'Eliterates': City College in the Popular Imagination Philip Kay Submitted in partial fulfillment of

544 Pages·2011·2.46 MB·English

by  Philip Kay

‘Guttersnipes’ and ‘Eliterates’:
City College in the Popular Imagination

Philip Kay

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
under the Executive Committee
of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK
2011
© 2011
Philip Kay
All rights reserved
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ABSTRACT

‘Guttersnipes’ and ‘Eliterates’: City College in the Popular Imagination
Philip Kay

Young people go to college not merely to equip themselves for competition in the
workplace, but also to construct new identities and find a home in the world. This dissertation
shows how, in the midst of wrenching social change, communities, too, use colleges in their
struggle to reinvent and re-situate themselves in relation to other groups.
As a case study of this symbolic process I focus on the City College of New York, the
world’s first tuition-free, publicly funded municipal college, erstwhile “Harvard of the Poor,”
and birthplace of affirmative action programs and “Open Admissions” in higher education. I
examine five key moments between 1940 and 2000 when the college dominated the headlines
and draw on journalistic accounts, memoirs, guidebooks, fiction, poetry, drama, songs, and
interviews with former students and faculty to chart the institution’s emergence as a cultural
icon, a lightning rod, and the perennial focus of public controversy. In each instance a variety of
actors from the Catholic Church to the New York Post mobilized popular perceptions in order to
alternately shore up and erode support for City College and, in so doing, worked to reconfigure
the larger New York public.
The five episodes consist of the following: (1) In 1940 a state judge barred the
philosopher Bertrand Russell from joining the faculty and a sweeping “investigation” followed
that resulted in a purge of fifty allegedly Communist professors from the faculty. (2) Ten years
later seven members of City College’s national championship basketball team, all of them Jewish
or black, were convicted of consorting with professional gamblers to fix games. (3) Then in
1969, in the midst of a mayoral primary, black and Puerto Rican students seeking greater access
for members of the surrounding Harlem community seized control of City’s South Campus and
shut down the college for two tense weeks that were followed by a series of violent racial
clashes. (4) Those events in turn ushered in the school’s radical and hotly contested experiment
with “Open Admissions” along with a decade of relentless media attacks, nostalgia for an
imaginatively constructed golden age, and series of dramatic cuts to the college’s budget and
staff that occasioned the end of its century-old tradition of free tuition. (5) Finally, in 1991 one
Afrocentric professor’s outrageous remarks about Jews coupled with an accident at a student-
sponsored fundraiser in the college gym that claimed nine young lives came—through the offices
of the mass media—to stand for the anarchy and physical danger that seemed to be engulfing not
only the institution but the city itself.
Taken together these five moments, with their attendant tabloid scandals, ritual sacrifices,
and manufactured crises, foreground the cultural dimension of City College’s history and the
construction—including the self-construction, even performance—of particular varieties of
student and teacher, both past and present. Newspapers and their various publics were central
to—indeed, constitutive of—the process by which different communities claimed disparate
meanings for the institution and deployed those meanings toward their own, distinctive ends. The
press provided the main stage upon which to enact bitter struggles and excommunication
ceremonies and encouraged readers to use the college to reimagine themselves and their place in
the changing city and nation.
CONTENTS

Contents...........................................................................................................................................i

Acknowledgments...........................................................................................................................v

‘Guttersnipes’.................................................................................................................1

Individual ‘Journeyings’ & Public Imaginings.........................................................................7

Mass Education & the Problem of Prestige..............................................................................9

The College & the City: Geography & Architecture..............................................................13

David Levinsky’s Secular Temple..........................................................................................17

‘Retrospective Brooding,’ Golden Ages, & the Limits of Memory.......................................20

A Cultural Approach to Higher Education.............................................................................24

Ways of Seeing: Raymond Williams & ‘the Masses’............................................................28

Schooling & Social Cohesion in the American Context.........................................................32

Unraveling Systems of Meaning.............................................................................................35

‘Umbrella Robinson’ & His ‘Guttersnipes’ Gripe..................................................................36

Pink Parasols & the Force of Working Class Institutions......................................................41

‘The Dramaturgical Nature of the Public Sphere’..................................................................45

Baruch Spinoza & the Rituals of Excommunication..............................................................48

Historiography & Methodological Concerns..........................................................................51

Chapter Outline.......................................................................................................................56

City College in the Popular Imagination................................................................................60

I. ‘Little Red Schoolhouse’..........................................................................................63

1. THE EXCOMMUNICATION OF BERTRAND RUSSELL...................................................69

The Press Baron & Archbishop Step In to Settle Old Scores.................................................72

The Question of Jobs: Tammany Hall Raises Its Ugly Head.................................................76

The Stage & The Cipher New York Had Been Waiting for...................................................79

Russell’s Muted Defenders: The Ceremonial Role of the Press.............................................81

2. HEARST & COUDERT BRING THE STIGMA HOME TO CITY COLLEGE....................87

‘The Gay Little Campus’: The Post Rises to the College’s Defense......................................91

‘We’re As Good Americans As Anyone’...............................................................................96

