CUNY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE

A participatory project to collect and preserve the histories of the City University of New York

We found 39 items that match your search.

"We Accuse"

“We Accuse The Members of the Emergency Financial Control Board of Crimes Against the Community” flyer was created by the Community Coalition to Save Hostos (CCSH) for the May 10, 1976 march that proceeded from El Barrio to the headquarters of [...]

"We're all in this Together": CUNY in Solidarity with the Home Care Strike

This flyer promoted an April 17th CUNY rally held in opposition to budget cuts and tuition hikes. The CUNY rally participants joined Local 1199 and DC 1707 home care workers on the picket line. One of the core tenets of the Graduate Student [...]

No Budget Cuts – No Givebacks – Join CUNY Students

City University of New York’s (CUNY) struggles were “no different from labor’s fight for economic and social justice.” This 1991 flyer appealed to NYC labor movement members to join CUNY student strikers, arguing that the attacks on CUNY [...]

The Struggle Continues

Promoting solidarity and coalition building across CUNY campuses, this flyer called on students at Bronx Community College, Lehman College, and Hostos Community College to join a May 2, 1991 rally at Hostos Community College in the Bronx followed by [...]

Your Voice Counts

"No Budget Cuts, No Tuition Hikes, No Police on Campus" This flyer called for Graduate Center students to show solidarity in support of the City University of New York (CUNY) strike by joining the CUNY Graduate Center (GC) takeover. The pamphlet [...]

Graduate Student Action Paper

Written by the Graduate Center Student Strike in April 1991, this action paper reported that the City University of New York's (CUNY) Graduate Center had been taken over by graduate students on the morning of April 16th in solidarity with the [...]

Petition in Opposition to Turnitin for Plagiarism Detection Software

This petition – opposing the CUNY Central administration's resolution to approve a contract with Turnitin for Plagiarism Detection Software – was crafted by Lisa Rhody, Luke Waltzer, and Roxanne Shirazi and circulated on December 3, 2020, [...]

Letter to Gov. Cuomo Regarding CUNY Cuts

This petition, signed by various CUNY faculty and staff in May 2020, argued against proposed CUNY cuts during the COVID-19 crisis. The signers asked then New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to reverse his decision. Directly addressed to the major [...]

Instagram Post: "This is not the time (not [nor] will it ever be) for cuts that affect the most vulnerable people in our community."

This Instagram post from May 2020, at the onset of imposition by the state of austerity measures in the wake of the pandemic, significantly addresses the ways the cuts affect the most vulnerable members of the CUNY community. This item is part of [...]

Why Occupy Wall Street?/ ¿Por qué debemos ocupar Wall Street?

Citing Henry Blodget's article in "Business Insider" this bilingual informational leaflet states why one should join the 99% and join the Occupy Wall Street actions. High corporate profits, extreme income disparity and low social mobility are some [...]

Kroll Mask

This mask was made by the Graduate Center General Assembly for a "Kroll Monster" costume that was used in a series of agitprop materials to highlight CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein's relationship to Kroll, Inc. CUNY hired this security company to [...]

MCC Strike Committee Bulletin #1

The 1976 contract negotiations between the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) and the university occurred in the midst of the city's mid-1970s fiscal crisis. Radicals at Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) formed a strike committee in order [...]

Spheric: Ground Zero

This issue of Spheric, a Hunter College newspaper produced by activists from the CUNY Coalition, covers efforts organized by the Students Liberation Action Movement (SLAM!) to protest New York Governor George Pataki's plan to decrease state funding [...]

Archive on Municipal Finance and Leadership

The Archive on Municipal Finance and Leadership at Baruch College makes available significant documentation of the city's fiscal crisis of the 1970s. This archive, compiled by the college's School of Public Affairs and hosted at the William and [...]

25 Years of Progress: Professional Staff Congress/CUNY

In celebration of their 25th anniversary, the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY (PSC) published this collection of articles written by Irwin Yellowitz, "professor emeritus of history at City College and a former PSC treasurer." The articles and [...]

Letter to Brooklyn College President John Kneller on Budget Cuts and Faculty Tenure

During the 1970s, CUNY experienced a fiscal crisis resulting in faculty and staff layoffs, increased tuition, as well as cutbacks in open enrollment. As a result, the coordinators of the Brooklyn College Women's Studies Program drafted this letter [...]

Paying More, Getting Less

"Paying More, Getting Less," produced by Labor at The Crossroads, also known as Labor X, explores the 1995 CUNY budget cuts from both historical and activist perspectives. Janine Jackson, program director and host at Fairness and Accuracy in [...]

