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.

Manhattan Neighborhood Network

Cooper, Sandi

1999

Cooper, Sandi

English

VHS

28:43