Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City.
Brooklyn College's origin began in 1910 with the establishment of an extension division of the City College for Teachers. The school then began offering evening classes for first-year male college students in 1917. In 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College authorized the combination of the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College â€" at that time a women's college â€" and the City College of New York â€" a men's college â€" both of which had established been in 1926. With the merger of these branches, Brooklyn College became the first public coeducational liberal arts college in New York City.
The college's 26-acre (110,000Â m2) campus is known for its beauty, and is often regarded as "the poor man's Harvard" because of its low tuition and reputation for respectable academics. U S News & World Report has ranked the school tied for number 83 as a Regional college (North region).The school was ranked in the top ten for value, diversity, and location by Princeton Review in 2003 and in the top fifty for value in 2009.
Campus history
Construction
In 1932, the architect Randolph Evans drafted a plan for the college's campus on a large plot of land his employer owned in the Midwood section of Brooklyn. He sketched out a Georgian-style campus facing a central quadrangle, and anchored by a library building with a tall tower. Evans presented the sketches to the president of the college at the time, Dr. William A. Boylan. Boylan was pleased with the plans, and the lot of land was purchased for $1.6 million. Construction of the new campus began in 1935, with a groundbreaking ceremony attended by then Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and Brooklyn Borough President Raymond Ingersoll. In 1936, then-President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt went to Brooklyn College to lay the cornerstone of the Brooklyn College Gymnasium. President Boylan, Borough President Ingersoll, and President Roosevelt all had buildings on Brooklyn College's campus named after them. The campus located in Midwood became the only Brooklyn College campus after the school's Downtown Brooklyn campus was shut down during the 1975 budget emergency.
Modern campus history
Brooklyn College's campus East Quad today looks much as it did when it was originally constructed. The campus also serves as home to the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts complex and its four theaters, including the George Gershwin.
The demolition of Gershwin Hall, replaced by The Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts, is the most recent construction on an evolving campus. Other changes to the original design include the demolition of Plaza Building, due to its inefficient use of space, poor ventilation, and significant maintenance costs. To replace Plaza Building the college constructed West Quad Center, designed by the notable Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly. The new building contains classroom space, offices, gymnasiums and a swimming pool. It houses the offices of Registration, Admissions, Financial Aid, and the Department of Physical Education and Exercise Science. The grounds contain a quadrangle with grassy areas and trees. New façades are being constructed on Roosevelt and James halls where they once connected with Plaza Building. The 2009â€"10 CUNYAC championship men's basketball team now plays its home games in the West Quad Center.
This follows a major library renovation that saw the library moved to a temporary home while construction took place. The Brooklyn College library is now located in its original location in a completely renovated and expanded LaGuardia Hall. Noted as one of the most beautiful in the United States, the campus has been shown on numerous movies and television shows.
Schools
Brooklyn College is made up of five schools:
- Murray Koppelman School of Business
- School of Education
- School of Humanities and Social Sciences
- School of Natural and Behavioral Sciences
- School of Visual, Media and Performing Arts
Curriculum
Undergraduate curriculum
Beginning in 1981, the college instituted a group of classes that all undergraduates were required to take, called "Core Studies". The classes were: Classical Origins of Western Culture, Introduction to Art, Introduction to Music, People, Power, and Politics, The Shaping of the Modern World, Introduction to Mathematical Reasoning and Computer Programming, Landmarks of Literature, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Geology, Studies in African, Asian, and Latin American Cultures, and Knowledge, Existence and Values.
In 2006, the Core Curriculum was revamped, and the 13 required courses were replaced with 15 courses in 3 disciplines, from which students were required to take 11. In fall 2013, Brooklyn College embarked on CUNY's new general education alternative, the Pathways curriculum, consisting of three components: Required Core (four courses), Flexible Core (six courses) and College Option (four courses)â€"totaling 42 credits. Brooklyn College offers over a hundred majors varying from the visual arts to Women's Studies.
Division of Graduate Studies
The Division of Graduate Studies at Brooklyn College was established in 1935 and offers more than seventy programs in the arts, education, humanities, sciences, and computer and social sciences. Among those programs, is the Graduate theatre program, which is the top ranked in the CUNY system and 14th in country; faculty include a Tony Award nominee.
