Simon’s Rock announces four new deans
GREAT BARRINGTON — Bard Academy and Bard College at Simon’s Rock announce the appointment of several new deans to help guide the future of academic affairs and student support services at the institution. Dr. Kristy McMorris has been named the new Dean of Studies and Brendan Mathews has been selected as the new Dean of Faculty & Curricular Development. Additionally, Dr. John Morrell has been named the new Associate Dean for Bard Academy and First Year Students, and Dr. Ken Knox has become the new Associate Dean of Studies for the Sophomore Year and the Upper College.
McMorris will provide leadership and administrative oversight of students’ academic experience at both Bard Academy and Bard College at Simon’s Rock. Most recently the Dean of Bard Academy, McMorris has been an early college educator for nearly a decade, and began her work as a member of the faculty in Literature at Bard High School Early College in Queens, New York. She was the founding director of the Bard Early College at Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy and was Bard Fellow at Bard College at Simon’s Rock from 2016–2018. McMorris is also an associate for the Bard Institute for Writing and Thinking. She holds a PhD and an MA from New York University and a BA from Howard University.
Brendan Mathews will oversee the development and staffing of the academic programs for Bard Academy and Bard College at Simon’s Rock. Mathews is a faculty member in creative writing and literature at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. He was a 2014 Fulbright U.S. Scholar in Ireland, where he was Fulbright Visiting Professor at University College Cork. He is the author of “The World of Tomorrow” and “This Is Not a Love Song,” and his stories have twice appeared in Best American Short Stories. Mathews holds a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MFA from the University of Virginia.
As the new Associate Dean for Bard Academy and First Year Students, Morrell will play a vital role on the academic leadership team at Simon’s Rock. He will offer direct insight and support to academic advising, student success, and academic processes, with a focus on overseeing new students’ transition to Simon’s Rock within the Academy and the College during orientation and throughout their first years at the institution. He will also continue to teach literature at Simon’s Rock. Prior to joining Simon’s Rock in 2018, Morrell was the head of the English Department at Loomis Chaffee School and a lecturer in the Department of English at Vanderbilt University. He has a BA from Hamilton College and an MA and PhD from Vanderbilt University.
Similarly, in his new role as Associate Dean of Studies for the Sophomore Year and the Upper College, Knox will be a critical member of the Simon’s Rock leadership team, providing direct academic guidance, support, and planning for students’ transition from the Lower College into the Upper College. Knox will continue to teach mathematics at Simon’s Rock, a position he has held since 2016. Prior to Simon’s Rock, he held a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow position at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He holds a BS/BA from the University of Georgia and a PhD from Stony Brook University.
—A.K.
* * *
Berkshire Community College institutes debt forgiveness program
PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Community College (BCC) announces its plans to use $335,000 in federal Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds (HEERF) to erase outstanding balances accrued by students enrolled in credit degree or certificate programs from March 13, 2020–May 31, 2021. HEERF funds were earmarked as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Students affected by the program have been informed via letter. Debt forgiveness not only allows students to reapply for admission to BCC, but also stops attempts from collection agencies and Intercept, a system used by the Commonwealth to attach student debt to tax returns, lottery winnings, etc.
“Even small amounts of debt can derail a student’s ability to progress through their college career, which will negatively impact their ability to find high-wage employment later in life,” said Adam Klepetar, BCC Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management. “Getting students to graduation is something we approach holistically, and debt forgiveness aligns with our commitment to equitable student success.”
While the current debt forgiveness program is specific to the pandemic, Klepetar explained that keeping education affordable has long been a priority at BCC. “Our strategy has been to provide long-term financial wellness coaching, offer credit courses in financial literacy, and create opportunities for paid internships,” he said, noting that a recent gift from Berkshire Bank will help supplement these efforts. To further help students with short-term and long-term financial strategies, BCC has also bolstered its financial coaching team and created cross-divisional alignments through its One Stop Student Success project.
For more information about debt or financial aid at BCC, visit the College’s financial aid page or email onestop@berkshirecc.edu.
—A.K.
* * *
Jeff Rodgers steps down as Berkshire Museum executive director
PITTSFIELD — Jeff Rodgers stepped down as executive director of the Berkshire Museum on September 10, 2021, after two and a half years serving the museum and the Berkshire community.
In an announcement to staff, Rodgers noted, “Thanks to the hard work of many, the museum has made tremendous progress. We are financially secure, deferred maintenance issues have been addressed, and we have just celebrated the re-opening of our second-floor galleries and learning spaces after extensive renovations. The strength of the museum’s current position makes my decision easier.”
Board of Trustees President Ethan Klepetar expressed gratitude on behalf of the board for Rodgers’ contributions. “Jeff has led the museum in a steady, thoughtful manner that has set the organization on a path to a brighter future, and his creative insights have laid the groundwork for exciting improvements in development today. He has built a strong leadership team around him which will now confidently share interim leadership of the museum as the staff continue to create innovative new programs and experiences for our community and carry on partnerships Jeff has built with other community organizations that have strengthened the Berkshires cultural community.”
