Open Admissions, Controversies, and CUNY: Digging into Social History Through a First-Year Composition Course

Abstract

IN 1999, the City University of New York (CUNY) abolished remedial programs in its four-year colleges and began to rely on standardized test scores as criteria both for exiting remediation and for admission to bachelor's programs. By doing that, the university has in effect eradicated its three-decade-old open admissions policy, argue CUNY watchers (Crain; Lavin; Reitano; cf. Beaky). This policy change has also sharpened the distinction between community colleges and senior colleges, and increased roadblocks on the education path from two-year college to bachelor's program within CUNY. Although senior colleges have become more selective by adopting the SAT as crucial admission requirement, community colleges remain open door institutions in the system, continuing to admit all applicants who have high school diploma or other equivalent credentials. However, students in community colleges are now required to demonstrate their competence in English and mathematics by obtaining certain minimum scores in national, state, or CUNY's standardized tests. In addition, those with 45 credits must take and pass the CUNY Proficiency Exam as a community college exit exam and the gatekeeper to the junior year (Reitano 98). So while admission to four-year program (not necessarily the students' first