CUNY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE

The Community Coalition to Save Hostos hosted an all-day workshop to train members of the South Bronx community in organizing skills, strategies, and challenges in April of 1976. This program outlines the events of the day. The Community Coalition to Save Hostos was a collaboration between student and faculty groups and community organizations dedicated to preventing the closure of Hostos Community College.

In 1975, in response to the New York City fiscal crisis, the City University of New York proposed massive cuts and closures across the campuses in order to dramatically cut spending. Of all the campuses in the system, the administration targeted campuses primarily serving minority communities for their most extreme measures. Hostos Community College was slated to merge with Bronx Community College in order to dramatically cut spending. It was this threat that led to the second iteration of organizing to save Hostos. Determined to preserve Hostos for the South Bronx as a place for students to pursue a bilingual higher education, students, faculty, staff, and community groups joined forces to keep Hostos open for the community.