tre CUE LivedsiTy OF NEW YORK '

“OFFICE OF THE CHAIRMAN

”
BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION
535 EAST EIGHTIETH STREET NEW YORK, N.Y. 10021 212 360-2127
/ ’
February 20, 1968 we

Mr. Walter Pinkston

Executive Director

Bedford Stuyvesant Youth in Action, Inc.

1180 Fulton Street

Brooklyn, New York po 8

Dear Mr. Pinkston:

I have your telegram advising me of the formation of your co-
alition group and of your desire to meet with the Board to discuss the
proposed establishment of a college in Bedford-Stuyvesant. We are
fully aware of the deep interest and concern of your community in the
proposed college. Since the college is intended to serve community
needs, we are, of course, eager to seek community advice and participa-
tion.

I appreciate your feeling that we should not proceed with the
new college until we meet with you. I propose to discuss with the
Board at its forthcoming meeting the form in which consultation with the
Bedford-Stuyvesant community is to take place. In the meantime, however,
a special committee of the Board has been named to explore possible
candidates for the presidencies of the three experimental community colleges,
of which the Bedford-Stuyvesant college is one. The distinguished edu-
cator, Dr. Frederick H. Burkhardt, is chairman of this Board committee and
I have received assurances from him that he and his committee will be glad
to meet with representatives of your steering group here at the Board
headquarters. I have suggested that he communicate with you directly and
arrange to meet with your committee at a time which is mutually convenient.

I look forward to receiving the first report concerning the
deliberations of the Board committee with your steering committee. Subse-
quently, as I said, we may be in touch with you concerning other forms of
consultation which might be undertaken pursuant to a discussion of the
matter by the Board at its next meeting. Chancellor Bowker and I will
both recommend such consultation and the creation of special machinery for
it.

Sincerely yours,
cc: Frederick H. Burkhardt
Dr. J. Oscar Lee
Prof. J.C.C. Edelstein
Porter R. Chandler
Chairman
The Board of Higher Education is the board of trustees for The City University of New York. Senior Colleges—City, Hunter, Brooklyn, Queens, John
Jay College of Criminal Justice, Richmond, and York; Community Colleges—Borough of Manhattan, Bronx, Kingsborough, New York Community

Colleze of Applied Arts and Sciences, Queensborough and Staten Island. The community colleges are administered under the program of the State
University of New York,