Aj Committee Raps City College Agreement on Reserving Space for Ghetto Students

One Jewish organization has denounced the tentative agreement at City College of New York which would reserve 50 percent of each freshmen enrollment for students from the city’s ghetto areas and another is studying the issue, it was reported today. All of the city’s tuition-free colleges have traditionally had substantial Jewish enrollments based on high school scholastic achievements. A spokesman for one organization asked that its name not be disclosed. The CCNY agreement was reached last Friday by an administration group headed by acting president Joseph J. Copeland and a negotiating group representing black and Puerto Rican students.

The New York chapter of the AJ Committee, in telegrams to various City University officials, said implementation of the proposal would result in CCNY becoming “an apartheid institution, granting different degrees to blacks and whites” and would set “a disastrous pattern in this country.” Without referring directly to the possibility that the agreement might cost qualified Jewish high school graduates admission to CCNY, the AJ Committee statement noted that the agreement could mean “discrimination against numbers of students whose individual accomplishments and promise qualify them for admission.” The statement strongly urged rejection of the tentative agreement and demanded that CCNY adhere to the resolution backed by the Board of Higher Education which must approve the agreement to make it effective. The resolution adopted on May 4 opposed racial and ethnic quotas for admission to any of the City University Colleges, all of which have a large population of Jewish students. Fears were expressed that approval of the quota arrangement for CCNY would set a precedent for the other CUNY colleges.