Graduate programs are offered in Accounting, Acting (MFA), Africana Studies, Anthropology and Archaeology, Art, Biology, Chemistry, Computer and Information Science, Directing (MFA), Earth and Environmental Sciences, Economics, Education, English, Film, Health and Nutrition Sciences, History, Judaic Studies, Mathematics, Modern Languages and Literatures, Music, Physical Education and Exercise Science, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Sociology, Speech Communication Arts and Sciences, Television and Radio, and Theater.
B.A.-M.D. program
The Brooklyn College B.A.â€"M.D. program is an 8-year program affiliated with SUNY Downstate Medical Center. The Program follows a rigorous selection process, with a maximum of 15 students selected every year. Each student selected to the program receives a Brooklyn College Presidential Scholarship. B.A.â€"M.D. students must engage in community service for three years, beginning in their lower sophomore semester. During one summer of their undergraduate studies, students are required to volunteer in a clinical setting where they are involved in direct patient care. B.A.-M.D. students are encouraged to major in the humanities or social sciences. A student who majors in a science must choose a minor in the humanities or social sciences. All students meet the pre-med science requirements by taking cell and molecular biology, botany, physiology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and general physics. B.A.â€"M.D. students must maintain at Brooklyn College an overall grade point average of 3.5, and a pre-med science GPA of 3.5.
The Scholars Program
The Scholars Program is home to a small number of students with strong writing ability and academic record. Being the oldest honors program in the CUNY system, The Scholars Program has served as a model for many other honors programs nationwide. It was established in 1960 and is an interdisciplinary liberal arts program. The program offers honors-level Core courses and seminars as well as small, personalized classes. Upon graduation from Brooklyn College, many Scholars continue their education in competitive programs at top-ranked universities like Princeton, Yale, and New York University. The program accepts incoming freshmen in addition to matriculated sophomores and transfer students (up to 48 credits). Once admitted, they receive a Brooklyn College Foundation Presidential Scholarship of up to $4,000 for every year of their undergraduate study at Brooklyn College and a laptop computer.
Coordinated Engineering Program
The Coordinated Honors Engineering Program offers a course of study equivalent to the first two years at any engineering school. Students who maintain the required academic level are guaranteed transfer to one of the three coordinating schoolsâ€"NYU-Poly, City College of New York School of Engineering, and the College of Staten Island Engineering Science Programâ€"to complete their bachelor’s degree in engineering. Coordinating Engineering students have also transferred to SUNY Stony Brook, University of Wisconsin, University of Michigan, Cooper Union, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Students admitted as incoming First-Year receive a Brooklyn College Foundation Presidential Scholarship that provides full tuition for their two years of full-time undergraduate study in the Coordinated Engineering Program. As members of the Honors Academy, Engineering Honors students take advantage of individual advising, faculty consultation, and early registration. In the Commons they find study facilities, computer access, academic, scholarship, internship, and career opportunities, and, above all, intellectual stimulation among other talented students like themselves. Students applying to the Engineering Honors Program will also be considered for the Scholars Program.
Brooklyn College Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema
Barry R. Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema is the first public graduate film school in the city of New York. It is the only film school in America to have its own classroom on a film lot with the collaboration of Steiner Studios, the largest soundstage on the East Coast. The program offers a M.A. in Cinema Studies and M.F.A in Cinema Arts with five disciplines of Cinematography, Directing, Post-production, Producing and Screenwriting. The school opened in Fall 2015. The discipline of Digital Arts will be available in Fall 2016.
Athletics
Brooklyn College teams participate as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division III. The Bulldogs are a member of the City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC). Men's sports include basketball, cheerleading, cross country, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis and volleyball; while women's sports include basketball, cheerleading, cross country, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis and volleyball.
Mascot
In 2010 Brooklyn College adopted the Bulldog as its new mascot. The athletic program was originally known as the Kingsmen. In 1994 the mascot was changed to the Bridges. However, after building new facilities and undergoing other changes the athletic director pushed for a new name to reflect the new program.
People
Alumni
Notable alumni of Brooklyn College include Senator Bernie Sanders (1959-1960), Senator Barbara Boxer (B.A. 1962), Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (B.A., 1946), Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt (M.A., 1967), Harvard Law School professor and author Alan M. Dershowitz, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt, Emmy Award-winning actor Jimmy Smits (B.A., 1980), Sopranos stars Steve Schirripa (B.A., 1980) and Dominic Chianese (B.A., 1961), New York Mets President Saul Katz (B.A., 1960), and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Paul Mazursky (B.A., 1952).
