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City College of New York



 
 
The City College of The City University of New York (known more commonly as the City College of New York or simply City College, CCNY, or colloquially as City) is a senior college of the City University of New York
City University of New York

Not to be confused with New York University formerly known as the University of the City of New York.For similar uses see University of New York...
, in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning. City College's thirty-five acre Manhattan
Manhattan

Manhattan is one of the five borough of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.With a United States Census of 1,620,867 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles , Manhattan, coextensive with New York County, is the most population density county in the United States, w...
 campus along Convent Avenue from 130th Street to 141st Street is on a hill overlooking Harlem; its neo-Gothic campus was mostly designed by George Browne Post, and many of its buildings are landmarks.

CCNY was the first free public institution of higher education in the United States and also for many years has been considered the flagship campus of the CUNY public university system.

City College of New York was originally founded as the Free Academy of the City of New York in 1847 by wealthy businessman and president of the Board of Education Townsend Harris
Townsend Harris

Townsend Harris was a successful New York City merchant and minor politician, and the first United States Consul General to Japan. He negotiated the "Harris Treaty" between the U.S....
.






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The City College of The City University of New York (known more commonly as the City College of New York or simply City College, CCNY, or colloquially as City) is a senior college of the City University of New York
City University of New York

Not to be confused with New York University formerly known as the University of the City of New York.For similar uses see University of New York...
, in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning. City College's thirty-five acre Manhattan
Manhattan

Manhattan is one of the five borough of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.With a United States Census of 1,620,867 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles , Manhattan, coextensive with New York County, is the most population density county in the United States, w...
 campus along Convent Avenue from 130th Street to 141st Street is on a hill overlooking Harlem; its neo-Gothic campus was mostly designed by George Browne Post, and many of its buildings are landmarks.

CCNY was the first free public institution of higher education in the United States and also for many years has been considered the flagship campus of the CUNY public university system.

History


Early history - 19th Century

The City College of New York was originally founded as the Free Academy of the City of New York in 1847 by wealthy businessman and president of the Board of Education Townsend Harris
Townsend Harris

Townsend Harris was a successful New York City merchant and minor politician, and the first United States Consul General to Japan. He negotiated the "Harris Treaty" between the U.S....
. A combination prep school and college, it would provide children of immigrants and the poor access to free higher education based on academic merit alone.

The Free Academy was the first of what would become a system of municipally-supported colleges. Hunter College
Hunter College

Hunter College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , located on Manhattan's Upper East Side....
, the second, was founded as a women's institution in 1870. Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New York ....
, the third, was established as a coeducational institution in 1930.

In 1847, New York State Governor John Young
John Young (Governor)

John Young was an United States politician.He was born in Chelsea, Vermont. As a child, he moved to Freeport , Livingston County, New York. He had only basic schooling but, by self-study accumulated a knowledge of classics and became a law clerk, becoming admitted to the bar in 1829....
 had given permission to the Board of Education to found The Free Academy, which was ratified in a statewide referendum. Founder Townsend Harris
Townsend Harris

Townsend Harris was a successful New York City merchant and minor politician, and the first United States Consul General to Japan. He negotiated the "Harris Treaty" between the U.S....
 proclaimed, "Open the doors to all… Let the children of the rich and the poor take their seats together and know of no distinction save that of industry, good conduct and intellect."

Dr. Horace Webster
Horace Webster

Horace Webster was an American educator who graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1818. Webster remained at West Point as a mathematics professor until 1825....
, a West Point graduate, was the first president of The Free Academy. On the occasion of The Free Academy's formal opening, January 21, 1849, Webster said:

The experiment is to be tried, whether the children of the people, the children of the whole people, can be educated; and whether an institution of the highest grade, can be successfully controlled by the popular will, not by the privileged few.


Shepard1
In 1851, a curriculum was adopted which had nine main fields: mathematics, history, language, literature, drawing, natural philosophy, experimental philosophy, law, and political economy. The Academy's first graduation took place in 1853 in Niblo's Garden Theatre , a large theater and opera house on Broadway, near Houston Street at the corner of Broadway and Prince Street.

Even in its early years, the Free Academy showed tolerance for diversity, especially in comparison to its urban neighbor, Columbia College, which then wasn't much more than a finishing school for wealthy young gentlemen. The Free Academy had a framework of tolerance that extended beyond the admission of students from every social stratum. In 1854, Columbia's trustees denied Oliver Wolcott Gibbs
Oliver Wolcott Gibbs

For the writer, see Wolcott Gibbs.Oliver Wolcott Gibbs was an United States chemist. He is known for performing the first electrogravimetry , namely the reductions of copper and nickel ions to their respective metals....
, a distinguished chemist and scientist, a faculty position because of Gibbs's religious beliefs. He was a Unitarian. Gibbs was a professor and held an appointment at the Free Academy since 1848. (In 1863, Gibbs went on to an appointment at Harvard University, the Rumsford Professorship in Chemistry, where he had a distinguished career. In 1873, he was awarded an honorary degree from Columbia with a unanimous vote by its Trustees with the strong urging of President Barnard.) Later in the history of CCNY, in the early 1900s, President John H. Finley gave the College a more secular orientation by abolishing mandatory chapel attendance. This change occurred at a time when more Jewish students were enrolling in the College.

