Unfortunately, most of the articles at the beginning of 2020 are obituaries, covering the many CUNY community members who died during the COVID-19 pandemic. Articles cover the difficulties that CUNY faced in supporting students through the pandemic, as classes were conducted online. Later articles center largely around free speech on campus, and the University’s struggle to deal with accusations of antisemitism amid massive protests in the wake of the Palestinian genocide in Gaza. The New York Post has created dozens if not hundreds of articles accusing CUNY of rampant antisemitism in the wake of the October 2023 violence in Israel, with no accounting for the retaliation that students have faced for expressing their beliefs.
Articles about the humanities at CUNY during this decade center around three major themes:
As was the case in previous eras, these subjects are interlocking and inform each other. However, there is a key difference for this section of the timeline: due to the reporting being very recent, it is not drawn from the ProQuest Historical Newspapers database. Instead, it is drawn from the three most frequent sources used in this project: The New York Times, The Amsterdam News, and The New York Post. These three sources have reported consistently about CUNY for years, hosting hundreds of articles on their websites – all in completely different rhetorical styles.
To read more about CUNY’s history, please visit the CUNY Digital History Archive. The site draws especially from Austerity Blues: Fighting for the Soul of Public Higher Education, by Stephen Brier and Michael Fabricant.
“What We Lose When We Go From the Classroom to Zoom”
“The Backward Logic of Austerity Threatens America’s Most Vibrant Campus”
“Florence Howe, ‘Mother of Women’s Studies,’ Dies at 91”
“CUNY premieres new program to help LGBTQ+ students”
“CUNY student petitions to cancel Emmett Till opera written by white female playwright”
“Shellyne Rodriguez, Unhinged NYC college professor who cursed out anti-abortion students, holds machete to Post reporter’s neck”
“Petrona de la Cruz to be honored at Lehman College”
“City College, Against Its Nature, Asks Police to End Campus Protest”
“The Organizers Are Jewish. The Cause Is Palestinian. This College Won’t Be Hosting.”
“Refusal to crack down on antisemitism made CUNY school a ‘hostile’ workplace: Jewish studies director”
“CUNY Removes Palestinian Studies Job Listing on Hochul’s Orders”
“Mayoral wannabe Zohran Mamdani joins other lefty pols in ripping CUNY for pulling ‘antisemitic’ job posting”
“Cumbre Afro at CENTRO looks to unite cultures from Puerto Rico to Harlem”
“CUNY Posts Modified Palestinian Studies Jobs After Gov’s Removal Order”
A Poem for CUNY, the School ‘That Runs Its City’
