College of Staten Island of the City University of New York - Paperback

by James A. Kaser (Author)

The College of Staten Island's history is rooted in service to the borough of Staten Island. The only tax-funded college in this New York City borough, the school serves over 10,000 students annually.

The college is one of 26 City University of New York campuses and one of the university's 11 upper-division colleges. A 1932 petition campaign for public higher education on Staten Island was followed by decades of activism before Staten Island Community College opened to offer associate degrees in 1956. Later, demand for bachelor degree programs led to the 1967 opening of upper-division Richmond College. In 1976, during a fiscal crisis, the schools consolidated into the College of Staten Island. In 1993, the college moved to a historic campus, the former site of Halloran General Hospital and Willowbrook State School. The college has a distinctive tradition of serving first-generation college students with diverse ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, and immigration identities as well as nontraditional students and people with developmental, learning, and physical disabilities.

James A. Kaser has been the archivist at the College of Staten Island since 2002 and a full professor since 2009. This is his sixth book. Dr. Kaser is a bibliographer and cultural historian with a doctorate in American culture studies. He has selected images from archival collections documenting the College of Staten Island and its predecessor institutions to illustrate this book, which traces the history of public higher education on Staten Island.

Author Biography

James A. Kaser has been the archivist at the College of Staten Island since 2002 and a full professor since 2009. This is his sixth book. Dr. Kaser is a bibliographer and cultural historian with a doctorate in American culture studies. He has selected images from archival collections documenting the College of Staten Island and its predecessor institutions to illustrate this book, which traces the history of public higher education on Staten Island.