In 1866, the Free Academy, a men's institution, was renamed the College of the City of New York
College of the City of New York

The College of the City of New York was the former name of New York University's undergraduate college when the university was named "University of the City of New York"....
. In 1929, the College of the City of New York became the City College of New York. Finally, the institution became known as the City College of the City University of New York
City University of New York

Not to be confused with New York University formerly known as the University of the City of New York.For similar uses see University of New York...
 when CUNY was formally established as the umbrella institution for New York City's municipal-college system in 1961. The names City College of New York and City College, however, remain in general use.

With the name change in 1866, lavender was chosen as the College's color. In 1867, the academic senate, the first student government in the nation, was formed. Having struggled over the issue for ten years, in 1895 the New York State legislature voted to let the College build a new campus. A four-square block site was chosen, located in Manhattanville, within the area which was enclosed by the North Campus Arches; the College, however, quickly expanded north of the Arches (see below).

Like President Webster, the second president of City College was a West Point graduate. The second president, General Alexander S. Webb
Alexander S. Webb

Alexander Stewart Webb was a career United States Army officer and a Union Army general in the American Civil War who won the Medal of Honor for gallantry at the Battle of Gettysburg....
, assumed office in 1869. One of the Union's heroes at Gettysburg, General Webb was the commander of the Philadelphia Brigade. When the Union Army repulsed the Confederates at Cemetery Hill, General Webb played a central role in the battle. Coddington wrote about Webb's conduct during Pickett's Charge: "Refusing to give up, [Webb] set an example of bravery and undaunted leadership for his men to follow...." In 1891, while still president of City College, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism at Gettysburg.

The College's curriculum under Webster and Webb combined classical training in Latin and Greek with more practical subjects like chemistry, physics, and engineering. One of the outstanding Nineteenth Century graduates of City College was the Brooklyn-born George Washington Goethals
George Washington Goethals

George Washington Goethals [go-th?lz] was a United States Army Officer and civil engineer, best known for his supervision of construction and the opening of the Panama Canal....
, who put himself through the College in three years before going on to West Point. He later became the chief engineer on the Panama Canal. General Webb was succeeded by John Huston Finley
John Huston Finley

John Huston Finley was born in Grand Ridge, Il., the eldest son of James Gibson and Lydia Margaret McCombs Finley. His father and mother went out as early settlers on the prairies from the East....
 in 1903. Finley relaxed some of the West Point-like discipline that characterized the College, including compulsory chapel attendance.

20th century

Education courses were first offered in 1897 in response to a city law that prohibited the hiring of teachers who lacked a proper academic background. The School of Education was established in 1921. The college newspaper, , published its first issue in 1907, and the first degree-granting evening session in the United States was started. Separate Schools of Business and Civic Administration and of Technology (Engineering) were established in 1919. Students were also required to sign a loyalty oath. In 1947, the College celebrated its centennial year, awarding honorary degrees to Bernard Baruch
Bernard Baruch

Bernard Mannes Baruch was an American financier, stock market speculator, statesman, and presidential advisor. After his success in business, he devoted his time toward advising Democratic presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D....
 (class of 1889) and Robert F. Wagner
Robert F. Wagner

Robert Ferdinand Wagner was a United States Democratic Party United States Senator from New York from 1927 until 1949....
 (class of 1898). A 100 year time capsule was buried in North Campus.

Up until 1929, City College had been an all-male institution; it was in 1930 that CCNY first admitted women, but only to graduate programs. In 1951, the entire institution became coeducational.

In the years when top-flight private schools were restricted to the children of the Protestant Establishment
The Establishment

The Establishment is a term used to refer to the traditional ruling class elite and the structures of society that they control. The term can be used to describe specific entrenched elite structures in specific institutions, but is usually informal in application....
, thousands of brilliant individuals (especially Jewish students) attended City College because they had no other option. CCNY's academic excellence and status as a working-class school earned it the titles "Harvard
Harvard University

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher learning in the United States....
 of the Proletariat
Proletariat

The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. Originally it was identified as those people who had no wealth other than their sons....
", the "poor man's Harvard", and "Harvard-on-the-Hudson".

Even today, after three decades of controversy over its academic standards, no other public college has produced as many Nobel
Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize , established in the 1895 will of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel; it was first awarded in Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nobel Prize in Literature, and Nobel Peace Prize in 1901....
 laureates who have studied and graduated with a degree from a particular public college. CCNY's official quote on this is "Nine Nobel laureates claim CCNY as their Alma Mater, the most from any public college in the United States." This should not be confused with Nobel laureates who teach at a public university; UC Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley is a public university research university located in Berkeley, California, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines....
 boasts 19.

