The Postwar Expansion

1946

The New York State Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences in 1946

The end of World War II and passage of the GI Bill fuel an enrollment boom that begins a transformation of public higher education in New York.

The expansion begins with the 1946 opening of the New York State Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences in downtown Brooklyn. Created through new state legislation, the institute trains technicians and other specialists for the postwar economy. The school becomes the New York City Community College in 1953 and will transition into a senior college, the New York City College of Technology, in the 1980s. Eventually, the post-war transformation features the opening of community colleges in the outer boroughs.

MARCH 1946

The Security Council of the United Nations holds its first formal meetings on American soil in the Gym Building of Hunter-in-the-Bronx, later to become the campus of Lehman College. 

In just 15 days workers paneled the walls and installed a new floor and false ceiling. The new meeting room accommodated 692 people, including delegates, multilingual staff and the press. Meanwhile, flags of the original 51 members of the U.N. were raised on flagpoles planted in the grass along the inner rim of the circular driveway that separated the Gym Building from Student Hall (since renovated and renamed Lehman’s Music Building).

The first formal meetings of the Security Council in the Gym Building (From Lehman College’s “The Early Days of the U.N. Inspire an International Legacy.”)

1951

Coeducation arrives at two campuses: CCNY begins admitting women to its School of Liberal Arts and the all-female Hunter-in-the-Bronx opens to men and extends to a four-year program.

1953

The City College School of Business and Civic Administration is renamed the Bernard M. Baruch School of Business and Public Administration, after the renowned financier and advisor to presidents, an 1889 graduate of City College.

1956

Staten Island Community College opens. It’s the first two-year college created by the Board of Higher Education.

1957

Bronx Community College opens. Tuition is free for students admitted into degree programs. Those attending part-time or as non-matriculating students pay on a per-credit basis.

1960

Queensborough Community College opens. There are 27 full-time faculty and 312 students enrolled in associate degree programs in arts or applied science. Tuition is $150 a semester for 15 credits.

The first sign on Queensborough Community College campus.

1960

A committee of the city’s Board of Higher Education proposes that the colleges be reorganized into a public university that would have Ph.D.-granting authority. The recommendation follows expansion moves by the State University of New York, which had been established in 1948. About 91,000 students are enrolled in the four-year colleges — City, Hunter, Brooklyn and Queens — and in the three community colleges.