Of Technopoly and Uncaring

A quarter of a century ago, the trustees of the City University of New York (CUNY), almost all appointed by Republicans Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Governor George Pataki, decreed a shift to technopoly at CUNY community colleges. That shift, which seemed to lack any redeeming social purpose, would further stratify society. The trustees ended remedial instruction at the senior colleges, forcing students with deficiencies in reading and math to enroll exclusively at poorly funded community colleges such as Bronx Community College (BCC). If that wasn’t cruel enough, they imposed the CUNY Proficiency Exam which students needed to pass in order to obtain their sixty-credit associate’s degrees. Students might pass all their courses, but all for naught if they failed the exit exam.