Brooklyn College

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (January 2007)

Brooklyn College
Motto:	Nil sine magno labore ("Nothing without great effort")
Established:	1930
Type:	Public
Endowment:	$36.9 million
President:	Christoph M. Kimmich
Staff:	519 full-time, 444 part-time
Students:	15,385
Undergraduates:	11,172
Location:	Brooklyn, NY, USA
Campus:	Urban
Athletics:	14 teams
Mascot:	Bridges
Website:	www.brooklyn.cuny.edu

Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York.

Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College (then a women's college) and the City College of New York (then a men's college). With the merger of these branches, Brooklyn College became the first public coeducational liberal arts college in New York City. The 26-acre campus is known for its great beauty.

The College ranked in the top 10 nationally for the second consecutive year in Princeton Review’s 2006 guidebook, America’s Best Value Colleges.

Contents 1 Campus history 1.1 Modern campus history 2 Divisions 3 Undergraduate curriculum 4 Division of Graduate Studies 5 B.A.-M.D. program 6 The Scholars Program 7 Notable alumni 7.1 Academia 7.2 Business 7.3 Entertainment 7.4 Government, law, and public policy 7.5 Journalism 7.6 Literature and the arts 7.7 Science and technology 7.8 Sports 8 Notable faculty 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Campus history

In 1932, an architect named 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.

[edit] Modern campus history

Brooklyn College's campus today still looks much as it did when it was originally constructed, but with extensions of Ingersoll Hall and Roosevelt Hall. The campus also serves as home to the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts complex and its four theaters, including the George Gershwin. The most recent construction to take place on the campus was the demolition of the Plaza Building, due to its inefficient use of space, poor ventilation, and significant maintenance cost. To replace the Plaza Building, the college is currently constructing a new West Quad. To keep with the academic style of the campus, the new grounds will contain a newly landscaped quadrangle with grassy areas and trees. Also, new façades will be constructed on the Roosevelt and James Hall buildings where they once connected with the Plaza Building. In addition to these changes, a new building will be built that will house classroom space, offices, and the Department of Physical Education and Exercise Science. The building will also contain new gymnasiums, and a swimming pool. This follows a major library renovation that saw the library moved to a temporary home while construction took place.

Ninety percent of the Brooklyn College faculty hold the highest degree in their field. Among them are Fulbright and Guggenheim fellows, an American Book Award winner, a National Book Award finalist, an Obie Award-winning playwright, 3 Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, and award-winning scientists and musicians.

The College ranks 19th nationally in the number of its undergraduates who have gone on to receive Ph.D. degrees.

[edit] Divisions

Brooklyn College is made up of three academic divisions:

• College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
• School of General Studies
• Division of Graduate Studies

Also, the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College offers undergraduate and graduate work in performance, musicology, composition, and music education.

[edit] 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.^[1]

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.^[2]

[edit] Division of Graduate Studies

About

The Division of Graduate Studies draws on this record of achievement. For almost 70 years, the division has enabled qualified students of diverse backgrounds to acquire an advanced education of superior quality at a comparatively modest tuition. Today students from almost every state and more than 30 countries are working toward their master's or doctoral degrees at Brooklyn College. The Division of Graduate Studies offers more than 60 master's degree and advanced certificate programs in the arts, education, humanities, social sciences, sciences, and professional studies. Each year hundreds of graduate students embark on professional careers with the assistance of the Center for Career Development and Internships. Fostering a strong sense of community are the Graduate Student Organization, a number of student clubs, a graduate student newsletter, a series of graduate student lectures, and lively social events.

Today, under the administraion of its eighth president, Dr. Christoph M. Kimmich, Brooklyn College is building on traditions that have given it a place among the nation's most respected institutions of higher education.

Mission

Brooklyn College is a comprehensive, state-supported institution of higher learning in the borough of Brooklyn, a culturally and ethnically diverse community of two-and-one-half million people. As one of the 11 senior colleges of the City University of New York, it shares the mission of the university, whose commitment is to access and excellence.

The College seeks to extend its educational mission to graduate students through advanced programs offered by the Division of Graduate Studies. The academic goals of the division build on the College's tradition of academic excellence in the liberal arts and in teacher education programs. The division offers studies in specialized areas to serve the growing number of adults who seek to continue their intellectual pursuits and broaden their professional goals. In addition, in order to meet the changing needs of society, Brooklyn College continually develops new degree and advanced certificate programs as well as new concentrations of courses in existing programs. The College participates in a range of doctoral programs offered by the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York, including campus-based programs in the sciences.

