ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the building and rebuilding of City University of New York's (CUNY) physical infrastructure during the 1980s. It provides examples of the interplay of both external and internal forces on the direction of the university. Tuition increases involved negotiations between the CUNY Board of Trustees, the New York State Legislature, the governor, and the mayor. When Hostos Community College opened in 1968, classes were held in rented facilities, including a renovated tire factory at 475 Grand Concourse. Hunter College on the Upper East Side of Manhattan had been plagued by crowded facilities for decades. The College of Staten Island (CSI) was formed in the heat of the New York City fiscal crisis in the late 1970s through the merger of Staten Island Community College (SICC) and Richmond College. A major academic initiative in the 1980s was the establishment of the CUNY School of Law.
