CUNY in the News
An analysis of reporting on the humanities at the people’s university, from its founding to today.
This project is a timeline that tracks local media reporting on CUNY, specifically related to liberal arts education and the humanities. It explores the evolution of both rhetoric and aesthetics in the news from different time periods, looking through how local publications have responded to changes at the City University of New York.
The archival research of this project explores four distinct eras, grouped around major events in the history of the university: 1961-1971, for the founding of the university and open admissions struggle; 1980-1990, for the response to the ‘70s fiscal crisis and introduction of the Board of Trustees; 2000-2010 for the post-open admissions era and the centralization of CUNY; and 2020-present, for COVID and a new fight for racial equity.
Examining these “snapshots” of reporting will provide insights into how major events such as protests, financial struggle, and various other crises corresponded with shifting representations of the place of the humanities at the university. The aim of this project is to use the archive to better understand how the work of the humanities at the university has been perceived and presented historically, so that it may be used to advocate for the humanities at CUNY today, during an era of extreme cutbacks in higher education and general hostility towards public schools.
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Open Admissions Policy Announced
The plan to offer a place to all public NYC high school graduates at CUNY is scheduled to be implemented in the Fall 1970 semester. Read more.
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City University In Perspective
This is an article series published by The Amsterdam News was written by professor Clarence Funnye, who wrote a long and sometimes scathing assessment on the situation of the City University of New York after the City College protests. Unlike the vast majority of the pieces found in this archive, this piece was written by…
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The Establishment of Ethnic Studies at CUNY
As a result of the protests at City College, campuses begin adding programs in various fields of ethnic studies. The addition of these programs faces both support and opposition from faculty and outside sources.
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“A Crunch Is Coming in Higher Education”
This long piece is the Wall Street Journal take on the upcoming crisis of space within the higher education institutions in New York City. It reports from a more numerical and financial perspective than the pieces in the Times. Read more. Related is a piece about a roundtable discussion held by the local college presidents…
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“The Wrecking of a College”
This is a rare report from outside of the tri-state area, and a very negative one at that. It insists that the newly instated open admissions policy at CUNY is resulting in “semi-illiterate” students on campus and a general destruction of academic standards. The article cites both the lack of training that these students have…
