Letters to the Editor

City University: On the Need to Save John Jay and Hostos

To the Editor:

‘The Chancellor's proposal to merge
John Jay College with Baruch College
is based on an expected savings in
operating costs of the combined insti-
tutions. ‘Since the plan calis for a
continuation of the program in crim-
inal justice at the present Lincoln
Center campus at 59th Street and
Baruch College is located in the 23d
Street and Madison Avenue area, there
are grave questions about the reality
of those savings.

We have presented a plan to the
Chancellor and to the Board of Higher
Education which will match the $3
million savings the Chancellor would
achieve without destroying John Jay
College. The plan would reduce rental
space, cut administrative costs, in-
crease faculty productivity and reduce
staff. This proposal assures the con-
tinued vitality and viability of John
Jay College and gives the Chancellor
the savings we realize he must
achieve. To impose an artificial merger
of two geographically separated insti-
tutions is questionable at best.

Since John Jay is the smaller of the
two colleges, there is no question that
the vigor and excellence of this
criminal-justice quality program would
be jeopardized, John Jay College en-
rolls approximately 10,000 students,
and the cost. per student is the lowest
among the nine senior colleges in the
City University. John Jay is a low-
cost, high-quality college, directly and
constructively related to the City of
New York. There are over 4,500 police-
men, firemen, corrections officers,
FB. agents and other law-enforce-
‘ment men and women studying in our
unique curriculum.

In 1964, the Board of Higher Educ
tion founded John Jay College because

Xt clearly perceived the need for a
separate institution to study the press-
ing problems of crime prevention, law
enforcement and the larger questions
of social control and social deviance.
Prior to 1964, there existed a limited,
narrowly focused program in police
science at Baruch College. For years,
that program had been tossed from
location to location around the city
and given meager resources to develop.
It was only with the creation of an
independent college which has now
hhecome the leader and innovator in
the field of criminal justice in the
United States that the study of crime.
and its prevention was given its
necessary due,
‘To merge John Jay is to destroy the
educational vitality of the college.
Geratp W. LyNci
Acting President, John Jay College
‘New York, March 3, 1976

To the Editor:

Chancellor Kibhee of CUNY has
proposed closing Hostos Community
College in the South Bronx. This pro-
posal is senseless, cruel and destruc-
tive, No budget cut can justify closing.
an institution of higher learning which
has given so many poor people, so
many racial and cultural minorities
‘opportunities which otherwise would
be unavailable to them.

‘Why close a school whose small
size, personalized stracture and in-
dividualized instruction correspond to
the needs of students whose back-
ground has ill prepared them for aca:
demic work?

Why close a school which provides
the only possibility for higher educa-
tion for our residents whose main
language is Spanish? Hostos offers a
full range of courses in. Spanish ‘so
that these students may eam college
credits while mastering Engli

Why close a school which best
serves the working adults who return
16 school to improve their own and
their families’ lives? Half the students
at Hostos are over 27 years old.

‘Why close the only college in the
economically depressed area of the
South Bronx? The people here want
and deserve a college, and Hostos pro-
‘vides a learning and cultural center

Mostos Community College is too
important to he closed—too important
for the South Bronx, too important for
New York City. To close Hostos would
be to slam the door in the face of
those who as much as anyone deserve
education and jobs, and who have
een denied both too long. To close
Hostos is intolerable. PETER ROMAN

‘Chmn., Social Science Department
Hostos Community College
Bronx, Feb, 25, 1976