The City University of New York Lehman College

Date: Jul 19 2011
Major: History/Histories (art history/etc.) (This Major's Salary over time)
I graduated in May, 1972 and stayed on at Lehman for graduate courses. Any description of my experiences is, by now, irrelevant, since it would seem that Lehman no longer offers

a Master's degree in History.

I loved the school when I entered as a Freshman in 1968. However, in my Junior year, New York City began its Open Admissions program. CUNY was forced to accept many below-par students, regardless of academic average.

Having so many students requiring college-level remedial courses, ruined the academic environment. The standard was so lowered, that it has apparently never really recovered.

At the time of Open Admissions, Lehman College, formerly

Hunter Uptown, was a rather small campus. The onslaught of students in Open Admissions was a disaster. Faculty members, who had slaved over doctoral dissertations and publications began retiring. The complaint was that there could no longer be college-level discussion because students would interrupt a person in mid-sentence because he or she could not understand college-level vocabulary.

In 1972, the Herbert H. Lehman degree was of no particular advantage in the job market. I wound up with jobs that one could get out of high school.

Thank you, New York City, and Mayor Lindsay for ruining a wonderful free university system. It was paid for by tax dollars of thousands of working people, many of them veterans of World War II. I'm sorry for this negativity, but the bad reputation of this school has followed me throughout a lifetime.