The Brooklyn Jewish Community Council has unanimously adopted a resolution to take court action to bar the City University from circulating questionnaires to students dealing with race, religion and ethnic origin. The questionnaires, distributed by the university to students and faculty members last month, also requested from the students information on family income, parent’s education and work backgrounds, and questions to determine student reactions to “open admission” and its effect on the university’s academic standards.
In adopting the resolution, the BJCC emphasized “We are unalterably opposed to the questionnaires” and called upon city, state and federal governmental representatives to “stop these unconstitutional and discriminatory census questionnaires”; called for joining “other responsible organizations” in instituting appropriate suits in the Federal Courts to stop the distribution; and opposed an “arbitrary change” in the “Open Admissions-Freshman Allocations System” to achieve “so-called economic and ethnic integration” by shifting students from borough to borough.
INFORMATION IRRELEVANT, NOT ESSENTIAL
New York State Supreme Court Justice Abraham M. Multer, president of the BJCC, said the requested information regarding race, religion and ethnic origin is not essential and completely irrelevant to either the administrative or the educational processes of “any school system on any level.”
He added that the contention by the university that the Department of Health, Education and Welfare requests this information is false. On the contrary, Multer said, “the department specifically prohibits any direct inquiries as to religion, race or ethnic origin.” The BJCC will hold a “Town Hall” meeting at Congregation Shaare Torah of Flatbush, Brooklyn, Sunday afternoon to implement its decision.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
