CUNY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE

This booklet, published in 1997, tells the story of the first 25 years of LaGuardia Community College, from its conception as "Community College Number Nine" in 1968 through its 1971 opening and beyond. The author describes the social and economic context in which LaGuardia emerged, at a time when the City University aimed to make itself available to ever-larger segments of the population, while at the same time New York City endured an economic restructuring that deeply affected neighborhoods like Long Island City, in which the new college was situated.

The booklet goes on to describe LaGuardia's distinct circumstances, including its location in a former factory building and the recruitment of an activist faculty and staff who were given free rein by an open-minded administration to create novel programs that would both utilize the city as a site of learning and expand access to higher education to heretofore underserved populations.