New York State Temporary Commission on the Need for a State University Files for Staff Study on Inequality of Opportunity in…

Arranged by subject according to relevant chapter in the published report. A decimal system is used for folder-level arrangement.

The Temporary Commission on the Need for a State University, established in 1946, created these files in producing "Inequality of Opportunity in Higher Education: A Study of Minority Group and Related Barriers to College Admission." David S. Berkowitz authored the report, published as Legislative Document no. 33 (1948).

The main subject of this study was discrimination against Jews and African Americans in admission to undergraduate study and to medical, dental, and nursing schools; an important general theme was the admissions practices of colleges and universities generally in New York City and State. Data was collected from survey forms sent out to institutions and to African American and Jewish students, from admissions catalogues, and from published and unpublished studies of ethnic and racial discrimination in higher education admissions.

The records include outlines and drafts of chapters for the Berkowitz study; notes, working papers, and preliminary reports submitted to the commission; statistical tables on college admissions in New York State; and a small amount of correspondence. Published material is found in printed, photostat, or transcribed form. It consists of pamphlets, journal off-prints, and printed government documents, all concerning college admission policies and racial and ethnic discrimination in higher education. Also found in the records are summaries of public hearings held before a Special Investigating Committee of the City Council of New York concerning admissions policies of the Cornell Medical School (now New York Hospital--Cornell Medical Center) and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University.

Materials relating more generally to the activities of the commission are a transcript of a public hearing held October 20, 1947; minutes of a meeting of an unnamed study committee, January 8, 1947; and preliminary and final drafts of the commission's final report, published as Legislative Document no. 30 (1948).

A0614Series A0614, Temporary Commission on the Need for a State University Administrative Files, contains the commission's main files.

Container list is available at the repository.

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