The City College of the City University of New York (more commonly referred to as the City College of New York, or simply City College, CCNY, or City) is a public senior college of the City University of New York(CUNY) in New York City.
"CCNY" redirects here. For other uses, see CCNY (disambiguation)and College of the City of New York (disambiguation).
Quick facts: Undergraduates, Motto …
The City College of New YorkLatin: Collegium Urbis Novi EboraciMottoRespice, Adspice, Prospice
Motto in English
Look behind, look here, look aheadTypePublicEstablished1847Endowment$264,608,948PresidentVincent BoudreauProvostTony Liss (Interim)
Academic staff
581 (full-time)
914 (part-time)
Administrative staff
401Students16,161Undergraduates13,113Postgraduates3,048LocationNew York City, New York, U.S.
40.8194°N 73.9500°WCampusUrbanColorsLavender and Black AthleticsNCAA Division III – CUNYAC (North)NicknameBeaversAffiliationsCUNY
APLU
AASCU
Urban 13/GCUMascotBeaverWebsitewww.ccny.cuny.edu
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Located in Hamilton Heightsoverlooking Harlem in Manhattan, City College's 35-acre (14 ha) Collegiate Gothic campus spans Convent Avenue from 130th to 141st Streets. It was initially designed by renowned architect George B. Post, and many of its buildings have achieved landmark status. Affectionately known as the "Harvard of the proletariat," the college has graduated ten Nobel Prizewinners, one Fields Medalist,one Turing AwardWinner and three Pulitzer Prizes. Among these alumni, the latest is a Bronx native, John O'Keefe(2014 Nobel Prize in Medicine).
Founded in 1847, City College was the first free public institution of higher education in the United States. It is the oldest of CUNY's 24 institutions of higher learning,and is considered its flagship college.
Other primacies at City College that helped shape the culture of American higher education include the first student government in the nation (Academic Senate, 1867);the first national fraternity to accept members without regard to religion, race, color or creed (Delta Sigma Phi, 1899); the first degree-granting evening program (School of Education, 1907); and, with the objective of racially integrating the college dormitories, "the first general strike at a municipal institution of higher learning" led by students (1949).
History
Early 19th century
Shepard Hall, rear entrance, looking east from Convent Avenue, City College of New York, 2010City College of New York in 2010, North Campus, looking west. Wingate Hall on the left, Townsend Harris Hall in the background.
The City College of New York was 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. A combination prep school, high school / secondary schooland college, it would provide children of immigrants and the poor access to free higher education based on academic merit alone. It was one of the early public high schools in America following earlier similar institutions being founded in Boston (1829),Philadelphia(1838), and Baltimore (1839).
The Free Academy was the first of what would become a system of municipally-supported colleges – the second, Hunter College, was founded as a women's institution in 1870; and the third, Brooklyn College, was established as a coeducational institution in 1930.
In 1847, New York State Governor John Young had given permission to the state Board of Education to found the Free Academy, which was ratified in a statewide referendum. Founder Townsend Harris 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 (1794–1871), a United States Military Academy at 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.
A view of the original entrance to Shepard Hall, the main building of the City College of New York, in the early 1900s, on its new campus in Hamilton Heights, from St. Nicholas Avenue looking up westward to St. Nicholas Terrace
In 1847, 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 was exclusive to the sons of wealthy families. 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 distinguished chemist and scientist Oliver Wolcott Gibbs a faculty position because of Gibbs's Unitarianreligious beliefs. Gibbs was a professor and held an appointment at the Free Academy since 1848. (In 1863, Gibbs went on to an appointment at Harvard College, 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 Columbia president Frederick Augustus Porter 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.
Late 19th century
1876Statue of General Alexander S. Webb(1835–1911), second president of CCNY (1869–1903)
In 1866, the Free Academy, a men's institution, was renamed the "College 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" when the 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 City 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 the newly renamed City College was a West Pointgraduate. The second president, General Alexander S. Webb (1835-1911), assumed office in 1869, serving for almost the next three decades. One of the Union Army's heroes at Gettysburg, General Webb was the commander of the Philadelphia Brigade. In 1891, while still president of the City College, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honorfor heroism at Gettysburg. A full-length statue of Webb, in full military uniform, stands in his honor at the heart of the campus.
College librarybookplate with an early version of the college seal from the era when the institution was named the College of the City of New York, 1866–1929
The College's curriculum under Webster and Webb combined classical training in Latin and Greekwith 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, 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 project (1903–1914) with one of the excavation cuts named for him. General Webb was succeeded by John Huston Finley (1863–1940), as third president in 1903. Finley relaxed some of the West Point-like discipline that characterized the College, including compulsory religious chapel attendance.