In a National Research Council study of baccalaureate origins of Ph.D. recipients between 1920 and 1995, Brooklyn College ranked 19th in the nation.
Notable faculty
- F. Murray Abraham â€" actor of stage and screen; professor of theater, winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor
- Vito Acconci â€" designer, landscape architect, performance and installation artist
- Eric Alterman â€" American liberal journalist
- Hannah Arendt â€" philosopher and political theorist; author of The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) and The Human Condition (1958)
- John Ashbery â€" poet, Pulitzer Prize winner
- Robert Beauchamp â€" painter
- Thomas Bullard â€" theater director and founding director of Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC)
- Edwin G. Burrows â€" historian; Pulitzer Prize winner for co-writing Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 with Mike Wallace
- Frances Sergeant Childs â€" historian; one of the college's founding faculty members
- Eleanor Cory â€" composer
- Michael Cunningham â€" novelist; winner of Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and PEN/Faulkner Award for The Hours
- Rudy D'Amico â€" professional National Basketball Association scout, and former Brooklyn College and professional basketball coach who coached Maccabi Tel Aviv to the Euroleague Championship
- Charles Dodge â€" composer, founder of the Center for Computer Music
- Paul Edwards â€" Professor of Philosophy, editor of the Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- John Hope Franklin â€" American historian, former Chairman of the History Department, president of Phi Beta Kappa, and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom
- Jack Gelber â€" playwright and theater director; taught at Brooklyn College from 1972â€"2003
- Allen Ginsberg â€" beat poet; taught at Brooklyn College from 1986â€"97
- David Grubbs â€" musician, composer, recording artist
- Carey Harrison â€" novelist/dramatist
- Amy Hempel â€" American short story writer, journalist, and coordinator of the MFA Fiction-Writing Program
- Seymour L. Hess â€" meteorologist and planetary scientist.
- Agnieszka Holland â€" film director, best known for Europa Europa (1992)
- Carl Holty â€" painter
- John Hospers â€" first presidential candidate of the United States Libertarian Party; professor from 1956â€"66
- Paul Jacobs â€" classical pianist; specialist in modern music
- KC Johnson â€" Professor of American history
- Béla Király (1912 â€" 2009)- professor emeritus, former Hungarian general taught military history and central European history
- Tania León â€" Cuban-born composer and conductor
- Don Lemon â€" CNN anchor and journalist
- Ben Lerner â€" poet and writer
- Abraham Maslow â€" psychologist in the school of humanistic psychology, best known for his theory of human motivation which led to a therapeutic technique known as self-actualization; taught from 1937â€"51
- Wilson Carey McWilliams â€" political scientist, author of The Idea of Fraternity in America (1973, University of California Press), for which he won the National Historical Society prize in 1974
- Ursula Oppens â€" pianist, co-founded the contemporary music ensemble Speculum Musicae, Conservatory of Music
- Philip Pearlstein â€" Distinguished Professor Emeritus, influential American painter known for his Modernist Realism nudes
- Itzhak Perlman â€" violinist, Conservatory of Music
- Mark Rothko â€" influential abstract expressionist painter
- Susan Fromberg Schaeffer â€" novelist and Broeklundian Professor of English
- Albert Schatz â€" microbiologist, co-discoverer of streptomycin
- Mark Strand â€" Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, essayist, and translator
- Glenn Thrush â€" Politico senior writer, author
- Hans L. Trefousse â€" Distinguished Emeritus Professor of History; taught from 1946-1998, historian and author
- Ad Reinhardt, Elizabeth Murray, Vito Acconci, William T. Williams, Archie Rand, Jennifer McCoy, Patricia Cronin â€" artists (1950s to present)
- Carleton Washburne â€" Director of Teacher Education, known for his progressive education works
- Theresa Wolfson â€" Professor of Labor Economics, won the John Dewey Award of the League for Industrial Democracy
- Joel Zwick â€" Professor in the Film Department, director of Full House, Fuller House, Family Matters, My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Fat Albert
See also
- Economics
- Glossary of economics
References
External links
- Official website
- Brooklyn College Athletics
- Brooklyn College Library
- Brooklyn College Excelsior (newspaper)
- Brooklyn College Kingsman (newspaper)
- Brooklyn College Emergency Medical Squad
- Brooklyn College Computer Science Society
- Brooklyn College Orchestra
- Residence Hall at Brooklyn College
- SUNY Downstate
- Brooklyn College BA/MD Program