Welcome to Yauch House

Brooke Jude is associate professor of biology.
Brooke Jude teaches courses on microbiology, genetics, beneficial microbes, and infectious diseases, and is in her 13th year at Bard. “My research is focused on the beautiful bacteria in the Hudson Valley watershed that exhibit all sorts of biotherapeutic properties and have a bright purple pigment,” she says. She lives in Walters Cottage (behind the Reem-Kayden Center) with her husband, Craig; daughter, Catherine; and one sweet Labrador retriever. Her husband, a PhD scientist who is an assistant registrar at Bard, also teaches science courses to nonmajors, and is an assistant coach of the Bard men’s and women’s track and field teams. Both went to college at another small, Northeastern liberal arts college, Colby, and attended graduate school at Dartmouth College. Catherine attends school in Red Hook, and loves to swim. Brooke and her husband have numerous hobbies. “We love the Northeast, and all that goes with warm sunny summers and cold snowy winters,” she says. “Craig is an amazing cook. I craft and quilt, and love to teach others how to. Students can expect fun and food-filled craft nights, as well as time watching TV, movies, and sports—we are a Yankees/Giants-loving family! It’s important that our whole family is involved in this program. Yauch House made my own home a more open and friendly place. It’s changed the feeling of being on campus.”
More about Brooke

Yauch House is named for Bard alum and member of the Beastie Boys Adam Yauch ’86. 
Adam Yauch (1964–2012) was a member of the Beastie Boys, a pioneering hip-hop group he founded with two friends while in high school in Brooklyn. At Bard, Yauch studied electronic music and credited Professor Emeritus Elie Yarden with expanding his concept of music and sound. Later in Yauch’s career he was a filmmaker and producer, and became deeply involved with the Free Tibet movement. In 2011, Yauch received the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters, Bard’s highest award in the arts, from the Bard College Alumni/ae Association.

“The idea of having student houses stems from a desire to support first-year students in their transition to college, and give them more of a sense of community,” says Brooke Jude, faculty director of the Bard Houses program, who spent six months as part of the team researching the concept, back in 2017. “Other colleges do this by making more faculty available to students.” As part of Yauch House, Jude and her family host evenings that often include baking cookies, toasting s’mores on the fire pit, BBQ-ing, and playing with the dogs. She promotes each event using a mix of social media. Future plans include a painting night, bringing alpacas and llamas to campus, scavenger hunts, sewing workshops, and more competitions between the houses. “I’d also ultimately love to do what Dartmouth does: have an actual space set aside as a living room area for each house, but that’s an idea for the future. We’re rolling things out in a way that seems organic.”