History
The Hunter Women’s College and the City College of New York for Men were combined, as per the directives of the New York City Board of Higher Education, to form a new coeducational public education institute named The Brooklyn College. Admission was only possible after passing an entrance exam, and initially, men and women were enrolled in separate classes through their junior year.
The design of the Brookly College campus is credited to Randolph Evans, who proposed it in 1932. The Georgian-style campus features an impressive library building made even more notable by the addition of an imposing tower. His design was accepted and helped develop the 35-acre college campus. The land occupying the college campus was bought for $1.6 million; today, it is worth more than $32 million.
Brooklyn College joined hands with six other colleges in the city to form the second-largest university in the world. It holds the distinction of being the first college in New York to appoint a permanent black faculty member in 1944 and a black historian to its permanent staff in 1956.
The history of this institute, like many others of the same era, is filled with students’ protests against unjust communist labeling, strict dress rules, war recruiting by the US Navy, and racial issues. The students of the university have a long history of staging protests to demand open admissions and racial diversity.