The ‘J’ Word: Excavating the Silences.................................................................................100

The Ambivalence of German-Jewish Newspaper Publishers...............................................104

The New Kid in Town: PM’s Subdued Cry for Justice........................................................109

In The Klinkus: Students & Faculty Speak Up for Themselves...........................................113

Conclusion & Aftermath.......................................................................................................117

II. Ejected From the Garden......................................................................................121

Grace, Teamwork, & the Question of Whose Flag to Spit on..............................................125

Sports, Assimilation, & Group Loyalty................................................................................128

Racial Discrimination & City’s Other ‘Dismal Appurtenances’.........................................132

1. ALLAGAROO! THE DOUBLE CHAMPIONSHIP & THE CRY OF THE CITY.............137

The Post Celebrates the Loyalty of New York’s ‘Whiz Kids’.............................................142

‘Sucker Bait,’ the Corruption of Sports, & Early Warnings.................................................146

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2. THE BASKETBALL SCANDAL BREAKS.........................................................................153

The Garden, the Borscht Belt, & the Geography of Blame..................................................155

The Ever Elusive ‘Collegiate Atmosphere’..........................................................................161

Why They Did It...................................................................................................................162

Vengeance, Absolution, & ‘the Quality of Mercy’..............................................................165

Wilfull Ignorance: Whitewashing the Coaches...................................................................167

The Catholics Get a Pass.......................................................................................................173

Anti-Semitism: The Dog That Didn’t Have to Bark.............................................................175

Conclusion & Aftermath.......................................................................................................179

III. ‘The University of Harlem’...................................................................................185

1. THE VIEW FROM DOWN BELOW...................................................................................191

Migration Narratives: Hughes, Baldwin, & the Fortress on the Hill....................................191

Paget Henry’s Two Rude Awakenings.................................................................................195

Crowd Control & Free Tuition in a Changing City..............................................................197

2. MAKING ROOM AT THE TOP: THE CREATION OF SEEK...........................................201

The Threat to College Traditions & Prestige........................................................................205

Site 6: The Lines Are Drawn................................................................................................207

Ocean-Hill Brownsville & the End of the Liberal Alliance.................................................209

Meritocracy Challenged........................................................................................................212

Marginalized, Seek Students Build Their Own Institutions.................................................213

The Encounter Between Teacher & Student.........................................................................217

The Alamac Hotel & the Dawning of a Consciousness........................................................220

The Student Right.................................................................................................................223

3. THE FIVE DEMANDS.........................................................................................................227

Facing Catastrophic Cuts, the President Falls on His Sword................................................231

‘Universities Under the Gun’................................................................................................233

4. INSURRECTION..................................................................................................................237

A Community Seizes Control...............................................................................................237

Harlem University.................................................................................................................239

False Choices........................................................................................................................242

The Specter of Urban Riots...................................................................................................244

Political Forces Intrude.........................................................................................................245

5. VIOLENCE GRIPS THE CAMPUS & A PRESIDENT IS FORCED OUT.........................249

‘Open the Gates!’: Pitched Battles........................................................................................250

Gallagher Resigns.................................................................................................................252

Conclusion: Harlem on Everybody’s Mind..........................................................................254

Enter the Faculty...................................................................................................................257

IV. ‘The Harvard of the Poor’....................................................................................261

1. OPEN ADMISSIONS.............................................................................................................265

The Shibboleth of ‘Ethnic Quotas’.......................................................................................265

The Birth of a Radical, Doomed Experiment.......................................................................267

The Wildcard: Catholic Institutions in Crisis.......................................................................269

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The Daily News Gathers the Flock.......................................................................................271

2. BACKLASH...........................................................................................................................277

‘Doublespeaking of Standards’.............................................................................................277

Invoking an Illustrious Past..................................................................................................282

‘Taking Slum Youth off the Street’: The Press Gets Going.................................................287

The Post’s Reticence, Ethnic & Ideological Confusion.......................................................289

‘The Irreconcilables’: Faculty Balk in the Face of Change..................................................294

3. ROLE-PLAYING...................................................................................................................299

‘I Know You. My Mother Put Wax on Your Floors’..........................................................299

The Student Newspaper As a Vehicle for Self-Reinvention................................................301

P.J. Rondinone’s Journey From ‘Gutter Rat’ to the New York Times..................................303

Open Admissions Gets a Poster Boy....................................................................................307

Useful Fictions: Assailing the Establishment Critics............................................................309

‘The Worst Thing We Did Was to Lie About It’..................................................................313

4. MINA SHAUGHNESSY: THE CLASSROOM V. THE SOAPBOX...................................315

‘A Special Fraternity’...........................................................................................................317

Spokesperson & Truthteller..................................................................................................319

A Quiet Excommunication...................................................................................................320

V. ‘Eliterates’..............................................................................................................325

1. ‘HOW TO KILL A COLLEGE’.............................................................................................327

‘Ford to City’: End Free Tuition...........................................................................................328

Theodore Gross: ‘False Prophet in His Own Land’..............................................................331

‘A Passing Purpose…In Middle Age We No Longer Had a Profession’.............................336

