SUNY Downstate Medical Center - Iatros Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

Page 31 text:

,I fy lj fl 1 It .I 5111 Na. rs zifla. headed Pediatrics until 19603 from Columbia. Class size increased from 100 to 200 as a result of state take-over. Almost immediately state architects began to plan the new medical school. The ground breaking for the Basic Science building, which occurred in 1953 resulted in a large T shaped excavation, af- fectionately called Nthe largest hole in Brooklyn. The building was completed in 1956 at a cost of fourteen million dollars. A 1953 state directive required that all state medical schools have university hospitals. Planning was begun in 1956 and groundbreaking occurred in 1963. However construction did not proceed as planned. As Newsweek said on August 5, 1963: lt might have been Birmingham, but this was Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. Tired of sitting and waiting, Negroes were marching and chanting and singing for skilled construction jobs at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn and at other building sites across the city. They courted arrest by plunk- ing down in the path of trucks trying to navigate through to the projects. And police obliged them. ln all, 518 demonstrators were arrested during the week--the biggest bag yet in a Northern city in the civil-rights revolt of 1963. The building was finally completed in 1967. Dormitories were constructed following a study of available living space in the area and were opened in 1964. A two million dollar parking garage was swiftly completed in 1966 and has not been used since. A Student Activities building is presently under construction. During the last four years sig- nificant academic changes were made. The first major change in medical school curriculum in over twenty years gave fourth year students six months of elective time. Meanwhile the medical center ex- panded to include a College of Nursing, a College of Health Related Professions, a School of Graduate Studies and a Computer Center. Plans for the future include a College of Biomedical and Behavioral Sciences, additional Student Residence Halls, a joint animal farm with Stonybrook, and physical expansion into the sur- rounding community. 31

Page 30 text:

'QTY of 'Q .,.wnr,'b 1 2 4? 'Q 0 a I 1 2 . ..- v- 4 0 5 , Q' .r 9 'P 4 1.1945 DUWNSTATE MEDICAL CENTER Pres. Robert A. Moore at the laying of the Corner- InaUgUVUti0n Ofpfesident 10391911 K- Hill stone ofthe University Hospital 2215.4 . I ,. t 1,3 ' 1, ' f 4 A Y t

Page 32 text:

Y Y--Y -H 2-W - 1 32