On the 15th of March 1847, Townsend Harris published a letter in The Morning Courier and New York Enquirer proposing a free public school where children of the poor could advance. This proposal led to the establishment of the Free Academy on the 7th of May 1847, which received its charter from the New York State Legislature. Construction began that November, and the institution opened formally on the 21st of January 1849, under principal Dr. Horace Webster. The Free Academy became the first free public institution of higher education in the United States, marking a significant shift in educational access during a period of rapid urbanization. By 1860, New York City's population had grown from 166,000 to 814,000 residents, creating urgent demand for accessible learning opportunities. In 1870, the Female Normal and High School opened on February 14 at Broadway and Fourth Street, founded by Irish schoolmaster Thomas Hunter. This institution later became Hunter College and was renamed in his honor after he retired in 1906. The college expanded its curriculum beyond teacher training to include liberal arts and sciences, eventually moving to a Gothic revivalist building between 68th and 69th Streets on Park Avenue in September 1873. Brooklyn College emerged four years after the Nicoll-Hearn Bill passed in April 1926, when Mayor Fiorello La Guardia broke ground on its Midwood campus on the 2nd of October 1935. Franklin D. Roosevelt laid the final stone of that new campus. Queens College followed as an alliance of 111,360 citizens appointed County Judge Charles S. Colden to study establishing a free college there. On the 25th of December 1936, Mayor LaGuardia agreed to establish the school, which opened in 1937 with Dr. Paul Klapper as its first president.
System Integration And Governance
In 1960, John R. Everett became the first chancellor of what would become the City University of New York system. State legislation signed by Governor Nelson Rockefeller in April 1961 formally established CUNY as an amalgamation of existing institutions including the Free Academy (later City College), Hunter College, Brooklyn College, and Queens College. The Board of Higher Education, created in 1926, governed the system until it was renamed the Board of Trustees of CUNY in 1979. Today, the board consists of seventeen members: ten appointed by the governor of New York with senate approval, five appointed by the mayor with senate approval, plus two ex officio members representing students and faculty. Each trustee serves seven-year terms renewable for another seven years. The administrative offices are located in Midtown Manhattan. In 1964, both Borough of Manhattan Community College and Kingsborough Community College were established under this new unified structure. The Graduate Center, serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution, was also founded that same year. By 1981, Charles Halpern had been hired to establish a law school that opened in 1983 at Queens College before moving to Long Island City in May 2012. This remains the only publicly funded law school in New York City. The system now comprises twenty-six campuses across all five boroughs, including eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges, and eight professional institutions. Enrollment exceeds 275,000 students, making it the largest urban university system in the United States.