In its heyday of the 1930s through the 1950s, CCNY became known for its political
Politics

Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporation, academia, and religion institutions....
 radicalism
Radicalism (historical)

The term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later become a general term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order....
. It was said that the old CCNY cafeteria in the basement of Shepard Hall, particularly in alcove 1, was the only place in the world where a fair debate between Trotskyists
Trotskyism

Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an Orthodox Marxism and Bolshevik-Leninism, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party....
 and Stalinists
Stalinism

File:Joseph Stalin.jpgStalinism is a term that purportedly describes the political system of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1929?1953....
 could take place. Being part of a political debate that began in the morning in alcove 1, Irving Howe
Irving Howe

Irving Howe , was an American literary and social critic. He was born as Irving Horenstein in The Bronx, New York, as a son of immigrants who ran a small grocery store that went out of business during the Great Depression....
 reported that after some time had passed he would leave his place among the arguing students in order to attend class. When he returned to the cafeteria late in the day, he would find that the same debate had continued but with an entirely different cast of students. Alumni
Alumnus

An alumnus according to the American Heritage Dictionary is "a male graduate or former student of a school, college, or university." In addition, an alumna is "a female graduate or former student of a school, college, or university." If a group includes more than one gender, even if there is only one male, the plural form alumni i...
 who were at City College in the mid-20th century said that City College in those days made UC Berkeley in the 1960s look like a school of conformity.

The municipality of New York was considerably more conformist than CCNY students and faculty. The Philosophy Department, at the end of the 1939-1940 academic year, invited the British mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, Order of Merit , Fellow of the Royal Society , was a British people philosopher, mathematical logic, mathematician, historian, advocate for social reform, and pacifism....
 to become a professor at CCNY. Members of the Catholic Church protested Russell’s appointment. A woman named Jean Kay filed suit against the Board of Higher Education to block Russell’s appointment on the grounds that his views on marriage and sex would adversely affect her daughter’s virtue, although her daughter was not a CCNY student. Russell wrote “a typical American witch-hunt was instituted against me.” Kay won the suit, but the Board declined to appeal after considering the political pressure exerted. Also see the the Bertrand Russell Case
The Bertrand Russell Case

The Bertrand Russell Case edited by John Dewey and Horace M Kallen is a collection of articles on Bertrand Russell's court dismissal as Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York in 1940....
.

Russell took revenge in the preface of the first edition of his book An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth, which was published by the Unwin Brothers in the UK (the preface was not included in the U.S. editions). In a long précis that detailed Russell’s accomplishments including medals awarded by Columbia University and the Royal Society and faculty appointments at Oxford, Cambridge, UCLA, Harvard, the Sorbonne, Peking (the name used in that era), the LSE, Chicago, and so forth, Russell added, “Judicially pronounced unworthy to be Professor of Philosophy at the College of the City of New York.”

Many City College alumni served in the U.S. Armed Forces during the Second World War. A total of 310 CCNY alumni were killed in the War. Prior to World War II, a relatively large number of City College alumni--relative to alumni of other U.S. colleges--volunteered to serve on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. Thirteen CCNY alumni were killed in Spain.

In 1945, Professor William E. Knickerbocker, Chairman of the Romance Languages Department, was accused of anti-semitism by four faculty members. They claimed that “for at least seven years they have been subjected to continual harassment and what looks very much like discrimination ....” by Knickerbocker. Four years later Knickerbocker was again accused of anti-semitism, this time for denying honors to high-achieving Jewish students. About the same time, Professor William C. Davis of the Economics Department was accused by students of maintaining a racially segregated dormitory at Army Hall. Professor Davis was the dormitory’s administrator. CCNY students, many of whom were World War II veterans, launched a massive strike in protest against Knickerbocker and Davis. The New York Times called the event "the first general strike at a municipal institution of higher learning."

CCNY is the only team in men's college basketball
College basketball

College basketball most often refers to the American basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association ....
 history to win both the NIT
National Invitation Tournament

The National Invitation Tournament is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The association plays two tournaments each season....
 and the NCAA Tournament
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship

The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a Single-elimination tournament tournament held each spring featuring 65 college basketball teams in the United States....
 in the same year, 1950. However, this accomplishment was overshadowed by a point shaving
CCNY Point Shaving Scandal

The CCNY Point Shaving Scandal was one of the first major college basketball point shaving match fixings....
 scandal in which seven CCNY basketball players were arrested, in 1951, for taking money from gamblers to affect the outcome of games. The scandal led to the decline of CCNY from a national powerhouse in Division I basketball to a member of Division III and damaged the national profile of college basketball in general.

In 1955, a City College student named Alan A. Brown founded the economics honor society, Omicron Chi Epsilon. The purpose of the society was to confer honors on outstanding economics students, organize academic meetings, and publish a journal. In 1963, Omicron Chi Epsilon merged with Omicron Delta Gamma, the other economics honor society, to form Omicron Delta Epsilon
Omicron Delta Epsilon

Omicron Delta Epsilon is an international honor society in the field of economics. Resulting from the merger of Omicron Delta Gamma and Omicron Chi Epsilon, ODE was founded in 1963 ....
, the current academic honor society in economics.

