The city’s solutions to the fiscal crisis were deeply unpopular with the CUNY community, which students as well as faculty and staff made clear in the late 70’s. In response to the announcement of the city’s cutbacks and the Board of Higher Education’s introduction of tuition, college students organized protests across CUNY’s campuses and expressed their dissent in the student newspapers.
In November of 1975, students arranged two protests: one on City Hall and one on Washington, D.C.
Notice of the two protests printed in the Baruch student paper, The Ticker.
Page 3 of The Ticker, November 12, 1975.
On November 17th, students met and gathered at Battery Park with signs such as “No Cuts, No Way” and “Hey Abe, What You Say, How Many Schools Did You Close Today” and marched up Broadway and around City Hall to protest the proposed cutbacks. Student leaders from the various CUNY schools made speeches and led chants. These students included Carlyle Thornhill, Baruch College’s Student Government Treasurer, as well as Jay Hershenson, President of the University Student Senate, Harry Tracy from Bronx Community College, and Sam Manuel of the Committee Against Racism. They each emphasized the importance of student mobilization in the fight to preserve free tuition at CUNY and the dire consequences of losing this fight. They also urged protesters to attend the upcoming Washington D.C. march. Richard Warren of The Ticker reports on the rally in more detail in the November 25, 1975 issue of The Ticker, page 3.
Two days later, CUNY students headed to Washington D.C. to demand the Federal Government protect the right to free education. SUNY students also came out in support. An editorial article in The Ticker, urged instructors to cancel classes so more Baruch students could attend the Washington march: “We realize that an instructor, cannot legally dismiss his class, but if he should call in sick, or ask his class to do a short ‘field study’ on the rally, we’re sure no one would mind. How can anyone object to a liberal education? Only President Ford knows for sure.”1
Students brought signs, including “If we can fight in Vietnam, you can save our education,” “Give us the bucks you political…”, “Stop the Cutbacks,” and “Save LaGuardia College.” The November 25, 1975 issue of the The Ticker reported on the protest and approximated that 1,000 Baruch students attended the march. The following letter was distributed amongst the students: “[T]he purpose of the march on Washington is to demonstrate our solidarity against the cutbacks. We are calling for the preservation of CUNY and of our right to a free education… behave in a manner befitting of Baruch Students… march peacefully… let our chants be shouts of conviction.”2
Student leaders, politicians, CUNY alumni, and other supporters spoke at the D.C. rally. Speakers included Representative James Schauer of New York, Representative Bella Abzug of New York, Representative Peter Peyser of New York, National Student Association President Melissa Gilbert, Carlyle Thornhill, Jay Hershenson, Arthur Taney of Queensboro Community College, and Richard Rizzo, who lobbied criticism against President Ford and the other politicians behind cutbacks at CUNY.3 The November 25, 1975 issue of The Ticker contains a number of articles covering the D.C. Rally, including the one featured below.
Lisa Pacheco, of The Ticker, wrote “Why Student’s Attended D.C. Rally,” which comprised quotes from Baruch students who participated in the rally.
Page 2 of The Ticker, November 25, 1975.
The student demonstrations continued even after the Board of Education decided to impose tuition for the 1976-1977 school year. Students not only protested the end of free-tuition, but the coming tuition hikes, the impending closing of colleges, the failing Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), the firing of faculty members, CUNY’s new retention testing, and elimination of academic departments — particularly the end of the Black and Hispanic Studies Departments.
The Ticker and The Reporter advertised these rallies to Baruch students, emphasizing necessity of student participation in these events to ensure Baruch College’s survival.
The Ticker and The Reporter sought to mobilize students and rally them to the cause. Steven Gaynor, Baruch student, wrote in the December 3, 1975 issue of The Ticker that “Students have mobilized to resist the imposition of tuition and also to combat any additional budget cuts. The problem truthfully speaking, is that only a minority of students have participated in the past demonstrations…What is obviously needed is some method of informing students of the current situation of C.U.N.Y.’s fiscal crisis. Therefore my column will be appearing frequently to give you up-to-date information.”4 In a letter to the editor, Gilbert Ramos, member of the CUNY Fightback Committee, warns Baruch students of the coming changes at CUNY if the city’s cutbacks were implement and urges students to take action. He writes: “The challenge of the future is standing before us. We must yell out against these wrong-doings to show those proposing these cuts that we do not favor them. It is our right and responsibility as future citizens to combat these contrary elements, to keep alive and surviving in this society.”5
Mark Rohrlich wrote the article below, “Baruchians Fight for Survival,” which similarly implored Baruch students to join the fight for free tuition. His written call to action also hoped to call out the growing sense of indifference amongst Baruch students towards these coming changes at CUNY. Their apathy, he argued, was counterproductive to the survival of Baruch and their future education.
Rohrlich, deeply clinical about his fellow Baruch students, blamed their apathy on the general “indifference or concern only for their own self interests on the part of the majority of Baruchians.”
Page 3 of The Ticker, December 3, 1975.
Richard Rodriguez, Baruch student and reporter for The Ticker, too hope to wake the “apathetic bunch of zombies” with his calls to action. Unlike Rohrlich, though, Rodriguez argued that Baruchians growing apathy was the fault of the school’s administration, who demoralized students with rejections and dismissals.
Despite some’s indifference and passivity, students and faculty continued to fight the cutbacks in various way. They started letter writing campaigns, made phone calls to city council, and signed petitions.6 Others continued to protest; some displays of activism included a “teachin” at Hunter College on November 15, 1975, a CUNY student rally at the EFCB on December 18, 1975, a teach-out at Manhattan Community College on February 11, 1976, and a CUNY student rally in Albany in March 1977.
Baruch students and members of the CUNY Fightback Committee organized a march to the Baruch College President Clyde Wingfield’s office. Richard Warren reported on the scuffle between the students and the security guards.
Page 3 of The Ticker, December 16, 1975.
Another major student demonstration was led by the Black Student Union. On April 9, 1976, they organized a rally at the United Nations to protest the city’s plans to close CUNY’s primarily minority-serving colleges — Medgar Evers College, John Jay College, and Hostos Community College.
The potential closing of Hostos Community College, in particular, inspired a wave of community activism, which became the Save Hostos Community College Movement.
- “Editorial,” The Ticker, 1975 November 18, 8. ↩︎
- Flier referenced in “Baruchians March on Washington D.C.”, The Ticker, 1975 November 25, 1. ↩︎
- “CUNY Protest Goes to Washington,” The Ticker, 1975 November 18, 1. ↩︎
- Steve Gaynor, “Baruch’s U.S.S. Rep Views CUNY Crisis,” The Ticker, 1975 December 3, 1. ↩︎
- Gilbert Ramos, “Defend Open Admissions,” The Ticker, 1975 November 18, 6. ↩︎
- Outlined in “Baruch Mobilization in Gear,” The Reporter, 1977 February 7, 3. Baruch students were encouraged to perform all these actions to help assure Baruch College’s survival. ↩︎