Bennington College Corporation

“Form 990 review process: the chairs of the budget and finance committee and the audit and risk committee of the board of trustees receive a draft of the form 990 for their review and comments. After all of their comments and questions were addressed, changes or corrections were made. The revised 990 was then sent to all board members for their review and comments prior to submission of the final form 990.”

“CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY 1. TRUSTEES, OFFICERS AND KEY EMPLOYEES OF BENNINGTON COLLEGE SHALL AVOID PLACING THEMSELVES IN POSITIONS IN WHICH THERE MAY BE CONFLICT BETWEEN THEIR PERSONAL INTERESTS AND THEIR DUTIES TO BENNINGTON. 2. A CONFLICT OF INTEREST EXISTS WHEN THERE IS THE POTENTIAL THAT A TRUSTEE, OFFICER, OR KEY EMPLOYEE MAY OBTAIN A DIRECT OR INDIRECT PECUNIARY OR OTHER PERSONAL BENEFIT, OR ANY OTHER IMPROPER GAIN OR ADVANTAGE, AT THE EXPENSE OF THE INTERESTS OF THE COLLEGE, OR WHEN A TRUSTEE, OFFICER, OR KEY EMPLOYEE OF THE COLLEGE ACCEPTS A GIFT OR OTHER FAVOR UNDER CIRCUMSTANCES FROM WHICH IT MIGHT BE INFERRED THAT SUCH GIFTS WERE INTENDED TO INFLUENCE THE PERFORMANCE OF DUTIES FOR THE COLLEGE. 3. INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THIS POLICY HAVE A DUTY TO VOLUNTARILY SELF-DISCLOSE TO THE CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES (UNLESS THE DISCLOSURE IS BY THE CHAIR, IN WHICH EVENT IT SHALL BE MADE TO THE VICE CHAIR) ANY POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: (1) PRIOR TO ASSUMING THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES, AND (2) AT THE TIME ANY POTENTIAL CONFLICT ARISES. IN THE CASE OF DISCLOSURE BY A KEY EMPLOYEE UNRELATED TO THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES, THE DISCLOSURE SHALL BE MADE TO THE PRESIDENT. 4. EACH PROPOSED TRANSACTION IN WHICH IT IS DISCLOSED OR OTHERWISE KNOWN TO THE BOARD OR TO MANAGEMENT THAT A TRUSTEE, OFFICER, OR KEY EMPLOYEE MAY HAVE A CONFLICT OF INTEREST SHALL BE SUBMITTED TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES FOR SUCH ACTION AS THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MAY DETERMINE AND REPORTED TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 5. ANY INDIVIDUAL COVERED BY THIS POLICY SHALL NOT VOTE OR USE THAT INDIVIDUAL'S PERSONAL INFLUENCE ON ANY MATTER WITH RESPECT TO WHICH THE INDIVIDUAL BELIEVES HIM OR HERSELF TO HAVE A CONFLICT OF INTEREST, OR WITH RESPECT TO WHICH THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE HAS DETERMINED PURSUANT TO PARAGRAPH 4 THAT THE INDIVIDUAL HAS A CONFLICT OF INTEREST SUBJECT TO THIS POLICY. 6. ALL DISSENTING VOTES AND ABSTENTIONS FROM VOTING SHALL BE DULY NOTED IN THE MINUTES OF ALL MEETINGS OF THE BOARD AND ITS COMMITTEES 7. EACH TRUSTEE, OFFICER OR KEY EMPLOYEE SHALL SIGN A CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE STATEMENT ATTACHED HERETO. 8. THE SECRETARY OF THE CORPORATION SHALL MAINTAIN A FILE OF INFORMATION DISCLOSED BY TRUSTEES, OFFICER AND KEY EMPLOYEES. SUCH FILE OF INFORMATION SHALL BE AMENDED ANNUALLY ON SUCH DATE AS THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES SHALL DETERMINE. Annual disclosure statements which list any conflicts or potential conflicts are collected from key employees and trustees. All new employees and trustees are made aware of the conflict of interest policy.”

“Compensation policy: the chair of the board of trustees meets annually with selected board members to review the compensation of the college's president. After evaluating the president's performance and reviewing data from other pertinent institutions, the committee determines compensation for the subsequent fiscal year. The chair of the board then informs the college's cfo in writing of the board's determination.”

“Organization's mission: the men and women who brought bennington college into being sought to create a college that would emphasize "the individual student and her developing interests," learning "by activity and living," a community life designed to "break down artificial barriers between teacher and student and between curriculum and extra curriculum," and "a conscious elasticity in educational plans." the principle of learning by practice and the emphasis on the individual underlie every major feature of a bennington education: the close working relationship between student and teacher, the insistence on self-determination, the commitment to learning across the disciplines, and the field work term, which gives students work experience and connects them to the greater community. The plan process, through which students design their academic experiences and navigate their bennington education, embodies the college's mission. Also key to bennington's philosophy is the conviction that a college education should not merely provide preparation for graduate school or a career, but should be an experience valuable in itself and the model for a lifelong habit of learning. In the 1930s the college's first president, robert devore leigh, developed a statement describing bennington's guiding ideals. This statement-which was read at the first commencement in 1936 and has been part of every commencement since-continues to express the college's mission and purposes.”

“Bennington regards education as a sensual and ethical, no less than an intellectual, process. It seeks to liberate and nurture the individuality, the creative intelligence, and the ethical and aesthetic sensibility of its students, to the end that their richly varied natural endowments will be directed toward self-fulfillment and toward constructive social purposes. We believe that these educational goals are best served by demanding our students' active participation in the planning of their own programs, and in the regulation of their own lives on campus. Student freedom is not the absence of restraint, however; it is rather the fullest possible substitution of habits of self-restraint for restraint imposed by others. The exercise of student freedom is the very condition of a meaningful education, and an essential aspect of the nurture of free citizens, dedicated to civilized values and capable of creative and constructive membership in modern society.”

“Bennington's center for the advancement of public action, which opened in 2011, is the latest expression of the college's commitment to engaging the world: by embedding in the curriculum an ongoing dynamic between public responsibilities and private ambitions, bennington aims to increase the odds that its graduates are committed to, and capable of effective action in the world. Bennington students draw on the full breadth of the college's curriculum which offers classes in the humanities, natural sciences, mathematics, social science, and visual and performing arts-to design individual courses of study that are unified and fueled by their intellect and imagination, guided by their faculty, and shaped by their experience working in the world each year.”

“Bennington college adjusted the classifications of publicly traded and other securities for the 2013 tax return as appropriate. As such, bennington college is restating lines 11 and 12 of the opening balance sheet for comparability purposes.”

“Change in value of investment return on long-term investments 12,080 change in value of interest rate swap agreements (244,347) change in value of split interest agreements 861,531 allowance for uncollectability (9,185,736) ________ total (8,556,472)”