John Weinstein Named Provost of Bard College at Simon’s Rock

GREAT BARRINGTON, MA—John Weinstein has been appointed as the next provost of Bard College at Simon’s Rock, starting the 2020-2021 academic year, Bard College President Leon Botstein announced today. Weinstein, who has been Bard’s dean of early colleges since 2017, was a founding faculty member at the first Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) in New York City and principal of BHSEC Newark, where he served with distinction for five years. Weinstein holds an AB from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in Chinese language and literature from Columbia University. He has taught Chinese language, Asian Studies, and Asian and Western theater at Simon’s Rock and Bard. He will assume the position of provost on July 1, 2020, at which time interim provost Dimitri Papadimitriou will return full time to Bard’s Annandale-on-Hudson campus as president of the Levy Economics Institute and member of the economics faculty.

“John Weinstein has, throughout his career, shown a deep commitment to the ideals of early college,” said Bard College President Leon Botstein. “As a nine-year veteran of the faculty at Simon’s Rock, the exceptional principal of the Bard Early College High School in Newark, and chief academic officer of the Early College Network, he is the ideal person to lead Simon’s Rock in its next chapter.” Weinstein’s appointment comes with the enthusiastic endorsement of Simon’s Rock’s Board of Overseers. Jamie Clark, Chair of the Board said, “I am very excited that John has accepted the appointment as Simon’s Rock’s next Provost. His many years of experience as an educator and administrator in the early college world make him an ideal leader for us, and his dedication to our particular age group is inspirational.”

Ian Bickford, an AA graduate of Simon’s Rock who earned his BA at Berkeley and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Center of the University of the City of New York, was founding dean of Bard Academy from 2014 to 2015 and served as provost of Bard at Simon’s Rock from 2016 to 2019. He has worked for more than a decade helping to build Bard’s early college and international network programs. He will become the provost and vice president of Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV) where he has been acting provost and vice president since last year. Bard is a key partner of FUV, where it has proven invaluable in the building of academic programs at FUV, particularly the undergraduate liberal arts curriculum.

Dumaine Williams, Bard College Class of ’03, the principal of BHSEC Cleveland, has been named vice president and dean of early colleges at Bard, the position previously held by John Weinstein. Williams, who is from Jamaica, graduated from Bard College with a degree in biology, received an MA in education leadership from Montclair State University and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Stony Brook. He will oversee the academic programs in Bard’s growing national network of public early college programs.

(press release sent to WSBS from Bard College at Simon's Rock for online and on-air use)