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A College in the City
This report, commissioned by Dr. William Birenbaum, then the president of the Educational Affiliate of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and later the first president of Staten Island Community College, argues that urban institutions of [...]
Oral History Interview with Henry Arce
In this interview conducted about CUNY’s Open Admissions program, Arce describes his journey from the NYC Public School system to graduating from college. He credits his mother, who raised him alone in a Puerto Rican, immigrant community, for [...]
"Free Speech Victory"
Published by the "Citizens Committee for Constitutional Liberties," this is a collection of news clippings featuring articles relating to free speech issues on CUNY college campuses in 1961. The committee had formed in opposition to the [...]
Newton Hall Statement
“We as white students, can either be a part of the solution or a part of the problem. At Huey P. Newton Hall of Political Action we are attempting to become a part of the solution.” In solidarity with black and Puerto Rican students, a group of [...]
"A three-pronged experimental approach to the problem of undiscovered college potential among the young men and women of New York City"
This memorandum from Chancellor Bowker’s office called for three new forms of CUNY desegregation programs (pp. 1-2). This “three-pronged experiment” would be excused from CUNY’s general obligation to admit only students with the highest [...]
Minutes from 4/8/1965 CCNY Faculty Council Meeting
In these notes from a liberal arts and sciences faculty council meeting at City College, CCNY President Gallagher describes a tentative plan to admit 100 “disadvantaged” students into an experimental program in fall 1965. After discussion, the [...]
Minutes of April 1965 CCNY "Special Committee"
One week after CCNY President Buell Gallagher obtained faculty approval for its creation, he sat in on this “Special Committee” meeting chaired by Bernard Levy to begin to plan a new racial and social justice admissions and support program that [...]
1967 - 1968 Annual Report of the SEEK Program
This is a CUNY-wide report for the SEEK program during the 1967-68 academic year. Included in the document is a cover letter from SEEK director Leslie Berger to CUNY Chancellor Albert Bowker, a table of contents, a list of SEEK administrators, and [...]
A New Role for Psychology: Working with Disadvantaged Persons in a College Setting
In this 10-page "position paper," Berger describes and offers a theoretical rationale for the central role of psychological counselors within SEEK. A handwritten note adds an additional source on page 10. Short for "Search for Education, Elevation, [...]
To Help Them Achieve: The Academic Talent Search Project 1966-68, Part II
In the Fall of 1964, (armed with a Rockefeller Foundation grant) Brooklyn College’s School of General Studies launched a 42 student pilot program using Bowker’s model, which it called the “Academic Talent Search Project” or “ATSP.” The [...]
The Pre Baccalaureate Program at the College
In this December 1966 City College Alumnus article, Leslie Berger publicly describes and advocates for the City College SEEK model and challenges all traditional college admissions criteria as incompetent measures of student potential. Short [...]
Janet Mayes: An Oral History of the CCNY 1960’s SEEK Program
In this oral history interview, Janet Mayes, a City College SEEK writing teacher reflects on her experiences with the program. Mayes joined CCNY in the spring of 1967, making her one of the seven original SEEK writing lecturers. She co-taught a SEEK [...]
Statement of Professor John A. Davis
In this 1965 statement Professor John A. Davis demands that his colleagues at City College take action to increase minority representation at the school. He writes that two years had “passed since various units of City College have been [...]
Educational Opportunity Programs: Are They Academically Justifiable?
In this 22-page, July 1969 Milwaukee speech to the first annual conference on educational opportunity programs in higher education, Leslie Berger--director of CUNY's SEEK program--describes the birth and rapid growth of SEEK from 1965 to 1969; [...]
Anthony Penale as a Young Man
Anthony Penale was a City College lecturer and writing teacher in 1965 when he was appointed by English Chair Edmund Volpe as the first SEEK English coordinator/director. Penale became ill in the summer of 1967 and Volpe then appointed Mina [...]
Allen B. Ballard: An Oral History of the CCNY 1960s SEEK Program
In September of 1965, City College launched SEEK, a desegregation and supportive teaching program that quickly became the direct model for new Equal Opportunity Programs at dozens of New York colleges. Here SEEK founder Allen Ballard remembers the [...]
Francee Covington: An Oral History of the CCNY 1960s SEEK Program and The Paper
In 1966, Francee Covington entered City College as one the first class of SEEK students. Here, Francee remembers growing up in Brooklyn, her years as a City College student and her student journalism work on The Paper. Short for "Search for [...]
Marvina White: An Oral History of the CCNY 1960s SEEK Program
In this interview, Marvina White recounts growing up on Dyckman Street in Upper Manhattan and entering City College as part of the first class of SEEK students in 1966. White also analyzes how SEEK-- especially SEEK teachers and counsellors Barbara [...]
Eugenia Wiltshire: An Oral History of the CCNY 1960s SEEK Program
In this oral history interview, Eugenia Wiltshire (nee Dorothy Robinson) recalls her time attending City College in 1966-70 as one of CUNY's first SEEK students. Short for "Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge," SEEK was established in [...]