"While Hostos is Falling Down, Chase Manhattan is Making Pounds"

This image depicts one of several CUNY wide demonstrations held in against crippling budget cuts that would threatened Hostos Community College's existence. Students were concerned about the impacts of retrenchment on diversity, Open Admissions and [...]

Report of the Citizens' Commission on the Future of the City University of New York

In November 1969, CUNY's Board of Higher Education formed and tasked the Citizens' Commission to "study the future of the University in all its aspects." Their analysis resulted in the creation of an extensive report in 1971 that detailed the [...]

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 [...]

"Students Leave Classes to Rally Against Budget"

This front-page, above-the-fold New York Times coverage of the CUNY Coalition's March 23, 1995 protest reports that thousands of students walked out of class to protest the proposed state and city budget cuts to CUNY. The article relies mainly on [...]

“City University Students at Federal Hall in 1989 protesting a proposed tuition increase.”

CUNY students held strikes and building occupations in 1989 when Governor Mario Cuomo and the CUNY Board of Trustees announced yet another $200 tuition increase. This mass rally was held at Federal Hall, near Wall Street.

UFCT Legislative Memo: Petition Against State Budget Cuts

This memo was issued to the members of the United Federation of College Teachers (UFCT) on behalf of union president Israel Kugler. It announces a petition drive against proposed budget cuts at CUNY. The document illustrates that even in times of [...]

De Hostos Echo, November - December, 1975

De Hostos Echo is the Hostos Community College bilingual student newspaper. This November/December 1975 issue features stories on mass demonstrations to save the school from closure in order to deal with budget cuts. Stories also include tips for [...]

Letter to Mayor Abraham Beame from Charles B. Rangel: Notice of Potential Hostos Closure

Congressman Charles Rangel wrote this letter to Mayor Abe Beame in November of 1975 to convey his opposition to the closure of Hostos Community College as a means to achieve budget cutbacks for the city. As the United States Congressman representing [...]

Citywide Community Coalition Mission Statement

This document describes the mission of the Citywide Community Coalition (CCC), a collaboration dedicated to fighting the massive budget cuts inflicted on New Yorkers as a result of the 1975 fiscal crisis. Listing 28 groups ranging from The [...]

Letter to Hostos Community College Students from Professor Diane Penner

Professor Diane Penner wrote this letter to the Hostos Community College student body in 1976 to encourage them to pressure state officials to oppose Hostos’ closure. As a faculty member and activist on the Save Hostos Committee, Penner’s letter [...]

Letter to the Editor of the New York Times: City University: On the Need to Save John Jay and Hostos

On March 8, 1976 the New York Times published two letters to the editor alongside each other. Acting President of John Jay College, Gerald W. Lynch, wrote to publicly oppose the proposed merger of John Jay College with Baruch College. He argued that [...]

Letter to Governor Carey from Peter Roman, Chairman of Hostos Social Sciences Department

The chairman of the Social Sciences department at Hostos Community College penned this letter to Governor Hugh Carey asking him to prevent the closure of Hostos and the merger with Bronx Community College. Professor Peter Roman argues that the [...]

El Coquí, Volume 7, Number 8, May 1977

El Coquí was a college newspaper published monthly by the Office of College Relations and Development at Hostos Community College. This 1977 issue features a story announcing the resignation of Candido Antonio de Leon from his post as President of [...]

"Help Us to Help Hostos"

Members of the Hostos Community College community joined a mass march in Albany against budget cuts.

"CUNY, Public Colleges Face Mass Budget Cuts Under the Shock of COVID-19" (Teen Vogue)

This September 2020 Teen Vogue article written by a CUNY Graduate Center PhD student in Anthropology about the CutCovidNotCUNY movement provides national acknowledgement in a widely circulated public facing magazine with a younger reader base to the [...]

"Cutting Us to the Bone is No Way to Run a University System" (Queens Daily Eagle)

This Queens Eagle article, written in May 2020 by a Queens College professor in the English Department, describes budget cuts at CUNY in general and i as they relate to the history of Queens College in particular. The focus on a single CUNY college [...]

"Not a Novel Crisis at CUNY" (Gotham Gazette)

This May 2020 Gotham Gazette article by a CUNY College of Staten Island professor, addressed the ways these austerity measures fit into a longer CUNY history of struggle. The article notes that even before the pandemic, CUNY colleges had struggled [...]

Open Letter of Commitment to Resist Cuts at CUNY: No Cuts, No Layoffs, No Class Size Increases, No Non-Reappointments

This widely circulated open letter from Rank and File Action (a group of militant activists at CUNY challenging the culture of austerity in public higher education) argued against budget cuts at CUNY. This document specifically addressed activism in [...]

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