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Reader's Forum Rowley-Rotunno

to follow? Perhaps the word "can" should not be used but rather that this must be achieved in order to save our youth and thus our nation.

operation of open admissions
Fundamentally, the CUNY policy of open admissions reflects a switch from elitism based on high academic achievement in high school of largely white middle class youth, to egalitarianism. It recognizes also the movement of the white middle class to the suburbs and the City's obligation to serve the needs of the movement of blacks and other minority groups, many from rural areas, into the cities. The pattern of the in-migration of minority groups is being repeated in large urban centers all over the nation. This new influx is usually composed of people not only economically but also frequently educationally deprived because of a past tradition of poverty and prejudice. 
After considering several plans such as the quota system and the "open access" used by the University of California, it was felt by Chancellor Bowker as well as other educators and community leaders that opening up all campuses, including the four year colleges as well as the community colleges, would offer the widest opportunity to all and be the best way of avoiding de facto segregation. According to the new program any student who receives a diploma from a New York City high school is eligible for admission to CUNY. This represents a sharp break with the past, when the requirement was a relatively high average and usually an academic diploma. 
With the new policy, the response was remarkable and heartwarming. CUNY's first freshman class in the Fall of 1970 included almost 9,000 students who could have been flatly rejected under previous admission standards. One-third of the class was non-white, the biggest group of black and Puerto Rican freshman in the United States. Most were children of blue-collar workers, but others included domestics, laborers, carpenters, and cab drivers. As Vice-Chancellor Timothy Healy said, "These are the original American revolutionaries.... They want a piece of the action."
The new program also eschews the shop-worn contention that college must consist of a four year program. It is now recognized that individualization is necessary at all levels of education. Since many of the open admissions students have been educationally deprived, remedial teaching is frequently necessary before they can deal with college-level work. Flunking students are allowed to try again so long as 

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