City College of New York - Microcosm Yearbook (New York, NY)

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MANHATTANVILLE The College, after a six year wait, un- veiled in the Fall term of 1955, a Great Equalizer’ — the South Campus. Freshmen to Seniors, faculty and administration, were reduced to the same level: confusion abet- ted partially and painfully by trial and error groping. Only the College’s coeds, who had been using the Park Gymnasium for Hygiene classes, found the going tenable. Once things settled down, however, everyone took a studied look at the South Campus, and in general found it to be a substantial improvement. There were few laments, if any, for Army and Finley Halls, the two abandoned buildings that President Buell G. Gallagher termed “educational slums.” The spacious, grassy lawns of the South Campus were quickly accepted as a pleas- ant fixture; the John H. Finley Student Center began to open doors as soon as the interiors could be completed; even a crypt- filled catacomb, once used as a tomb, was revealed to College eyes by an enterprising student reporter. The frustrating delays that occurred be- fore the South Campus opening became submerged in the immediate desire to ex- plore and use the new facilities. The “prayerbook to textbook” switch story was relegated to the record books. The record shows that the change started in 1949, when the nuns at the Manhattan- villc College of the Sacred Heart, a con- vent and college, felt they could develop a program better in suburban surround- ings. After condemnation proceedings, their eighteen and one-half acre property, which extends from 130th Street to 135th Street, between St. Nicholas Terrace and Convent Avenue, was turned over to the City in September 1952. The date marked the end of a three year period of haggling over money, with $8,800,620 agreed on as the price for the property. After the keys to Manhattanville were turned over to the College, plans, revised plans and still further revisions tell a story of red tape wrapped around confusion to produce a package of delays. By the end of 1954 everything seemed ready to roll. The refurbishing of the South Campus was scheduled to be completed by the end of March. A sixteen member Board of Direc- tors was formed, composed of eight stu- dents, four faculty members and four alumni and began the job of planning the operation of the Student Center just before the start of the Spring Term of 1955. The Student Center, a building devoted exclusively to extra-curricular student ac- tivities, seemed appropriate for the coun- try’s third largest college, but for a free school of higher learning it was a unique experiment. The City College Fund, sup- ported by alumni contributions, agreed to pay part of the expenses of operation in addition to the center’s refurbishing costs. A student fee, eventually set at $3.00 per term, would complement the alumni con- tributions. The Board of Directors divided itself into committees to study and make recommen- dations on the various aspects of Stu- dent Center administration, furnishing and financing. Working through the spring and summer, the Board came up with several important recommendations: (1) Manag- ing Boards, composed entirely of students, were set up for both day and evening ses- sions for the purpose of running the Center on a day to day basis. These were later combined into single Boards for both ses- sions. (2) Broad policy would be made by the Board of Directors. (3) A budget of

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4:15 at the Army Hall library. The place: Tech Library The time: Finals week Future teachers did their homework here Cornerstone laid 1927—to be completed... The reading room of the main library

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WE ARRIVE $126,500 was prepared, considerably less than the approximately $160,000 recom- mended in February of 1955 by Dr. Alton Lewis, then Student Center Director. (4) The $3.00 student fee, which became a source of controversy, was approved at a special meeting called by President Gal- lagher. The President urged quick action so that the fee decision could be submitted to the Board of Higher Education for formal approval before the deadline for printing the College catalogue arrived. It was deemed necessary to include mention of the fee in the catalogue. The $3.00 fee was approved over two months before final budget for the Center was okayed. In other action the Board of Directors channeled much of the administrative work for the Center through the Department of Student Activities and Student Govern- ment. Dr. Lewis resigned as Student Cen- ter Director during the summer and Dean James S. Peace was named Director. When the student body returned from the summer vacation, it found all the build- ings, except one, ready for use. The excep- tion was the John H. Finley Student Cen- ter. The construction company which had contracted to refurbish the building walked off the job in August with much work still to be completed. Most of the remaining work was on the fourth floor, which was closed until the Fall term was nearly over. The three lower floors had been opened for limited use at the beginning of the semester and a month later were under full usage. At this time the ping-pong and pool rooms unlocked their doors. The brand new tables and implements dazzled many a veteran of the old Army Hall lounge. Sidelights to the South Campus open- ing developed: The History Department, which was assigned offices in Wagner Hall, found these rooms conducive- to clean liv- ing. Once used as dormitories by the nuns of the Manhattanvillc College, the Wagner Hall offices were equipped with bathtubs. Hackctt Hall, which contains a little theater, was boarded up, to the dismay of fledgling thespians. Hackett and Abbe Halls will be given to the City in return for either the Music and Art High School building or money to build comparable classroom space. The area on which Abbe and Hackctt now stand will be used to build a new elementary school. Eisner Hall, doubtless the most attractive of all the buildings, became the new home of the Art Department. The department further beautified it by taking an extensive statue and painting collection out of moth balls and putting the works on display. The distance between the two campuses proved to be a thorny problem. Lateness to class was not limited only to students. Shortness of breath affected professors more than their younger students, but both were forced to increase their stride and quicken their pace. All agreed that this was not an attractive solution but was prefer- able to a longer school day — a move that a lengthened bctwccn-class break would have necessitated. In the second half of the school year the South Campus came into its own. The Fin- ley Center was fully opened and the con- fusion of the first term in Manhattanvillc was substantially gone. A metamorphosis began the first year at Manhattanvillc — for the College it meant an increase of our physical size and influence in the community; for the lower classmen it may be the end of his days as a subway student; for the Senior, unfortunately it's been just a pleasant, but shortlived, excur- sion into the College’s new way of life. —Weissi.f.r