During a 1969 takeover of South campus, under threat of a riot, African American
African American

African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the Black people populations of Africa....
 and Puerto Rican activists and their white allies demanded, among other policy changes, that City College implement an aggressive affirmative action
Affirmative action

The term affirmative action refers to policies that take gender, race, or ethnicity into account in an attempt to promote equal opportunity. The focus of such policies ranges from employment and public contracting to educational outreach and health programs ....
 program. At some point, campus protesters began referring to CCNY as "Harlem University." The administration of the City University at first balked at the demands, but instead, came up with an open admissions
Open admissions

Open admissions is a type of College admissions in the United States in which the only criterion for entrance is a high school diploma or a General Educational Development certificate....
 or open-access program under which any graduate of a New York City high school
High school

High school is the name used in some parts of the world to describe an institution which provides all or part of secondary education. The term originated in Scotland and spread to the New World countries as the high prestige that the Scottish educational system had at the time led several countries to employ Scottish educators to develop the...
 would be able to matriculate either at City College or another college in the CUNY system. Beginning in 1970, the program opened doors to college to many who would not otherwise have been able to attend college. The program, however, came at the cost of City College's and the University's academic standing as well as New York City's fiscal health.

City College began charging tuition in 1976. By the 1990s CCNY stopped admitting, and offering remedial classes to, students who did not meet its formal entrance requirements. CUNY by then began enrolling these less well prepared students in its community colleges, and not senior colleges such as CCNY.

CCNY's new Frederick Douglass Debate Society defeated Harvard and Yale at the "Super Bowl" of the American Parliamentary Debate Association in 1996. In 2003, the College's Model UN Team was awarded as an Outstanding Delegation at the National Model United Nations (NMUN) Conference, an honor that it would repeat for four years in a row.

The U.S. Postal Service issued a postcard commemorating CCNY's 150th Anniversary, featuring Shepard Hall, on Charter Day, May 7, 1997.

21st Century

The City University of New York
City University of New York

Not to be confused with New York University formerly known as the University of the City of New York.For similar uses see University of New York...
 began recruiting students for the University Scholars program in the fall 2000, and admitted the first cohort of undergraduate scholars in the fall 2001. CCNY was one of five CUNY campuses, on which the program was initiated. The newly admitted scholars became undergraduates in the College's newly formed Honors Program. Students attending the CCNY Honors College are awarded free tuition, a cultural passport that admits them to New York City cultural institutions for free or at sharply reduced prices, a notebook computer, and an academic expense account that they can apply to such academic-related activities as study abroad. These undergraduates are also required to attend a number of specially developed honors courses. In 2007 CUNY initiated the Macaulay Honors College. Both the CCNY Honors Program and the CCNY chapter of the Macaulay Honors College are run out of the CCNY Honors Center.

In October 2005, Dr. Andrew Grove
Andrew Grove

Andrew Stephen Grove is a Hungarian people-United States businessman and scientist. He was one of the earliest employees of Intel Corporation and ultimately played key leadership roles in its success....
, a 1960 graduate of the Engineering School in Chemical Engineering
Chemical engineering

Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with the application of physical science , with mathematics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms....
, and co-founder of Intel Corporation, donated $26,000,000 to the Engineering School, which has since been renamed the Grove School of Engineering. It is the largest donation ever given to the City College of New York.

Campus history

Freeacad
Cuny Main

Downtown

City College was originally situated in downtown Manhattan
Manhattan

Manhattan is one of the five borough of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.With a United States Census of 1,620,867 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles , Manhattan, coextensive with New York County, is the most population density county in the United States, w...
, in the Free Academy Building, which was CCNY's home from 1849 to 1907. The building was designed by James Renwick, Jr.
James Renwick, Jr.

James Renwick, Jr. , was an American architect in the 19th-century. The Encyclopedia of American Architecture calls him "one of the most successful American architects of his time." He has many living relatives and including family in Greenwich, Connecticut....
 and was located at Lexington Avenue and 23rd Street. According to some sources, it was the first Gothic Revival college building on the East Coast.

North Campus

CCNY then moved to its current location in the upper Manhattan village of Manhattanville in 1906, when the classical neo-Gothic campus was erected.

This new campus was designed by George Browne Post.

According to CCNY's published history, "The Landmark neo-Gothic buildings of the North Campus Quadrangle were designed by the noted architect George Browne Post. They are superb examples of English Perpendicular Gothic style and are among the first buildings, as an entire campus, to be built in the U.S. in this style. Groundbreaking for the Gothic Quadrangle buildings took place in 1903".

The original neo-Gothic buildings on the new upper Manhattan campus were:
  • Shepard Hall, standing on its own, across the street from the campus quadrangle on Convent Avenue
  • Baskerville Hall
  • Compton Hall
  • Harris Hall
  • Wingate Hall
Shepard Hall was the largest building and the centerpiece of the campus, and modeled after a Gothic cathedral plan, and whose main entrance was designed to be on St. Nicholas Terrace. It also contained a large cathedral or chapel assembly hall called "The Great Hall".

Harris Hall, named in the original architectural plans as "the Sub-Freshman Building", housed City College's preparatory high school, Townsend Harris High School
Townsend Harris High School

Townsend Harris High School is a public magnet school high school for the humanities in the borough of Queens, New York in New York City. Students and alumni often refer to themselves as "Harrisites." Townsend Harris consistently ranks as among the top 100 High Schools in the United States....
, from 1906 until it moved in 1930 downtown to the School of Business.