[edit] B.A.-M.D. program

The Brooklyn College B.A.-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 17 students selected every year. Each student selected to the program receives a Brooklyn College Presidential Scholarship. B.A.-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.-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.

[edit] The Scholars Program

The Scholars Program was established in 1960 with support from the Ford Foundation. It was the first honors program in the City University of New York, and one of the earliest at any American college or university. The program received national recognition, became a model for honors programs elsewhere, and was the foundation of the Brooklyn College Honors Academy, which now includes nine federated programs. Students in the program are distinguished by their strong writing ability. Applicants must score at least 680 on their SAT II Writing, and maintain a GPA over 3.50. Graduates of the Scholars Program enter such fields as medicine, law, speech therapy, public health, television, film producing and directing, and biochemistry. They are admitted to Ph.D.programs at such universities as Princeton, Pennsylvania, Yale, Berkeley, and New York University. Many are elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa, and have received awards, including Brooklyn College’s Tow Travel Fellowship and Furman Travel Fellowship for undergraduate international study and research, and the nationally competitive Beinecke Fellowship and Mellon Humanities Fellowship for graduate study. Limited to 15-20 new students per year, the Program offers a community much like a small residential college.[1][2]

[edit] Notable alumni

In a National Research Council study of baccalaureate origins of Ph.D. recipients between 1920 and 1995, Brooklyn College ranked 19th in the nation.

[edit] Academia

• Jerome H. Barkow (B.A. 1964), Canadian anthropologist at Dalhousie University who has made important contributions to the field of evolutionary psychology.
• Barbara Aronstein Black (B.A. 1953), former Dean, Columbia University School of Law
• Bhikkhu Bodhi (B.A. 1966), American Buddhist monk, second president of the Buddhist Publication Society, 1984-2002.
• Eva Brann (B.A. 1950), the longest-serving tutor (1957-present) at St. John's College, Annapolis and a 2005 recipient of the National Humanities Medal.
• Alan M. Dershowitz (B.A. 1959), Harvard Law School professor and author
• Melvyn Dubofsky (B.A. 1955), professor of history and sociology at the State University of New York at Binghamton, and a well-known labor historian
• Yaffa Eliach (B.A. 1967), Professor of Judaic Studies, Brooklyn College, and pioneer scholar in Holocaust Studies
• Sandra Feldman (B.A 1960), President, American Federation of Teachers
• Oscar Handlin (B.A. 1934), Carl M. Loeb University Professor Emeritus, Harvard University; winner of the Pulitzer Prize in history, author
• Donald Kagan (B.A. 1954), historian; former Dean at Yale University
• Israel Kirzner (B.A. 1954), economist
• Annette Kolodny (B.A. 1962), feminist literary critic and activist
• Harvey Lichtenstein, (B.A. 1951), President & Executive Producer of the Brooklyn Academy of Music
• Sidney Mintz (B.A. 1943), anthropologist best known for his studies of Latin America and the Caribbean
• Stuart A. Rice (B.S. 1952), physical chemist at the University of Chicago
• Gary A. Robbins (B.S. 1970), Geologist at the University of Connecticut who has made important contributions to the field of hydrogeology.
• Julian Rotter (B.A. 1937), Psychologist, pioneered research on locus of control.
• Jack Weinstein (B.A. 1943), Columbia Law School professor and Senior Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York

[edit] Business

• Bruce Chizen (B.S. 1978), President & CEO, Adobe Systems
• Bernard Cornfeld (B.A. 1950), prominent businessman and international financier who sold investments in US mutual funds.
• Jerry Della Femina (1957), Chairman & CEO, Della Femina, Jeary and Partners
• George Friedman (B.A. 1956), Chairman & CEO, Parallel Communications, Inc.

[edit] Entertainment

• Oscar Brand (B.S. 1942), folk singer, radio host, musicologist
• Daniel Glass (1977), music industry producer
• Marvin Kaplan (B.A. 1947), character actor, president of Los Angeles chapter of American Federation of Television and Radio Artists 1989-95; 2003-05
• Woodie King, Jr. (M.F.A. 1999), renowned African-American director and producer of stage and screen, and founding director of the New Federal Theater
• Tuli Kupferberg (B.A. 1948), counterculture poet, author, cartoonist, pacifist anarchist, publisher and co-founder of the band The Fugs.
• Steve Malzberg (B.A. 1982), conservative radio broadcaster and host of The Steve Malzberg Show on the WOR Radio Network.
• Paul Mazursky (B.A. 1951), Film Director, best known for Down and Out in Beverly Hills; producer; actor
• Dennis Prager (B.A. 1970), syndicated radio talk show host, columnist, author, ethicist, and public speaker
• Jimmy Smits (B.A. 1980), actor, NYPD Blue and L.A. Law; won an Emmy Award in 1990
• Dirk Weiler (M.M. 2002), singer and actor
• Joel Zwick (B.A. 1962), Theater and Television Producer, Family Matters, director of My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)

