Five Jewish Groups Voice Support of New York Board to Establish State University

Support for the Board of Trustees appointed to establish a New York State University, in accordance with a law passed by the State legislature in 1948, and opposition to objections to the Board raised by the State Board of Regents, was voiced by five major Jewish organizations in a statement issued today.

The organizations, the American Jewish Committee’s New York chapter, the American Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, the Jewish Labor Committee and the Jewish War Veterans of the United States, declared that they saw “no legitimate basis for the objections raised by the Board of Regents to the procedure established by the Legislature of the State of New York for the development of an integrated State University system.”

Pointing out that the law, enacted “to fill a long-felt need, not previously answered, for the expansion of public higher educational facilities in the State,” had authorized the appointment of a Board of Trustees with the power to fulfill this function, and that the Governor had appointed a board “consisting of distinguished citizens of the State,” the statement declared: “Nothing has developed which would raise any question of the wisdom of the Legislature in enacting the law and establishing this board, nor has any development raised doubt as to the competence of the board to fulfill the law’s mandate.”