Protest and the politics of open admissions: The impact of the Black and Puerto Rican students' community (of City College).
Item
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Title
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Protest and the politics of open admissions: The impact of the Black and Puerto Rican students' community (of City College).
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Identifier
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AAI9029930
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identifier
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9029930
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Creator
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Dyer, Conrad M.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Frances Fox-Piven
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Date
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1990
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Political Science, General | Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies | History, Black
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Abstract
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In spring 1969, the City College of New York was paralyzed by a series of protests organized and led by Black and Puerto Rican students demanding the admission to the college of larger numbers of Black and Puerto Rican students.;Early that summer, the Board of Higher Education adapted an open admission policy which overnight effected a profound transformation of the University.;What motivated this abrupt change? The University has maintained consistently, that in adapting an open admissions policy it was simply moving up the deadline for implementing plans which had already been articulated in a series of plans. Thus, although it acknowledged that the student protest helped to set the stage for its action, in the University's view the policy was not a response to the protest. With little exception this view has been echoed by the relatively few observers who have looked at the decision. More particularly, these observers have credited the policy almost in its entirety to the political genius of then-Chancellor of the University Albert Bowker.;It is the contention of this study that this assessment has been decidedly one-sided. It is a view moreover, which sees power (i.e. the ability to effect change) as lying exclusively in the hands of social elites; the poor and powerless (students, Blacks, etc.) are viewed as more or less malleable background material. In contrast, there is much in the literature on social movements to suggest that reforms (such as open admissions) are much less dependent upon the goodwill of elites, that upon the power exerted by the protesters themselves.;This study undertakes to develop this viewpoint in relationship to the impact of the protests at City College upon the decision to implement an open admissions policy at the City University, by testing the hypotheses regarding timing and scope of open admissions, and the political conditions which made the protests effective.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
