April 1969. Multiple incidents across CUNY continue to demonstrate a sense of student unrest with the CUNY Board of Higher Education on policy reform. On March 31, 38 students and one faculty member at Queens College were arrested after hosting a four-day sit-in protest in the Social Sciences building. Queens President Joseph P. McMurray called in the arrest on April 1 and released a statement to the Queens Community about his decision to do so. On April 22, after several independent incidents of protest on City College campus, CCNY students began a full occupation of the University. The student protesters have renamed the occupied campus Harlem University and offered open-door meetings and services to the community.
You are experiencing consequences from the unrest, too. Classes have been canceled, there’s a lot of commotion on the streets, and you feel like anything can happen at any given moment. You go to campus to see what’s going on.
As soon as you get out of the subway station, a young woman clad in all-black approaches you and hands you a flier from Queens College.
Ad Hoc Committee to End Political Suppression, “Support the 5 Demands,” CUNY Digital History Archive, accessed December 22, 2021, https://cdha.cuny.edu/items/show/5912.
You walk toward the library. On the way, you notice another flier with very large lettering wheat-pasted onto a telephone booth.
Unknown, “”Answer Back / Don’t Strike”,” CUNY Digital History Archive, accessed December 22, 2021, https://cdha.cuny.edu/items/show/5822.