the majority of the students here are white and privileged, like max kenner, who came up with the idea of the bard prison program when he was a student here in the 1990s. he had been volunteering in prisons and knew the inmates were hungry for an education, but few opportunities were available to them. >> i visited 30 or 40 prisons. i did not encounter one single superintendent who wasn't enthusiastic about the possibility of starting a college within that prison. >> it is hard to get professors to teach in the program? >> no one has once taught for us and not wanted to do it again. >> i'm gonna put up some possibilities on the board, because this is intense. >> professor tabetha ewing teaches european history here at bard college. >> okay, how many people for absolute monarchy? >> last fall... >> the monarch... >> she also started teaching the same european history course to the prisoners. >> how many of you would choose absolute monarchy? >> how did she feel when you found herself in a room with prisoners and no guard? >> as soon as we shut the door and we began working, it was the m