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FREEDOMS  SECOND QUARTER 1973

free institution provided no real financial burden for them. However, with many of the open admissions students, the situation is different. Usually coming from a poverty area, even with free tuition, they may have to work, perhaps even full-time in order to support themselves. It may be too much to ask a student to upgrade work skills, carry a heavy program, and at the same time work long hours. In such cases the opportunities for a higher education may be a meaningless one. Liberal stipends and college loans must be made available to these students, if they are to have a fair opportunity. Here, too, public awareness and support are basic. 

conclusion
CUNY supplies 60% of the City’s schoolteachers and of these, to date, only 11% are from minority groups. These ranks must be swelled by blacks and Puerto Ricans and open admissions may be the way to do it. Teaching will not only provide professionalism and mobility, but will give identity, a positive image, and inspiration to the children being taught. My teacher made it, so maybe I can make it, too, may be the line of thinking. These open admission students have a special mission; they can show that higher education can work for the masses if the opportunity is given. 

Whatever the outcome, Vice Chancellor Healy succinctly described the situation, “We’re going to get more and bigger results and make more and bigger mistakes-because we’re moving faster than anyone else.” Open admissions is a challenging attempt to bridge the gap between the American dream of useful education for all and the widespread failure of high schools that are supposed to provide it. The experiment could, and hopefully will, challenge and invigorate higher education all over the United States. At any rate, CUNY cannot go back to the old view of elitist education. Its survival will depend on how well it adapts to the new. It is our duty as citizens to give this far-sighted program our fully study and support, in order to make its success a reality.
Virginia Rowley-Rotunno

Chairman of Elementary Social Studies Methods and Coordinator of the Education Honors Program
Herbert H. Lehman College of the City University of New York

Transcription Notes:
Conclusion para 1: "These open admission students have a special mission" should be these open admissions students have a special mission The sign: Virginia Rowley-Rotunno should be italicized