[edit] Government, law, and public policy

• Barbara Boxer (B.A. 1962) United States Representative and United States Senator(D - California)
• Frank J. Brasco (B.A. 1955), member of the United States House of Representatives from 1967-1975
• Shirley Chisholm (B.A. 1946), first African American U.S. Congresswoman, 1968—82
• Manuel F. Cohen (B.S. 1933), Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission, 1964—69.
• Stanley Fink (B.A. 1956), member of the New York State Assembly from 1969 to 1986 and Speaker from 1979 to 1986.
• Victor Gotbaum (B.A. 1948), labor leader.
• Roberta Kalechofsky (B.A. 1952), writer, feminist and animal rights activist; founder of Jews for Animal Rights.
• Vera Katz (B.A. 1955), Mayor, Portland, Oregon
• Ivan Lafayette (B.A. 1951), member of the New York State Assembly since 1977 and Deputy Speaker of the New York State Assembly since 2006.
• Marty Markowitz (B.A. 1970), Former New York State Senator; Brooklyn Borough President (2001, present)
• Mel Miller (B.A. 1961), member of the New York State Assembly from 1971 to 1991, and Speaker from 1987 to 1991.
• Harvey Pitt (B.A. 1965), former Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission
• Rosemary S. Pooler (B.A. 1959), Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• Deborah Poritz (B.A. 1958), first female Chief Justice, New Jersey State Supreme Court; first female New Jersey Attorney General, 1994—96.
• Benjamin Ward (B.A. 1960) was the first black New York City Police Commissioner, 1983-1989
• Moses M. Weinstein (B.A. 1934), American lawyer and politician.
• Saul Weprin (B.A. 1948), member of the New York State Assembly from 1973 to 1994 and Speaker from 1991 to 1994.
• Bruce Winick (B.A. 1965), Professor of Law and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami and important theorist on mental health law.

[edit] Journalism

• Sylvan Fox (B.A. 1951), American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner
• Victor Lasky (1940), Pulitzer Prize—winning writer and syndicated newspaper columnist
• Don Lemon (B.A. 1996), reporter, CNN
• Milt Rosenberg (B.A. 1946), host of Extension 720 on WGN Radio in Chicago, Illinois.
• Allan Sloan (B.A. 1966), financial journalist; Senior Editor-at-Large for Fortune magazine

[edit] Literature and the arts

• Paul Beatty (M.F.A. 1989), African American poet, novelist, and critic
• Betty T. Bennett (B.A. 1962), internationally known scholar on the life of Frankenstein author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
• Karen Berger (B.A. 1979), editor of DC Comics' Vertigo imprint
• Dan DiDio (B.A. 1983), American comic book editor and executive for DC Comics
• Sante D'Orazio (B.A. 1978), fashion photographer
• Stanley Ellin (B.A. 1936), Edgar Award-winning mystery author
• Robert Friend (B.A. 1934), Israeli poet and translator
• Joe Glazer (B.A. 1938), folk musician often referred to as "labor's troubadour"
• John Harlacher (B.A. 2000), actor, stage director, and filmmaker responsible for the 2007 horror film Urchin (film)
• Michael Isaacson (M.A. 1970), influential composer of Jewish synagogue music and originator of the Jewish Camp Song movement
• Chester Kallman (B.A. 1941), poet, librettist, and translator; collaborator with W. H. Auden
• Ben Katchor (M.F.A 1975), cartoonist
• Binnie Kirshenbaum (M.F.A. 1984), Novelist, short story writer, Columbia University creative writing professor
• Mort Künstler (B.A. 1946), prominent painter and illustrator of the American Civil War
• Gabriel Laderman (B.A. 1952), important exponent of the Figurative revival
• Sam Levenson (B.A. 1934), humorist, author
• Fred Lonberg-Holm (B.M. 1988), an American cello player and composer
• Jackson Mac Low (B.A. 1958), poet
• Frank McCourt (M.A. 1967), Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angela's Ashes and 'Tis
• John Mahon (B.A. 1952), historian, Author of New York's Fighting 69th
• Wallace Markfield (B.A. 1947), comic novelist, film critic
• Gloria Naylor (B.A. 1981), novelist; Winner American Book Award
• Peter Nero (B.A. 1956), Grammy Award winning pianist; conductor; composer
• Harold Norse (B.A. 1938), poet & novelist
• Angelo Parra (M.F.A. 1995), American playwright
• Lincoln Peirce (M.F.A. 1987), cartoonist responsible for the comic strip "Big Nate".
• Robert Phillips (M.A. 1982), Classical guitarist, composer, educator, and Head of Performing Arts at All Saints Academy
• Martha Rosler (B.A. 1965), artist
• Irwin Shaw (B.A. 1934), playwright, screenwriter, and author ("Rich Man, Poor Man"; winner of two O. Henry Awards
• Gilbert Sorrentino (B.A. 1957), novelist, short story writer, poet, literary critic, and editor.
• David Trinidad (M.F.A. 1980), poet
• John Yau (M.F.A. 1978), critic, essayist, poet, and prose writer

