HOSTOS UNITED/HOSTOS UNIDO
Hostos Community College
475 Grand Concourse

Bronx, New York 10451

For Immediate Release NEWS RELEASE

HOSTOS TAKEOVER GROWING STRONGER

The occupation of a vacant office building at 500 Grand Concourse
by Hostos students and faculty is now 2 weeks old and growing stronger.

The takeover of the building, which occurred on the afternoon of
Thursday, March 30, was planned to dramatize the lack of space and
facilities at Hostos, the most crowded institution of higher learning
in the State of New York.

Classes have been taught daily at the 500 Grand Concourse facility.
On Monday, some 30 sections met in the building, as did 25 on Tuesday
and 45 on Wednesday.

In addition, the Puerto Rican Student Organization has held its
annual Puerto Rican Culture Week in the building, drawing audiences
as large as 300 for concerts, poetry recitals and lectures by journalists,
professors and authors.

Students and faculty participating in the takeover have also
organized a day care center which functions daily from 9:30 a.m. to
7:30 p.m. They have also put the facility's kitchen and cafeteria to
goed use, serving meals to all those working and participating in
the occupation of the building. (A number of "bodegas" and other
business establishments have donated food and supplies for the takeover.)

A strict code of conduct has been drawn up to insure the proper
behavior of the building's occupants. Alcoholic beverages and the use
of marihuana and other drugs have been stridily forbidden; loitterers
and hangers-on are invited to immediately leave the building; only
individuals who have shown maturity and discipline in the struggle for
the building are allowed to stay over night; and an internal security
system has been set up to protect the building and its equipment.

While the occupation continues apace, Hostos faculty and students,
under the banner of Hostos Unido/Hostos United, are conducting
petition and letter-writing campaigns directed at Mayor Edward Koch.

A community relations committee of Hostos United has also garnered the
support of many South Bronx community leaders and organizations.

Among them are: Aspira, the South Bronx Community Corporation, United
Bronx Parents, Raza Unida, Councilman Gilberto Gerena-Valentin,
Councilman Wendel Foster, local Democratic District Leader Frank
Lugovina, Father John Luce of St. Ann's Church, and others.

Hostos United decided on the tactic of the takeover only after
a winter-long campaign failed to convince Mayor Koch of the necessity
of the building. The Mayor has refused to approve a special issue of
Dormitory Authority bonds to fund the -renovation of the facility
saying that the City University must first publish a master plan for
CUNY construction through the year 1990.

MORE



Hostos Takeover, Cont'd.

Hostos United has countered that the project is a renovation
and not;new construction and that it 1Is“of vital dmportance in order
to alleviate drastic overcrowding at Hostos which lacks such basic
facilities as a cafeteria, auditorium, lecture halls and a faculty lounge.

In the meantime, Chancellor Robert J. Kibbee has said that
the renovation is of the highest priority. In a letter to Mayor
Koch (March 10) he wrote: "It seems neither rational nor relevant
to take a position that the University must sit dead in the water
until the last 'i' has been dotted and the last 't' crossed on a
long-range [master] plan."

"Our concern," said Prof. Gerlad Meyer, chairman of the Hostos
chapter of the CUNY faculty union, "goes beyond easing the sapce
crunch at. Hostos, bad as it is. Many of us believe that the Mayor
and Controller Harrison Goldin have refused to move on the renovation,
not because there is no master plan or because they are not informed
of conditions at Hostos, but because they have a hidden agenda for
the future of the college. We know, as they must, that an overcrowded
college occupying rented facilities,such as Hostos does, is much
easier to close or merge with another institution. Dnwshon cjetn i sets
as much a struggle for the continued existence of the college as for
facilities which are conducive to teaching and learning."

Contact: Gerald Meyer, Ron Mandel or Victor Vazquez at Hostos, 460-105
4 Go-1062 67960-1149,

4/14/78