"Pre-Baccalaureate Program Student Statistics -- Fall Term 1965"
This early summary of the first semester of SEEK (then known as the Pre-Baccalaureate Program) details the courses, schedules and teachers for the 113 SEEK students in Fall 1965 at CCNY. These first SEEK students took a mix of mainstream and special [...]
"Will Everyman Destroy the University?"
In this article, CUNY’s new Vice Chancellor Timothy Healy writes of SEEK as both a practical and theoretical model for open admissions. He cites the success of the program--intended to improve higher education access for the underserved--as proof [...]
"The Faculty Council Interim Report of the Committee on Enrollment Policy"
This April 1964 report shows the deep conflicts within the CCNY faculty with regards to expanding access to new students. Complaining about limited facilities and student unreadiness, the faculty committee resisted both loosening admissions [...]
Medgar Evers College - The Pursuit of a Community's Dream
In this short book, Medgar Evers College: The Pursuit of a Community's Dream, CUNY retired professors Florence Tager and Zala Highsmith-Taylor tell the story of the founding of the college. As an institution born largely out of 1960s [...]
Oral History Interview with Members of The Newt Davidson Collective
Audio and transcription of oral history interview with Nanette Funk, Jerry Markowitz, Bill Tabb, and Mike Wallace, four of the original members of The Newt Davidson Collective.
"...The importance of going on and getting education for police" - An Oral History Interview with Mayor John Lindsay
Mayor Lindsay is interviewed in his Manhattan office on October 26, 1988 by Professor Jerry Markowitz for Educating for Justice, a history of John Jay College. Lindsay discusses the importance of accessible higher education, and educating police [...]
Oral History Interview with Bill Friedheim and Jim Perlstein of Borough of Manhattan Community College
This oral history interview with retired Borough of Manhattan Community College professors Bill Friedheim and Jim Perlstein was conducted at the CUNY Graduate Center on June 1, 2015. Friedheim and Perlstein were intimately involved in many of the [...]
CUNY SEEK and Open Admissions Oral Histories
This is a website of oral histories by CUNY students and teachers telling stories about the founding and early years of SEEK at City College. It also contains stories about teaching writing in the first decade of Open Admissions across CUNY.
Minutes of Proceedings: Establishing Community College Number Seven
In these minutes of proceedings from a January 22, 1968 meeting of the Board of Higher Education, the Board resolves to create the "Committee to Seek Presidents for Community Colleges Seven and Eight." The committee is first tasked with filling the [...]
Telegram from Walter Pinkston to Chancellor Bowker: Lack of Community Involvement
In this telegram sent to Chancellor Albert Bowker on February 6, 1968, Walter Pinkston, executive director of Bedford Stuyvesant Youth in Action, decries the recent announcement of Community College No. 7 because the message was delivered without [...]
We Must Stand United - Bronx Community College, a Center for Black Activism
We Must Stand United explores the contributions of history makers such as James Colston, Roscoe Brown, and countless generations of students who have made Bronx Community College (BCC) a center of black activism. It demonstrates BCC's crucial [...]
"Julius Edelstein, 93, Dies; Devised CUNY's Open Admissions"
This New York Times obituary describes the career of former Vice-Chancellor Julius C. C. Edelstein, one of the primary architects of the open admissions policy at CUNY.
Letter from Al Vann to Mr. Chandler: New College Must be Four Year College
In this letter from Al Vann, Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Coalition, Vann forcefully reasserts his organization's demand that the new college be both a 4-year institution and community controlled. Addressed to Porter [...]
Letter from Chancellor Bowker to Members of Community College 7 Planning and Presidential Search Committee
This letter from Chancellor Bowker to members of Community College 7 Planning and Presidential Search Committee came in response to a series of requests made by the Bedford-Stuyvesant Coalition in prior weeks. Those requests, expressed in a June 18, [...]
"York Kids March on City Hall, Call It a 'Class' Fight"
This Daily News article details a May 1968 march by York College students in protest against what they considered inadequate campus facilities. York, the newest of the CUNY schools at the time, relied on temporary space within Queensborough [...]
Cartoon on College Protest
This political cartoon, originally from the LA Times and reprinted by the New York Times, reflects on the student unrest on college campuses across the nation in 1969. Depicting the military in charge at and around the desk of the [...]
Statement by QC SDS
Created by the Queens College chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), this flier from spring 1969 features the group's demand for the reinstatement of, and dropping of charges against, three students that had forced a General Electric [...]
Stop The War Now
Photo of Queensborough Community College students marching to protest the Vietnam War
Photograph of Queens College CORE at the March on Washington
This photograph shows the Queens College chapter of CORE at the March on Washington in 1963. In the photo (right to left) are unknown, Bob Freeman, unknown, Matt Gventer (with glasses), Betty Bollinger, unknown and Nick Freeman.
Crisis at CUNY
As the 1970s wore on, students and faculty at CUNY found themselves faced with an ominous environment. While the open admissions struggle of the late 1960s represented a signal achievement in the struggle to secure democratic access to quality [...]
City College Commencement Address by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A PDF of City College Commencement Address by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered on June 12, 1963