CUNY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE

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

We found 38 items that match your search.

Oral History Interview with Stuart Schaar

This interview with Stuart Schaar, Professor Emeritus of Middle East History at Brooklyn College, was conducted by Douglas Medina for his research on Open Admissions at CUNY. Stuart Schaar was raised in the Bronx and attended the City College of [...]

Song: "Hit the Road Matt: Good riddance to a reprehensible Chancellor!"

This version of the Ray Charles classic was written by members of the Graduate Center General Assembly and Adjunct Project on the occasion of CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein's June 2013 retirement. The song references ongoing scandals over which [...]

Oral History Interview with Anselma Rodriguez

In this oral history, Anselma Rodriguez discusses her experiences as a student at Brooklyn College from 1969-1973. She was a founding a member of Movimiento Estudiantil Dominicanos and active in Brooklyn College's Puerto Rican Studies Department. [...]

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 [...]

Oral History Interview with Allen Ballard

This oral history interview was conducted on April 4, 2014 at SUNY Albany. Allen Ballard grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and arrived at the City College of New York in 1960 as an assistant professor of Political Science. He was one of the [...]

Five Demands

This handout, created by a group of protesting City College students, offers insight into the motivations behind a campus-wide strike in April/May 1969. Black and Puerto Rican students, as well as white supporters, demanded the college meet these [...]

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 [...]

Joe Shenker, founding president of LaGuardia with the first group of students who were paraprofessionals

In 1970, Joseph Shenker was appointed president of what was then still called "Community College Number Nine," which would soon become LaGuardia Community College. Still in his twenties, Shenker brought a youthful optimism and a spirit of [...]

LaGuardia Community College - An Assessment of the Needs of the Western Queens Community, 1980

LaGuardia Community College opened in 1971 but in order to expand outreach and continuing education with the communities it served, this needs assessment of various communities in western Queens was undertaken in 1980. This study was initiated by [...]

Tiger Paper, April 1973

This issue of the Tiger Paper leads with a story describing student demonstrations against the "threatened" implementation of tuition across CUNY campuses. It also features articles centered around "International Women's Day" and the Vietnam [...]

Tiger Paper, October 1973

This issue of the Tiger Paper explores the effects of financial aid reductions alongside CUNY's "Open Admission" policy, details class registration troubles at BMCC, and advocates for the boycott of "scab products."The Tiger Paper, which [...]

Open Admissions Fact Sheet

This trifold pamphlet created by SLAM! debunks myths about remedial classes at CUNY's senior colleges and puts forward arguments for keeping CUNY's open admissions program. It educated students about the history and importance of open admissions at [...]

SLAM! Programs Brochure

This 5-page brochure includes a brief overview of SLAM's history up to the 1999-2000 school year, SLAM!'s 10-point program, and details on three campaigns SLAM! was organizing that year: the High School Organizing Committee, which worked with high [...]

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.

A Proposal for the Establishment of Community College Number Seven

This proposal for the founding of Community College Number Seven (later named Medgar Evers College) was put forward by the Board of Higher Education in November 1967. In this excerpt (pages 11-15), the Board establishes their desire to place a new [...]

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 [...]

"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.

Proposal to Plan and Implement Departmental Programs for Community College No. 7

This document describes previous authorizations regarding the creation of Community College No. 7 (Medgar Evers College) and three additional community colleges. It goes on to detail one of the more unique features of the college: a community [...]

Minutes of the Board of Higher Education - November 25, 1968

These minutes of proceedings from the November 25, 1968 meeting of the Board of Higher Education record the establishment of new admissions criteria for CUNY four-year institutions as well as university-wide budget requests for the following year. [...]

Arrest Bus - 1970 BMCC Student Strike

This photograph features Maria Ramos, the Student Government President in front of the the arrest bus. The students were demanding an end to increases in tuition fees, and a day care center for children of students. Maria Ramos also confronted Dean [...]

Save Open Admissions Teach-in - Cultural Festival

This flier by Brooklyn College SLAM! members promoted an event on campus celebrating the diversity of the student body with a cultural festival and teach-in about open admissions. The event was planned to mobilize and educate students on campus and [...]

"CUNY Task Force Chief Accused of 'Ethnic Cleansing'"

This New York Post article reports on a City Council Committee on Higher Education hearing at which council members remarked on the racism inherent in the effort of Mayor Giuliani's task force on CUNY to end open admissions.

"Bad Man Badillo: Butcher of CUNY"

This article by SLAM! member Sandra Barros for the Hunter Envoy investigates the role of CUNY Board of Trustees Vice Chair Herman Badillo in the plan to end open admissions at CUNY. This issue of the Envoy also includes an article about Hunter's [...]

SLAM! Program Working Document

SLAM!'s 10-Point Program outlines the organization's vision for transformation of the university and society, from access for all to free quality higher education to democratic governance by students, workers and faculty; education for liberation; [...]

Do You and Your Friends Want to Go to College?

This flier was created by SLAM!'s High School Organizing Committee in 1999 to attempt to recruit high school students to organize to save open admissions at CUNY. Members of the committee passed out these fliers in the morning before school outside [...]

"A Community College Examines Its Community"

This article penned by Fern Khan examines LaGuardia Community College's efforts "to become more responsive to the varied needs of its community." This project consisted of an in-depth examination of social and economic characteristics of the [...]

LaGuardia Works: LaGuardia Community College, the First 25 Years

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 [...]

LaGuardia Community College Division of Continuing Education: General Statement

This undated document details the accomplishments of the Division of Continuing Education at LaGuardia Community College. The division's programs were designed to provide access to higher education for nontraditional learners and to respond to the [...]

Division of Adult and Continuing Education: Transition Report, March 1989

This 1989 report chronicles the growth of the LaGuardia Community College Division of Adult and Continuing Education since its inception in 1972. The report states: "The Division of Adult and Continuing Education was envisioned as a major outreach [...]

Educating Deaf Adults: The LaGuardia Community College Model

Among LaGuardia Community College's innovative programs was one aimed at Deaf learners that the New York Times called "the most comprehensive educational program for deaf persons in New York City." Under the LaGuardia model, Deaf students were [...]

BMCC Student Government President Maria Ramos Arguing with Dean Leon Cohen

BMCC student government president Maria Ramos "ran afoul of the higher-ups because of her activities in 1970." Printed in Prism, the BMCC 1971 yearbook, this photograph was one in a series that documents the student takeover of one of the BMCC [...]

"Education is a Right"

"Education is a Right" produced in 1994 by Labor at the Crossroads, also known as Labor X, sought to understand some of the protest tactics, which made the 1989 CUNY strikes at least temporarily successful in fighting tuition hikes. In light of [...]

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