Open Admissions and the City College Takeover of 1969

As the day of our book club’s presentation nears, I find myself digging further into CCNY’s history. I’m interested in the history and effect of the Open Admissions policy at our school, as well as the takeover that led to this result. I’m finding a number of sources through JSTOR articles. One that stands out is a two-part series retrospective of Open Admissions at CCNY by former City president, Robert E. Marshak, who was appointed in 1970, shortly after the policy was put in place. After last week’s Highland College simulation of a stakeholder’s symposium, I’m curious to see what Marshak’s view was as a professor-turned-administrator who stepped into the college at a time fraught with political tension and significant structural changes.

Continuing on the path of finding perspectives by people who were physically there during this pivotal time, I found an article at Hunter College’s Centro, the Center for Puerto Rican studies (which publishes a journal by the same name) with interviews of five (Puerto Rican) participants of the City College takeover.

I’m also interested in examining how the political climate played in part in the lead up to the City College takeover. (Keep in mind that this is in the midst of the Vietnam War, and one month before the takeover, the “secret war” of bombing Cambodia had begun).

And of course, I intend to do further research (outside of the Jane Maher book) about how and where Mina Shaughnessy fits in all of this.