Wingate Hall was named for George Wood Wingate (Class of 1858), an attorney and promoter of physical fitness. It served as the College's main gymnasium between 1907 and 1972.

Baskerville Hall for many years housed the Chemistry Department, was also known as the Chemical Building, and had one of the largest original lecture halls on the campus, Doremus lecture hall.

Compton Hall was originally designed as and called the Mechanical Arts Building in the original plans.

Five of these new Gothic campus buildings opened in 1906. The sixth, Goethals Hall , was completed in 1930. The new building was named for George Washington Goethals
George Washington Goethals

George Washington Goethals [go-th?lz] was a United States Army Officer and civil engineer, best known for his supervision of construction and the opening of the Panama Canal....
, the CCNY civil engineering alumnus who, as mentioned above in the section on the history of the College, went on to become the chief engineer of the Panama Canal
Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a man-made canal which joins the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean oceans. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, it had an enormous impact on shipping between the two oceans, replacing the long and treacherous route via the Drake Passage and Cape Horn at the southernmost tip of South Am...
. Goethals Hall housed the School of Technology (engineering) and adjoins the Mechanical Arts Building, Compton Hall.
Ccnyg1
Six hundred grotesque
Grotesque

When in conversation, grotesque commonly means strange, fantastic, ugly or bizarre, and thus is often used to describe weird shapes and distorted forms such as Halloween masks or gargoyles on churches....
s on the original Gothic buildings represent the practical and the fine arts.

The North Campus Quadrangle contains four great arches on the main avenues entering and exiting the campus:
  • the Hudson Gate on Amsterdam Avenue
  • the George Washington Gate at 138th Street and Convent Avenue
  • the Alexander Hamilton Gate at the northern edge of Convent Avenue
  • the Peter Stuyvesant Gate at St. Nicholas Terrace.


In the early 1900s, after most of the Gothic campus had been built, CCNY President John H. Finley wanted the College to have a stadium because the existing facilities for the College’s athletic teams were inadequate. New York City did not provide the money needed to build a stadium; however, the municipal government donated to the College two city blocks south of the campus. The two block had been open park land. Finley’s wish for a stadium moved forward when businessman and philanthropist Adolph Lewisohn
Adolph Lewisohn

Adolph Lewisohn was a Germany-Jewish immigrant born in Hamburg who became a New York City investment banker, mining magnate, and philanthropist....
 expressed an interest in financing the construction of the stadium. Finley and Lewisohn spoke about the project for the first time in 1912. Lewisohn agreed to donate $75,000 for the stadium’s construction. Finley commissioned the architect Arnold W. Brunner to design Lewisohn Stadium
Lewisohn Stadium

Lewisohn Stadium was an amphitheater and athletic facility built on the campus of the City College of New York, and opened in 1915....
, which was influenced by Finley's memories of a small rock-hewn theatre in the Trastevere section of Rome.
Adolph Lewisohn Stadium
Lewisohn Stadium was built as a 6,000-seat stadium, with thousands more seats available on the infield during concerts, and was dedicated on May 29, 1915, two years after Dr. Finley had left his post at the College and Dr. Sidney Edward Mezes
Sidney Edward Mezes

Sidney Edward Mezes was an USA philosopher. He was born in what is now the town of Belmont, California, to a Spanish-born father and Italian-born mother....
 had become CCNY's fourth president. The stadium's dedication was enhanced by a performance of "The Trojan Women
The Trojan Women

'The Trojan Women' is a tragedy by the Ancient Greece playwright Euripides. Produced during the Peloponnesian War, it is often considered a commentary on the capture of the Aegean Sea island of Melos and the subsequent slaughter and subjugation of its populace by the Athens earlier in 415 BC , the same year the play premiered....
", produced by Granville Barker and Lillian McCarthy. College graduation services were held in Lewisohn for many years.

A separate library building was not in the original plan for the 1906 campus, so in 1937, a free-standing library was built north of the 140th Street Arches. The Bowker/Alumni Library stood at the present site of the Steinman Engineering building until 1957.

The Hebrew Orphan Asylum
Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York

The Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York was a Jewish orphanage in New York City. It was founded in 1860 by the Hebrew Benevolent Society. It closed in 1941, after pedagogy concluded that children thrive better in foster care or small group homes, rather than in large institutions....
 was erected in 1884 on Amsterdam Avenue between 136th and 138th Street, and was designed by William H. Hume . It was already there when City College moved to upper Manhattan. When it closed in the 1940s, the building was used by City College to house members of the U.S. Armed Forces assigned to the Army Specialized Training Program
Army Specialized Training Program

The Army Specialized Training Program was a military training program instituted by the United States Army during World War II at a number of American universities to meet wartime demands for junior officers and soldiers with technical skills....
 (ASTP). From 1946 to 1955, it was used as a dormitory, library, and classroom space for the College. It was called "Army Hall" until it was demolished in 1955 and 1956.

In 1946, on the North Campus, CCNY purchased a former Episcopal orphanage on 135th Street and Covent Avenue, and renamed it Klapper Hall, after Paul Klapper (Class of 1904) Professor and the Dean of School of Education and who was later the first president of Queens College/CUNY (1937-1952). Klapper Hall was red brick in Georgian style and it served until 1983 as home of the School of Education.

