Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College, the public university operating as a subsidiary of the City University of New York, is New York’s first coeducational liberal arts institution for higher education. Established in 1930, the institute initially provided free tuition to its students. This practice was followed until 1976, when the city’s bankruptcy, drove it to close one of its campuses, and it was only able to operate the only other campus in Midwood, at which point it started charging a tuition fees. This Midwood campus at 2900 Bedford Avenue remains the only campus of Brooklyn College to date and is famously called "the poor man’s Harvard.
Five schools operate under Brooklyn School, namely the Koppelman School of Business; the School of Visual, Media, and Performing Arts; the School of Humanities and Social Sciences; the School of Education; and the School of Natural and Behavioral Sciences.
Brooklyn College offers 175 interdisciplinary, undergraduate, graduate, and doctorate programs in many subjects. The students enrolled in the college belong to a diverse range of ethnicities and contribute to an enriching educational environment.
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.
Notable Alumni
Brooklyn College is the alma mater of many celebrated figures in US political, business, and entertainment circles. President Robert Hess, the 6th president of the college, said, "I like to think of Harvard as the rich man’s Brooklyn College,"}">
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