Campus Pariah......................................................................................................................339

The New York Post & ‘CCNY’s Illiterate Thousands’.........................................................343

Marshak: ‘Stupid, Unteachable, Unworthy’ or ‘The National Norm’?................................347

‘Surrounded by Myths,’ the Times Steps Into the Fray........................................................348

A Bleak Landscape, a ‘Resignation,’ & an Eroding Public Sphere......................................352

2. POSTMORTEMS...................................................................................................................357

‘Academic Turmoil’: Memoirs of an Experiment Gone Wrong..........................................358

‘Academic Renewal’ & the Problem of Public Perception..................................................362

‘Constantly on the Defensive’..............................................................................................364

Subway Fantasies: Dramatizing Open Admissions’ Big Lie................................................367

VII. ‘The Gorgeous Mosaic’.......................................................................................373

The Professor, the Journalist, & the Politician.....................................................................375

1. A SORRY SPECTACLE: THE POST’S MAD PROFESSOR..............................................381

Apocalypse Now: The Assault on Black America...............................................................381

Leonard Jeffries & the Curriculum of Exclusion..................................................................384

The Albany Speech: ‘My City College Jews’ & Path to Martyrdom...................................387

Prof. Michael Levin & the Double Standard........................................................................390

The Legacy of Oppositional Discourse & Institutional Dysfunction...................................393

The Post Goes Ballistic.........................................................................................................396

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Having Created an Uproar, the Post Proceeds to Cover It...................................................399

Killing the Messenger? The Campaign Against the Post....................................................403

The Conflagration in Crown Heights....................................................................................405

The Story That Would Not Die.............................................................................................407

City College Students Weigh In, Only to Opt Out...............................................................411

For Alumni, Still Another ‘Ugly Echo’................................................................................413

2. ‘WHO’S IN CHARGE AT CITY COLLEGE?’....................................................................417

Harleston’s Lonely Predicament...........................................................................................417

Levin v. Harleston: Bertrand Russell’s Revenge..................................................................419

The Ongoing Degradation of Collegiality & Campus Discourse.........................................423

The Gym Tragedy: The Urban Underclass Storms the Gates...............................................425

Managing & Avoiding Social Conflict.................................................................................428

‘The Finger Points at City College’......................................................................................431

Jeffries’s Pyrrhic Victory & City’s Public Shame................................................................433

Freedom of Speech Trumps Community Standards & Student Rights................................434

‘The Academy Meets the Talk Show’..................................................................................438

3. ‘CITY ON A HILL’................................................................................................................443

The Manhattan Institute & the Neoliberal Crescendo..........................................................444

Tina Brown’s New New Yorker............................................................................................448

James Traub Shatters ‘CUNY’s Conspiracy of Silence’......................................................450

Re-Reporting the Story.........................................................................................................453

Taking the Long View of Student Achievement..................................................................455

The ‘Trope of the Urban Illiterate’ & the Rhetoric of Remediation.....................................459

The Fiscal Emergency of 1995.............................................................................................461

Herman Badillo’s ‘Standards Revoloution’..........................................................................464

‘CCNY’s Fall From Grace’ & the End of Remediation.......................................................468

Conclusion............................................................................................................................474

Afterword: ‘Dream Machine’.....................................................................................479

Academic ‘Superstars’ Take Center Stage...........................................................................480

‘Access’ v. ‘Excellence’.......................................................................................................483

‘Some Sorts of Dirt Serve to Clarify’...................................................................................485

‘The Decade of Science’ & Climate of Scandal...................................................................487

References...................................................................................................................................491

iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The encounter of student and text is often portrayed by canonists
as a transmission. Information, wisdom, virtue will pass from the
book to the student if the student gives the book the time it merits
… learning is stripped of confusion and discord. It is stripped, as
well, of strong human connection…[My mentors] knew there was
more to their work than their mastery of a tradition. What mattered
most… were the relationships they established with me, the
guidance they provided when I felt inadequate or threatened.
—Mike Rose, 19891

The night Professor James W. Carey died in May 2006 after a long illness, I was writing
him a letter to let him know that only that afternoon I had been offered a full time position
teaching journalism at the City College of New York, the fulfillment of a longtime dream. The
letter, never finished and long since misplaced (some things still need to be written by hand) said
how profoundly his vision of communication, community, the American university tradition, and
the education of the working class had touched me and how I hoped I would now be able to build
upon that vision and carry it into the larger world. As much as anything else, this dissertation
has been an effort to justify Carey’s faith in me and honor his legacy. Rather than a fulfillment of
that effort, however, I have come to think of it as a continuation of that unfinished, dead letter, a
formulation that, whatever he might have thought of the present work, I like to believe would
have pleased him.
Haydée Vitali, another mentor of mine who died a decade before Carey, was a Puerto
Rican immigrant who broke into the teaching profession during the upheavals of the 1960s and
introduced me, a lifelong New Yorker, to the WPA Guide as a work of literature, to the

1 Mike Rose. Lives on the Boundary: A Moving Account of the Struggle to Educate America’s Underprepared.
New York: Penguin Books, 1990 (c. 1989), 225.
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