Steinman Hall, which houses the School of Engineering, was erected in 1962 on the north end of the campus, on the site of the Bowker Library and the Drill Hall to replace the facilities in Compton Hall and Goethals Hall, and was named for David Barnard Steinman
David B. Steinman

You may also be looking for David Steinman, American environmentalist.David Bernard Steinman was an United States structural engineer. He was the designer of the Mackinac Bridge and many other notable bridges, and a published author....
 (CCNY Class of 1906), a well known civil engineer and bridge designer.

Also, in 1963, the Administration Building was erected and put in use on the North Campus across from Wingate Hall. It houses the College's administration offices, including the President's and Provost's, and the Registrar's Office. It was originally intended as a warehouse also, housing the huge number of records and transcripts of students since 1847 when the College opened. . In early 2007, the Administration Building was formally named The Howard E. Wille Administration Building, in honor of Howard E. Wille, class of 1955, a distinguished alumnus and philanthropist.

In 1971, the Marshak Science Building was built and opened, the former place of the open space known as Jasper Oval and previously an open football field . The building was named after a past president of CCNY in the 1970s (1970-1979), Robert Marshak
Robert Marshak

Robert Eugene Marshak was an American physicist dedicated to learning, research, and education.Marshak was born in the Bronx, New York City. His parents, Harry Marshak and Rose Marshak, were immigrants to New York from Minsk....
, who was a renowned physicist. The Marshak building houses all science and labs, and also houses and adjoins the Mahoney Gymnasium and athletic facilities including a swimming pool and tennis courts.

In the 1970s, construction of the massive North Academic Center (NAC) was initiated. It was completed in 1984, and replaced Lewisohn Stadium and Klapper Hall. The NAC building houses hundreds of classrooms, two cafeterias, the Cohen Library, student lounges and centers, administrative offices, and a number of computer installations. Designed by architect John Carl Warnecke
John Carl Warnecke

John Carl Warnecke is an architect based in San Francisco, California who designed numerous monuments and structures in the international style, among others....
, the building has received criticism for its lack of design and outsize scale in comparison to the surrounding neighborhood.

Within the NAC, a student lounge space was created outside the campus bookstore, and murals celebrating the history of the campus were painted on the doors of the undergraduate Student Government. Founded in 1869, it claims to be the oldest continuously operating student government organization in the country.

The first floor of the Administration Building was given a postmodern renovation in 2004. The first floor houses the admissions office and the registrar's office. The upper floors house the offices of the president and provost.

The New York Landmarks Preservation Commission made the North Campus Quadrangle buildings and the College Gates official landmarks, both in 1981. The buildings in the Quadrangle were put on the State and National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation....
 in 1984. In the summer of 2006, the historic gates on Convent Avenue were restored.

South Campus

Ccnysc1
In 1953, CCNY bought the campus of the Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart
Manhattanville College

Manhattanville College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college offering undergraduate and graduate degrees, located in Purchase, New York, New York, USA....
 (which, on a 1913 map, was shown as The Convent of the Sacred Heart), which added a south section to the campus. This expanded the campus to include many of the buildings in the area between 140th Street to 130th Street, from St. Nicholas Terrace in the east to Amsterdam Avenue in the west.

Former buildings of the Manhattanville College campus to be used by CCNY were re-named for City College's purposes: Stieglitz Hall, Downer Hall, Wagner Hall, the prominent Finley Student Center which contained the very active Buttenweiser Lounge, Eisner Hall, Park Gym, Mott Hall, and others.

Generally, the South Campus of CCNY, as a result of this expansion, contained the liberal arts classes and departments of the College. The North Campus, also as a result of this expansion, generally housed classes and departments for the sciences and engineering, as well as Klapper Hall (School of Education), and the Administration Building.

In 1957, a new library building was erected in the middle of the campus, near 135th Street on the South Campus, and named Cohen Library, after Morris Raphael Cohen
Morris Raphael Cohen

Morris Raphael Cohen was a Jewish philosopher, lawyer and legal scholar who united pragmatism with logical positivism and linguistic Discourse analysis....
, an alumnus (Class of 1900) and celebrated professor of the College from 1912 to 1938. The library was moved some decades later to the North Academic Center on the North Campus.

In the 1970s, many of the old buildings of the South Campus were demolished, some which had been used by the Academy of The Sacred Heart. The buildings remaining on the South Campus at this time were the Cohen Library (later moved into the North Academic Center), Park Gym (now the Structural Biology Research Center ), Eisner Hall (built in 1941 by Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart as a library, later remodeled and housed CCNY's Art Department and named for the Chairman of the Board of Higher Education in the 1930s) , the Schiff House (former President's residence, now a child care center), Mott Hall (formerly the English Department, now a New York City Department of Education primary school ).

Ccnysc3
Some of the buildings which were demolished at that time were Finley Hall (housed The Finley Student Center, student activities center, originally built in 1888-1890 as Manhattanville Academy's main building, and purchased in 1953 by City College) , Wagner Hall (housed various social science and liberal arts departments and classes, originally built as a dormitory for Manhattanville Academy, and was named in honor of Robert F. Wagner Sr., member of the Class of 1898, who represented New York State for 23 years in the United States Senate) , Stieglitz Hall, and Downer Hall, amongst others.

