Pres. John W. Kneller of Brooklyn College announced yesterday that the Brooklyn College questionnaire requiring students to answer questions dealing with race, religion and ethnic origin, family education and work backgrounds and reaction to “open admission” was no longer being distributed and has been recalled.
Speaking to a capacity audience at Congregation Shaare Torah in Flatbush called by the Brooklyn Jewish Community Council to protest the questionnaires, Dr. Kneller said the students at the college had previously been advised the questions did not have to be answered, but to avoid misunderstanding, “we have withdrawn this questionnaire.” Dr. Kneller denied that the college’s School of General Studies, attended by working students and by many Orthodox Jewish students who attend religious schools during the day, was being phased out.
However, he said, Brooklyn College with 33,000 students, 1,500 faculty members and a budget of $41 million did have a funding problem. The college gets $1,500 for each day student and only $500 for each evening student, he said. “We should get $1,500 for each student. If we do not get an increase in the budget, I cannot see where there will be a City College at Brooklyn. Let’s stop fighting and work together to try and save the college.”
New York State Supreme Court Justice Abraham M. Multer, president of the BJCC, told the audience that he was going to eliminate all questionnaires not only from colleges but from civil service. The rulings on the questionnaires come from the federal government, he said, and added that he would take the matter up immediately with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. “If we receive no satisfactory answer,” he said, “we may have to go to federal court.”
Multer added, “We never sought and are not seeking preferential treatment for Jews. We do insist the merit system and capability to perform be the criteria for staff and student bodies without regard to color, race, religion, ethnic origin or economic status.” Stanley Steingut, Brooklyn Democratic Minority Leader in the State Assembly, said he was going to “carry this fight” against those who want to destroy the City University to Albany.
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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.