The Board of Trustees will engage a search firm to assist with a national search for a new director. Interim leadership of the museum will be shared by Chief Engagement Officer Hilary Dunne Ferrone, Chief Experience Officer Craig Langlois, and Chief Operating Officer Miriam Kronberg.
—A.K.
* * *
Credit Union of the Berkshires members approve merger with Greylock
PITTSFIELD – Credit Union of the Berkshires (CUB) Members gathered Thursday evening at a special meeting and voted to approve the proposed merger with Greylock Federal Credit Union (Greylock). The merger will become effective on October 1 and all CUB nembers will be moved over to Greylock’s banking systems by the end of October.
This vote was the final step in a process that began when CUB approached Greylock with a Merger Request for Proposal and has ultimately led to regulatory approval from the National Credit Union Administration, Massachusetts Division of Banks, and Massachusetts Credit Union Share Insurance Corporation.
Greylock will assume CUB’s nearly $23 million in assets and approximately 2,000 members. All employees of CUB have been offered positions with Greylock. The CUB branch on Williams Street in Pittsfield will be closed due to the proximity of an existing Greylock branch on nearby Elm Street.
—A.K.
* * *
MCLA continues to climb U.S. News college rankings, adds faculty
NORTH ADAMS — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) appears in the 2022 U.S. News and World Report rankings as #7 on the list of Top Public Colleges, and #21 as a Top Performer on Social Mobility and first among all Massachusetts schools. MCLA also continues to appear on the list of Top National Liberal Arts Colleges.
MCLA has appeared on U.S. News’ list of Top Public Colleges for nine of the past 11 years. The College has also appeared on its list of National Liberal Arts Colleges for Social Mobility since the organization adopted this ranking in 2019. This list measures how well schools graduate students who receive federal Pell Grants, typically awarded to students whose families make less than $50,000, though most Pell Grant money goes to families with income below $20,000.
More than 45 percent of MCLA undergraduate students receive Pell Grants, and more than 40 percent are the first in their families to go to college. Nearly 85 percent of students receive some kind of financial aid.
The 2022 rankings represent a march upward for the College. In 2021, MCLA was ranked #9 on the list of Top Public Colleges, and appeared in the top 50 National Liberal Arts Colleges for social mobility.
U.S. News ranks colleges based on indicators that reflect a school’s student body, its faculty, and its financial resources, along with outcome measures that signal how well the institution achieves its mission of educating students.
MCLA has also announced four new faculty members for the fall 2021 semester: Andrew (Drew) Best, Assistant Professor of Biology; Rebecca Relyea, Assistant Professor of Radiologic Sciences; Yavuz Ceylan, Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry; and Sean Scanlon: Visiting Assistant Professor of History.
Best joins the MCLA Biology Department after 15 years of teaching high school biology. He recently earned a PhD in biological anthropology from UMass, emerging as an expert in the evolution of human sweating. He is currently collaborating on a project exploring evolved energetic limits to human endurance.
Relyea earned a BA in teaching from the College of Saint Rose, and later chose to pursue radiology, earning an associate’s degree in Radiologic Sciences from Ogeechee Technical College in Statesboro, Georgia. She graduated top of her class and went on to work in several level 1 trauma centers in Savannah as both a radiologic technologist and CT technologist. After returning to Albany in 2014, she spent the next six years working at Albany Medical Center as a level 5 radiologic technologist and the education coordinator for the Radiology Department, part of which involved serving as a clinical liaison and resource for many of the local schools, including MCLA. She recently earned her master’s degree from Excelsior College.
Ceylan obtained a BS in chemistry from Gaziosmanpasa University, Turkey. He then moved to Texas as a high school teacher for three years. He obtained his PhD (2019) in inorganic chemistry from University of North Texas. His doctoral work was on modeling of organometallic catalysts, such as conversion olefin to primary alcohol, styrene and C-N compounds via employing quantum mechanical calculations. He was a postdoctoral associate in computational chemistry at Brandeis University, investigating excited state dynamics and using theoretical approach to ligand effect on metal cluster.
Scanlon attended Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts, where he was a double-major in history and religious studies. In 2015, he entered the graduate program in history at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, where he studied U.S., European, and international history and worked as a teaching assistant for undergraduate courses. From 2018-2021, he taught courses in U.S. history at both UNL and the University of Nebraska – Omaha. A specialist in U.S. history in the 20th century, Sean’s research investigates the cultural, diplomatic, and political relationship between the United States and Israel, with a particular focus on the 1970s and 1980s. Sean came to MCLA after graduating with a PhD in history from UNL and will teach introductory and upper-level U.S. history courses
—A.K.