New buildings were erected on the South Campus, including Aaron Davis Hall in 1981, and the Herman Goldman sports field in 1993. In August 2006, for the first time ever in its history, the College completed the construction of a 600-bed dormitory, called "The Towers", and opened it for use. There are plans to rename The Towers after a distinguished alumnus or donor, who has not yet been named.

The building that formerly housed Cohen Library will become the new home for the School of Architecture, with the renovation headed by architect Rafael Viñoly
Rafael Viñoly

Rafael Vi?oly is an Uruguayan-born architect living in the United States....
--the Cohen Library moved to the NAC building. Near the 133rd Street gate, a new science building is under construction in order to relieve pressure from Marshak Hall, which had a beam collapse in 2005. Part of this project is the elimination of the Herman Goldman sports field, a controversial move which will dramatically alter the South Campus.

Campus location

The College is located between West 130th and West 141st Street in Manhattan, along Convent Avenue and St. Nicholas Terrace, between Amsterdam and St. Nicholas Avenues. The campus is served by:
  • the 137th Street-City College subway stop on the Broadway local IRT 1 train
  • the 125th
    125th Street (IND Eighth Avenue Line)

    125th Street is an express metro station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 125th Street and St....
    , 135th
    135th Street (IND Eighth Avenue Line)

    135th Street is a metro station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 135th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in Manhattan, it is served by the train , by the train , and by the train ....
    , and 145th
    145th Street (IND Eighth Avenue Line)

    145th Street is a two level express metro station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway, located at the intersection of 145th Street and Saint Nicholas Avenue in the New York City borough of Manhattan....
     stops of the A, B, C, and D lines.
  • numerous city buses and campus shuttle buses


College seal and medal logo

The design of the three-faced college seal took its roots in the 19th century when Professor Charles Anthon was inspired by views of Janus
Janus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Janus was the God of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings. His most prominent remnants in modern culture are his namesakes: the month of January, which begins the new year, and the janitor, who is a caretaker of doors and halls....
, the Roman god of beginnings, whose two faces connect the past and the future. He broadened this image of Janus in three faces to show the student, and consequently, knowledge, developing from childhood through youth into maturity. It was redesigned again in 1947 by Professor Albert D'Andrea for the college's Centennial Medal.

In 2003, the college decided to create a logo distinct from its seal, with the stylized text "the City College of New York."

Rankings

  • City College was ranked by Shanghai Jiao Tong University
    Shanghai Jiao Tong University

    Shanghai Jiao Tong University , located in Shanghai, is one of the oldest and most influential universities in People's Republic of China. The university is under the jurisdiction of both the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China and Shanghai Government....
     as 89-117 nationally and 203-304 internationally in 2007 and 115-139 nationally, 303-401 internationally in 2008. It should be noted however that the study focuses heavily on institutions with strong hard science backgrounds, as the rating is based on a number of factors including articles published in scientific journals and Nobel laureates.


  • The 2008 America's Best Colleges
    College and university rankings

    In higher education, college and university rankings are listings of universities and liberal arts colleges in an order determined by any combination of factors....
     ranked by Forbes.com placed City College at #355.


Popular culture

Film
  • Love Story
    Love Story

    Love Story may refer to:...
     (1970) - The Harvard graduation was in the Great Hall in CCNY's Shepard Hall.


  • Bananas
    Bananas (film)

    Bananas is a comedy film screenwriter by Mickey Rose and Woody Allen, film director by Allen, and Movie star himself and Louise Lasser. Parts of the plot were based on the book Don Quixote, U.S.A. by Richard P....
     (1971) - the character Nancy, who is taking signatures for a petition in Fielding Mellish's apartment building, is a student at CCNY


  • Wall Street
    Wall Street (film)

    Wall Street is a 1987 in film Cinema of the United States directed by Oliver Stone and features Charlie Sheen as a young Stock broker desperate to succeed and a wealthy but unscrupulous corporate raider whom he idolizes....
     (1987) - Michael Douglas's character, Gordon Gekko, tells Bud Fox (played by Charlie Sheen) that his accomplishments are "not bad for a City College boy. I bought my way in; now all these Ivy League schmucks are sucking my knee caps."


  • Crossing Delancey
    Crossing Delancey

    Crossing Delancey is a romantic comedy film starring Amy Irving and Peter Riegert released in 1988. It is directed by Joan Micklin Silver and based on a play by Susan Sandler, who also wrote the screenplay....
     (1988) - Sam is wearing a City College of New York sweater when playing handball


  • Cocktail
    Cocktail (film)

    Cocktail is a film released by Touchstone Pictures in 1988. It stars Tom Cruise as a talented bartender who finds love while working at a bar in Jamaica....
     (1988) - the character Brian Flanagan was studying business at CCNY


  • Reversal of Fortune
    Reversal of Fortune

    Reversal of Fortune is the cinematic adaptation of the 1985 book, Reversal of Fortune , written by law professor Alan Dershowitz. It recounts the true story of the unexplained coma of socialite Sunny von B?low, the subsequent attempted murder trial, and the eventual acquittal of her husband, Claus von B?low....
     (1989) - The CCNY campus was used to depict Harvard for this 1990 movie. Many of the scenes taking place in the law school, including the office of Professor Alan M. Dershowitz and several classroom scenes, were filmed in late 1989 at the CCNY School of Architecture, located in Shepard Hall.


