The Demands of Equity in Higher Education
Posted by Pulitzer Center on February 18, 2025
The City University of New York’s Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge program (CUNY SEEK) was the first education opportunity program established in the nation. Despite being a public institution situated in a diverse urban environment, CUNY’s student population was predominantly white—over 90%—at the time of the program’s founding. In 1966, a group of Black activists and legislators, Shirley Chisholm, Percy E. Sutton, and Charles Rangel among others, advocated before the New York State legislature for the establishment of a program aimed at increasing the number of students of color attending CUNY. This led to the creation of the SEEK Program. A few years later, in the largest and longest student takeover of a college campus in U.S. history, students from the SEEK Program at City College demanded CUNY to accurately reflect the demographics of New York City public schools in its admissions policies and practices.
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