Phi Sigma Kappaplaced its sixth oldest chapter on the campus in 1896, flourishing until 1973, and whose alumni still provide scholarships to new students entering the CCNY system.
Delta Sigma Phiwas founded at CCNY in 1899 as a social fraternity based on the principle of the brotherhood of man. It was the first national organization of its type to accept members without regard to religion, race, color or creed. The chapter flourished at the college until 1932 when it closed as a result of the Great Depression. The founding of another national fraternity, Zeta Beta Tau, took place at City College on December 1898 by Dr. Richard Gottheil who aimed at establishing a Jewish fraternity with Zionistideals. This chapter, however, has become defunct.
Early 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, The Campus, 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(class of 1889) and Robert F. Wagner (class of 1898). A 100-year time capsule was buried in North Campus.
Until 1929, City College had been an all-male institution. During that time, specifically in 1909, the first chapter of Sigma Alpha Mufraternity was founded. In 1930, CCNY admitted women for the first time, 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, thousands of brilliant individuals (including 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 "Harvardof the Proletariat", the "poor man's Harvard", and "Harvard-on-the-Hudson".
Even t
Lewisohn Stadium (demolished)
The former Adolph Lewisohn Stadium, now the site of the North Academic Center (1915)
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 which were open park land. Finley's wish for a stadium moved forward when in 1912 businessman and philanthropist Adolph Lewisohnexpressed interest in financing construction of the stadium. Lewisohn donated $75,000 for the stadium's construction and Finley commissioned architect Arnold W. Brunner to design Lewisohn Stadium, which was influenced by Finley's memories of a small rock-hewn theatre in the Trastevere section of Rome.
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 had become CCNY's fourth president. The stadium's dedication was enhanced by a performance of "The Trojan Women", produced by Granville Barker and Lillian McCarthy. College graduation services were held in Lewisohn for many years, with the last graduation held in 1973 shortly before it was demolished. Also deep under the grandstand seats was the college rifle range. It was used by ROTC students for basic handling of firearms.
Other demolished buildings
A separate library building originally planned in 1912 for the campus was never built but ground was broken on March 25, 1927 for a free-standing library to be built on St. Nicholas Terrace, between St. Nicholas and 141st Streets. Only 1/5 of the original library plan was constructed at a cost of $850,000, far above the $150,000 alumni had collected to establish a library at the original Amsterdam Avenue and 140th Street site. The Bowker/Alumni Library stood at the present site of the Steinman Engineering building until 1957.
The Hebrew Orphan Asylumwas erected in 1884 on Amsterdam Avenue between 136th and 138th Streets, 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(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, CCNY purchased a former Episcopal orphanage on 135th Street and Convent Avenue (North campus), 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.
Postwar buildings
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 (CCNY Class of 1906), a well known civil engineer and bridge designer.
The Administration Building was erected in 1963 on the North Campus across from Wingate Hall. It houses the College's administration offices, including the President's, Provost's and the Registrar's offices. It was originally intended as a warehouse to store the huge number of records and transcripts of students since 1847. 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.
The Marshak Science Building was completed in 1971 on the site of the former Jasper Oval, an open space previously used as a football field. The building was named after Robert Marshak, renowned physicist and president of CCNY (1970–1979). The Marshak building houses all science labs and adjoins the Mahoney Gymnasium and its athletic facilities including a swimming pool and tennis courts.
North Academic Center (2011)
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, the building has received criticism for its lack of design and outsize scale in comparison to the surrounding neighborhood.
Contemporary and Gothic Revival architecture in the background
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 postmodernrenovation 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 Commissionmade the North Campus Quadrangle buildings and the College Gates official landmarks in 1981. The buildings in the Quadrangle were put on the State and National Register of Historic Places in 1984. In the summer of 2006, the historic gates on Convent Avenue were restored.
South Campus
1950s aerial view of the old South Campus of City College, bought in 1953 from Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart. The photo is taken from the south looking northeast.The above photo, annotated. Click to enlarge and see annotations
In 1953, CCNY bought the campus of the Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart(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 renamed 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.
As a result of this expansion, the South Campus of CCNY primarily contained the liberal arts classes and departments of the College. The North Campus, also as a result of this expansion, mostly 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, an alumnus (Class of 1900) and celebrated professor of philosophy at the College from 1912 to 1938. When the Cohen Library moved to the North Academic Complex in the early 1980s, the structure was renamed the 'Y' building, and housed offices, supplies, the mail room, etc. The building was eventually gutted and renovated to become the home of the School of Architecture in 2009 (see below).
