Items

• Inside City Hall - CUNY Open Admissions and Standards (1998)

  This 1998 excerpt from NY1's Inside City Hall features brief news coverage on proposed state funding for CUNY as well as a roundtable discussion in response to recent city government proposals relating to remediation and admissions standards at the university. Among those participating on the panel are Sandi Cooper, John Calandra, and James Traub. During the 1990s, CUNY faced increased attacks at both the state and city levels. Budget cuts from the state threatened the university's ability to continue its previous course offerings, while city officials sought to upend CUNY's admissions standards and remediation programs.
• CUNY Forum - Future of Public Higher Education

  Airing on May 6, 1998, this episode of CUNY Forum features an hour-long discussion on the future of public higher education in New York City. Moderated by Brooklyn College Professor Ed Rogowsky, the forum includes several participants including Assembly members Ed Sullivan and Helen Marshall and CUNY faculty members Fred Lane and Sandi Cooper. Released during a time in which the university system faced intense criticism from city officials, the video covers many topics including remediation, assessment, adjunct labor, budget cuts, graduation rates, and university standards.
• NY Closeup - End of Remediation at CUNY (1/26/1999)

  This clip from NY1's NY Closeup focuses on the topic of remediation at CUNY. On the night prior to the show's broadcast on January 26, 1999, CUNY trustees approved a plan to remove remedial education at the university's eleven senior colleges. Moderated by Sam Roberts, this episode features a discussion between Roberts, Dr. Anne Paolucci and Herman Badillo, two members of CUNY's Board of Trustees who voted in favor of the move. As was consistent through much of Rudolph Giuliani's mayorality in the 1990s, city officials frequently leveled criticisms at the CUNY system focusing on its entrance standards and the remediation programs it offered. The move to eliminate remediation had long been a goal of the mayor, a staunch critic of the university system.
• Inside City Hall - End of Remediation at CUNY (1/26/1999)

  This clip from NY1's Inside City Hall focuses on the topic of remediation at CUNY. On the night prior to the show's broadcast on January 26, 1999, CUNY trustees approved a plan to remove remedial education at the university's eleven senior colleges. Moderated by Dominick Carter, the episode features a roundtable discussion between two in favor of the move, Thomas Borgese and John Calandra, and two opposed, Sandi Cooper and Roscoe Brown. As was consistent through much of Rudolph Giuliani's mayorality in the 1990s, City Hall frequently leveled criticisms at the CUNY system focusing on its entrance standards and the remediation programs offered at the university's senior colleges. The move to eliminate remediation, then, had long been a goal of the mayor, a staunch critic of the university system.
• New York Closeup (1998)

  Hosted by Sam Roberts, this 1998 episode of NY1's "New York Closeup" features conversation between Roberts, Randy Mastro, deputy mayor, and Joseph Lhotta, city budget director. The episode opens on a discussion of CUNY and the city's proposal to reform what officials from the Giuliani administration viewed as a university system in crisis. Early conversation centers around admission standards and graduation rates at CUNY before the discussion turns to the city's larger budget issues for the remainder of the program. The criticisms of the CUNY system presented by the mayor's appointees in this segment were persistently leveled against the university by Giuliani and his allies during the late-1990s.
• Labor at the Crossroads (CUNY 1998)

  Co-produced by the CUNY Association for Worker Education and the Department of Communications at Hunter College, this video features footage of February 1995 CUNY/SUNY student protests in Albany as well as discussions featuring CUNY professors Sandi Cooper and Blanche Cooke, and Janine Jackson (Labor At the Crossroad host) and Nicole Hosten. At the time of the program's airing, CUNY had been threatened with drastic state cuts in funding that threatened to undermine the university's contribution to the city and the state. And even more than budget cuts, the university also faced persistent attacks from city leaders, including Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, that sought to reshape the university by eliminating remedial education at the senior colleges.
• Herman Badillo Appointed to Head CUNY Board of Trustees

  This clip from a May 1999 NY1 news broadcast features the announcement of Herman Badillo's appointment to lead CUNY's Board of Trustees. Initially appointed to the Board by Giuliani as part of the Mayor's efforts to place allies critical of the CUNY system in control of its governing body, Badillo's appointment to lead the Board was at the behest of Republican Governor George Pataki. The move was criticized by many as overtly political without any regard for the university's academic future. The video features statements from Badillo, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and CUNY professors Sandi Cooper and Kenneth Sherrill in response to Badillo's elevation.
• Assembly Update w/ Assembly Member Ed Sullivan featuring "The Friends of CUNY" (1999)

  This 1999 roundtable discussion with Assembly Member Ed Sullivan features Drs. Sandi Cooper and Michael Kahan, leaders of "The Friends of CUNY," a group formed in opposition to many of the harmful changes sought by politicians and trustees of CUNY in the late-1990s and early-2000s. The two professors from the CUNY system offered a defense of the public university in the face of the intense criticism that had dogged CUNY for much of the 1990s, thanks to the efforts of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and his allies in their attempts to reshape the university in their preferred image. Highly critical of the university's entrance standards, graduation rates, and remedial options for incoming freshman, Giuliani sought to shift the direction of CUNY via his ability to appoint members to the university's Board of Trustees. The battle between city leadership and supporters of the CUNY system persisted for much of the late-1990s and 2000s, though Giuliani claimed significant victories with the release of a scathing report that declared CUNY an "Institution Adrift" and the subsequent abolition of the system's remedial programs.
• Inside City Hall - "Full Scale Assault on the City's Community College System" (1998)

  This video features a broadcast of NY1's Inside City Hall from 1998 that focuses on the then-newly released preliminary budget for the university. As was consistent through much of Giuliani's mayorality in the 1990s, many of his criticisms of the CUNY system focused on its entrance standards and the remediation programs offered by the university. With these two points in mind, his plan offered a blistering critique of the CUNY system. In addition to clips featuring responses from numerous individuals, sit-down interviews feature Randy Mastro, deputy mayor of NYC, and Ed Koch, former NYC mayor.
• Inside City Hall - Remedial Education (3/23/1998)

  Featuring Herman Badillo, John Clandra, Sandi Cooper, and Dennis Walcott, this episode of NY1's "Inside City Hall" tackles the topic of remedial education at CUNY. It was originally broadcast on March 23, 1998. The topic received significant attention throughout the 1990s as allies of Mayor Giuliani frequently leveled criticisms at the university's remediation programs and entrance requirements. By the end of 1999, such courses would no longer be offered at CUNY's eleven senior colleges following intense criticism that accompanied the release of a report that labeled CUNY "an Institution Adrift."
• Oral History Interview with Sandi Cooper

  In this 2018 interview Sandi Cooper, history professor emerita, reflects on her six decade-long involvement with the university, its students, and the faculty senate. Cooper, whose research specialty focuses on peace studies, spent the majority of her academic career at the College of Staten Island and the CUNY Graduate Center. From 1975 until her retirement in 2015, she served on the University Faculty Senate, assuming an active role in fighting for the betterment of the university. Cooper chaired the senate from 1994 to 1998. This interview was conducted on May 1, 2018 by Andrea Vásquez and Gerald Markowitz. Among the many topics covered in this interview are the early days of Richmond College—a precursor to the College of Staten Island—and its experimental curriculum and faculty governance; Cooper’s experience as a woman in academia; open admissions and the fiscal crisis of the 1970s; her experience as chair of the University Faculty Senate; her participation in the Professional Staff Congress; 1990s battles with City Hall and CUNY leadership; and the introduction and implementation of the Pathways Program in the 2010s.