What’s Up in Spring ’26? Olin Elevator Repair, New Course Formats, Pilot Hybrid, and More

by Mary McClellan

Introduction

Although we are currently in the depths of winter, spring is not far behind. And the Bard LLI spring semester will arrive even earlier.

Course Formats

In fact our first Zoom class is scheduled for Wednesday, March 4. Barbara Danish and Laura Brown are returning with a new format. Other Zoom courses will be offered on Thursdays as usual. One of these will be The Birth and Death of Photojournalism, which will be offered by Gary Miller on Zoom on Thursdays and on campus on Fridays.

In addition to a full slate of on-campus courses, Zoom courses, and off-Friday courses, LLI will pilot its first hybrid class in several years. Chuck Mishaan and his dedicated crew will present Opera as Politics: No Kings as an on-campus class, which will also be simultaneously aired via Zoom to LLI members who wish to participate from home. Due to the difficulty in screening out ambient noise, the in-person session will be limited to 15 participants; please keep this in mind when registering for your preregistration course on February 25. The Zoom class will be open to up to 100 viewers. It is suggested that anyone who wishes to attend the Zoom session from campus bring their laptop and headphones. The second hospitality room (Olin 304) will be available for that purpose.

Olin Elevator Repair

A serious consideration for some of our members in registering for classes is the repair of the Olin elevator, which is not scheduled to be completed until March 18th. This will have an impact on anyone who requires the elevator to get to the second or third floors of Olin. Click here for a listing of classroom assignments that members may use as their guide for determining what courses to register for.

Please note that both The Chamber Music of Claude Debussy and Racism, Religion, and Deception are two courses that will be housed on the first floor of Olin. Of course, we hope that the repair work will be completed early, however experience shows that this is seldom the case.

Off-Friday Options

Several off-Friday classes that include but are not limited to Mozart, Sumi-e Brush painting, hiking, strength training, and literature will give our membership the opportunity to enjoy classes and individual presentations both on campus and at various other locations.

Preregistration and Registration

We will continue to offer a day of preregistration on February 25 from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Members may register for one course on this day. We request that anyone who has taken any of three very popular classes (Aging Successfully/Ray Yip, Music! Music! Music!/Joan Tower, Contemporary Artists of the Hudson Valley) refrain from registering for any one of these courses on preregistration day, so that others who have been shut out in the past may have a chance to enjoy these wonderful courses. Open registration for all other courses starts at 9:00 a.m. on February 26.

As always, we wish you good health, and we respectfully request that you stay home if you find yourself plagued with any of the viral or bacterial infections that make their rounds. Please also bring a face mask to classes to protect others, if you have a chronic cough, and to protect yourselves, if someone in your vicinity is coughing.

Thank you to all our presenters, producers, class managers, session managers, Council members, Communications Team, Membership Development Team, Catalog Team, Civic Engagement Team, Distinguished Speakers Team, and all others who make up Bard LLI and support our efforts. It truly takes a village.