In the 1970s, many of the old buildings of the South Campuswere demolished, some that 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 (NYSBC) ), 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), and Mott Hall (formerly the English Department, now a New York City Department of Education primary school).
Some of the buildings that 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, (which 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, among others.
New South Campus buildings
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, the College completed the construction of a 600-bed dormitory, called "The Towers" There are plans to rename The Towers after a distinguished alumnus or donor.
The building that formerly housed Cohen Library, i.e., the 'Y' Building mentioned above, became the new home for the School of Architecture, with the renovation headed by architect Rafael Viñoly. Near the 133rd Street gate, the Herman Goldman sports field was eliminated in favor of two new scientific education and research facilities.
In 2007, two new buildings had been proposed for the South Campus site by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York(DASNY). One was a four-story Science Building, to serve as an adjunct to the Marshak Science Building on the North Campus, and the other was a six-story Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC).
Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, a pair of new buildings on the site of the Herman Goldman sports field: the Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC), serving visiting scientists and the whole CUNY system; and the Center for Discovery and Innovation. The buildings are linked by an underground tunnel. In total, these two buildings 400,000 square feet of laboratories, offices, an auditorium, and meeting rooms.
Campus location
The College is located between West 130th and West 141st Streets in Manhattan, along Convent Avenue and St. Nicholas Terrace, between Amsterdam and St. Nicholas Avenues. The campus is served by the following transportation:
New York City Subway: the 137th Street – City Collegesubway station at Broadway, served by the 1train; and the 145th Streetstation at Saint Nicholas Avenue, served by the A, B, C, and D trains. The south end of the station is closer to CCNY and is served by the College's bus service on weekdays.
MTA Regional Bus Operations' M3, M4, M5, M11, M100, M10, Bx6, Bx6 SBS routes and campus shuttle buses
Academics
The City College of New York is organized into five schools plus The Macaulay Honors College. The five schools of the City College of New York are The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, which is divided into three divisions (The Division of Humanities and the Arts, The Division of Social Science, and The Division of Science), The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, The School of Education, The Grove School of Engineering, and The Sophie B. Davis School of Biomedical Education.
The College offers the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Bachelor of Science in Education (B.S. Ed.), Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.), Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.), Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.) degrees at the undergraduate level, and the Master of Arts (M.A.), Master of Science (M.S.), Master of Science in Education (M.S.Ed.), Master of Engineering (M.E.), Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.), Master of Architecture (M.Arch.), Master of Landscape Architecture (M.L.A.), Master of Urban Planning (M.U.P.), Master of Professional Studies (M.P.S.), Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees at the graduate level.
Profile
For the Fall 2016 entering class of freshman, the average SATscore was 1260/1600 and the average high school GPA was 90/100%.
Physics
The City College of New York has had a long and distinguished history in physics. Three of its alumni went on to become Nobel laureates in physics: Robert Hofstadter in 1961, Arno Penzias in 1978, and Leon Lederman in 1988. Albert Einstein gave the first of his series of United States lectures at the City College of New York in 1921. Other distinguished alumni and past faculty in the field are Mark Zemansky, Clarence Zener, Mitchell Feigenbaum, and Leonard Susskind. Current faculty include Robert Alfanoand Michio Kaku.
Research
Advanced Science Research Center
CCNY hosts a research center focusing on nanotechnology, structural biology, photonics, neuroscience and environmental sciences.
CUNY Dominican Studies Institute
Part of CCNY's Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, the CUNY Dominican Studies Instituteis the nation's only university-based research center devoted to "the history of the Dominican Republic and people of Dominican descent in the United States and across the wider Dominican diaspora."
College seal and medal logo
The design of the three-faced college seal has its roots in the 19th century, when Professor Charles Anthonwas inspired by views of Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, whose two faces connect the past and the future. He broadened this image of Janus into three faces to show the student, and consequently, knowledge, developing from childhood through youth into maturity.
The seal was redesigned for the college's Centennial Medal in 1947 by Albert P. d'Andrea (class of 1918).Professor d'Andrea, having immigrated from Benevento, Italy, in 1901, joined the faculty immediately after graduation and was Professor of Art and Chairman of the Art Department from 1948 to 1968.
In 2003, the college decided to create a logo distinct from its seal, with the stylized text "the City College of New York."
Rankings
Quick facts: University rankings, National …
U.S. News & World Report in its 2016 rankings placed CCNY 85th among 620 Regional Universities in the North. ("Regional Universities" are defined as institutions that offer a broad range of undergraduate programs, some master's degree but few, if any, doctoral programs.CUNY uses the CUNY Graduate Center for its doctoral programs). CCNY also ranked #1 for racial and ethnic diversity among Regional Universities in the North.
