draft of Secret History). Characters said to have attended Camden appear in Ellis's American Psycho (1991), The Informers (1994) and Glamorama (1998), the last of which features flashback sequences to the characters' Camden days. In Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude (2003), Camden appears later in the novel once main character Dylan Ebdus begins college. In Ellis's pseudo-autobiographical horror novel Lunar Park (2005), the fictional Bret Easton Ellis attended Camden College and recalls many of its fictional characters.[citation needed]
^Edmundson, Mark (October 23, 1994), "Bennington means business", The New York Times: 1 [Section 6, Col. 1]
^Dembner, Alice (April 15, 1995), "National professors' group calls Bennington overhaul a 'purge'", The Boston Globe: 22 [Metro–Region section]
^Howie, Stephen S. (May 5, 2002), "Bennington makes recovery its own way: President is credited with setting the course", The Boston Globe: B11 [Education section]
^ abEdmundson, Mark (October 23, 1994). "Bennington Means Business". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved January 13, 2018.
^December, Alice (September 14, 1994), "Striking a discord: Record low enrollment follows radical changes at Bennington College", The Boston Globe: 1 [Metro–Region section]
^"Change begins at Bennington", St. Louis Post-Dispatch: 12C, June 28, 1994
^"Bennington means business (letter response)", The New York Times: 22 [Section 6, Col. 4], November 27, 1994
^Yemma, John (May 8, 1996), "Laid-off Bennington faculty members sue", The Boston Globe: 32
^"17 Dismissed Professors Win Suit at Bennington", The New York Times: 16 [Section A, Column 1], December 29, 2000 [corrected January 1, 2001]
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