  • The Substance of Fire
    The Substance of Fire

    The Substance of Fire is a play by Jon Robin Baitz.At its core is Isaac Geldhart, a childhood survivor of the Holocaust, who arrived in New York City an orphan, reinvented himself as a bon vivant, married well, and found fame and fortune as a champion of authors who are passionate about their work rather than its best-seller potential....
     (1996) - Scenes in the publishing firm run by Isaac Geldhart (Mr. Ron Rifkin's character), a Holocaust survivor, were shot in Shepard Hall.


  • The Royal Tenenbaums
    The Royal Tenenbaums

    The Royal Tenenbaums is a 2001 in film Comedy-drama dark comedy directed by Wes Anderson about three gifted siblings who experience great success in youth, and even greater disappointment and failure after their eccentricity father leaves them in their adolescent years....
     (2001) - Shepard Hall's tower can be seen in the opening montage of this film as the young Richie Tenenbaum releases his eagle. Much of the film was shot at or near CCNY.


  • 25th Hour
    25th Hour

    25th Hour is a 2002 Spike Lee film based on David Benioff's novel The 25th Hour. The cast includes Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson, Brian Cox and Anna Paquin....
     (2002) - Most scenes were shot in Shepard Hall, when Monty Brogan (Mr. Edward Norton's character) visits (and reminisces about the past) his old high school and friend Jacob Elinsky (Mr. Philip Seymour Hoffman's character) who teaches at a fancy private high school.


Television shows
  • Law & Order
    Law & Order

    Law & Order is an United States police procedural and legal drama Television program created by Dick Wolf. It has been broadcast on NBC since its debut on September 13, 1990....
     - various scenes from Law & Order have been filmed on the City College campus.


  • The West Wing - It is implied on occasion that Toby Ziegler
    Toby Ziegler

    Tobias Zachary 'Toby' Ziegler, is a fictional character played by Richard Schiff on the television serial drama The West Wing . For most of the series' duration he is White House Communications Director....
     attended City College.


Literature
  • Allen Ginsberg
    Allen Ginsberg

    Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an United States poet. Ginsberg is best known for the poem "Howl" , celebrating his friends who were members of the Beat Generation and attacking what he saw as the destructive forces of materialism and conformity in the United States....
     - Allen Ginsberg referenced CCNY in multiple poems.


  • Woody Allen
    Woody Allen

    Woody Allen is an Cinema of the United States film director, writer, actor, comedian, musician and playwright.Allen's distinctive films, which run the gamut from dramas to Screwball comedy film, have made him one of the most respected living American directors....
     - Sidney Kugelmass, the protagonist of Allen's short story "The Kugelmass Episode," is stated to be a professor of humanities at C.C.N.Y.


Presidents

  1. Horace Webster
    Horace Webster

    Horace Webster was an American educator who graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1818. Webster remained at West Point as a mathematics professor until 1825....
    , 1847-1869
  2. General Alexander S. Webb
    Alexander S. Webb

    Alexander Stewart Webb was a career United States Army officer and a Union Army general in the American Civil War who won the Medal of Honor for gallantry at the Battle of Gettysburg....
    , 1869-1902
  3. John H. Finley, 1903-1913
  4. Sidney Edward Mezes
    Sidney Edward Mezes

    Sidney Edward Mezes was an USA philosopher. He was born in what is now the town of Belmont, California, to a Spanish-born father and Italian-born mother....
    , 1914-1927
  5. Frederick Robinson
    Frederick Robinson

    Frederick Robinson is a name shared by several people:* Sir Frederick Philipse Robinson * Frederick John Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich...
    , 1927-1938
  6. Harry N. Wright, 1941-1952
  7. Buell G. Gallagher, 1953-1969
  8. Robert Marshak
    Robert Marshak

    Robert Eugene Marshak was an American physicist dedicated to learning, research, and education.Marshak was born in the Bronx, New York City. His parents, Harry Marshak and Rose Marshak, were immigrants to New York from Minsk....
    , 1970-1979
  9. Bernard W. Harleston, 1981-1992
  10. Yolanda T. Moses, 1993-1999
  11. Gregory H. Williams
    Gregory H. Williams

    Gregory Howard Williams is the 11th president of the City College of New York whose term started in August 2001. He earned his J.D. and Ph.D. from George Washington University....
    , 2001-


(source: )

Distinguished alumni and other notables associated with the College


Also see

  • Mid-InfraRed Technologies for Health and the Environment
    Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and the Environment

    Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and the Environment is an Engineering Research Center funded by the National Science Foundation. It was launched on May 1st, 2006 as part of NSF's larger program of ERCs....
     (MIRTHE) (largely based at Princeton University)


External links

  • - Student Newspaper
  • - PBS documentary about the "New York Intellectuals," who came of age at City College