[edit] Science and technology

• Richard Bellman (B.A. 1941), applied mathematician and inventor of dynamic programming
• Stanley Cohen (B.A. 1943), biochemist and Nobel laureate (Physiology or Medicine, 1986)
• Esther M. Conwell (B.S. 1942), physicist who contributed to the development of semiconductors and lasers
• Frank Field (meteorologist) (B.S. 1947), meteorologist and science editor
• Eli Friedman (B.S. 1953), prominent nephrologist, inventor of the first portable dialysis machine
• Jerry Goldstein (B.S. 1993), space physicist and professor
• Edna Grossman (B.S. 1968), American mathematician
• Len Herzenberg (B.S. 1952), developed the fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) which revolutionized the study of cancer cells and is the basis for purification of adult stem cells, recipient of the Kyoto Prize in 2006.
• Jack Minker (B.S. 1949), is a leading authority in artificial intelligence, deductive databases, logic programming and non-monotonic reasoning.
• Fredy Peccerelli (B.S. 1996), forensic anthropologist, Director of the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation.
• Philip Zimbardo (B.A. 1954), social psychologist and designer of the Stanford Prison Experiment

[edit] Sports

• Marius Russo ( ), Major League Baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees 1939-43, 1946); All-Star in 1941
• Allie Sherman, (1943), President, OTB; Coach of the New York Giants, 1961—68
• Gata Kamsky (1999), Chess Grandmaster and former US Champion.

[edit] Notable faculty

• F. Murray Abraham - Actor of stage and screen; professor of theater, winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
• Eric Alterman - American liberal journalist
• Edwin G. Burrows - Historian; Pulitzer Prize winner for co-writing Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 with Mike Wallace.
• Charles Dodge - Composer, founder of the Center for Computer Music
• Paul Edwards - Professor of Philosophy, editor of the Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Allen Ginsberg - Beat poet; taught at Brooklyn College from 1986 until his death in 1997
• David Grubbs - musician, composer, recording artist
• Carey Harrison - Novelist/dramatist
• Agnieszka Holland - Film director best-known for Europa, Europa (1992).
• John Hope Franklin - Famous American Historian, former Chairman of the History Department
• John Hospers - First presidential candidate of the United States Libertarian Party; professor from 1956-66.
• KC Johnson - Professor of American history.
• Abraham Maslow - 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 1937-51
• Paul Moses - Journalist, Author; Pulitzer Prize winner for a story on a 1991 New York subway crash that killed five people, while at New York Newsday
• Ursula Oppens - pianist, co-founded the contemporary music ensemble Speculum Musicae, Conservatory of Music
• Itzhak Perlman - Famed Violinist, Conservatory of Music
• Mark Rothko, Philip Pearlstein, Ad Reinhardt, Elizabeth Murray, Vito Acconci, William T. Williams, Archie Rand - Artists (1950s to present)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Brooklyn College Web Site
• Brooklyn College Library
• Brooklyn College Excelsior (newspaper)
• Brooklyn College Kingsman (newspaper)
• Broolyn College Emergency Medical Squad
• Brooklyn College Computer Science Society
• Brooklyn College Orchestra
• SUNY Downstate
• Brooklyn College BA/MD Program

v • d • e City University of New York Two-year Borough of Manhattan · Bronx · Hostos · Kingsborough · LaGuardia · Queensborough Four-year Baruch  · Brooklyn · City · City Tech · Hunter · John Jay · Lehman · Macaulay · Medgar Evers · Queens · Staten Island · York Graduate Graduate Center · Journalism · Law · Sophie Davis