Hi! I’m Henry, and I’m a Junior here at City College. I’m so glad that you want to learn more about how CUNY can admit more Black and Puerto Rican students. As you may have noticed, City College is 97% white, even though the Supreme Court struck down school segregation more than 10 years ago! For many Black and Puerto Rican high school graduates in New York City, college will never become a reality because CUNY schools only admit A-students and the tuition at private colleges is way too high. And so the cycle of poverty continues. But we are going to do something about this.
One of our Five Demands is that CUNY look more like the graduating class of NYC high schools. That means that CUNY colleges can become a reality for almost all of the graduating high school seniors regardless of grade-point-averages. We think this is needed so that we can break the cycle of poverty for New Yorkers.
Anyway, keep an ear out for some demonstrations across campus – and join us! Many years from now, when I am much older, I will talk about my experience as a student activist in an interview you can find here. I hope you take some time to listen to it and learn more about what’s going on at CUNY.
