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Introduction

At its May 22, 1967 meeting, the Board of Higher Education established the Special Committee on the Future of the Baruch School to receive and consider the Report of the City College Committee and to consider all alternatives hitherto advanced and such other proposals that the Special committee itself might formulate. The Committee was called upon to report upon the entire matter at a meeting to be held in autumn 1967. This report is submitted in accordance with the Board resolution.

At its first meeting, the Special Committee reviewed all of the alternatives that dad been considered and found none of them entirely satisfactory In an effort to broaden the options available and consider them in re )n to the changing requirements for education in the administrative sciences the Committee invited a group of prominent educators and business leaders to a full-day seminar on the subject. The Committee was most fortunate in being able to bring together the following persons for the full-day discussion held on September 16, 1967:

Gilbert W. Fitzhugh
Chairman of the Board
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company

James L. Hayes
Dean, School of Business Administration
Duquesne University

Earl B. Schwulst
former Chairman, Bowery Savings Bank and
Temporary Commission on City Finances

Leonard S. Silk
Economist and Vice-Chairman
Business Week

Dwight Waldo
The Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities
The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
Syracuse University

The views of the Advisors were carefully considered by the Committee. The Special Committee's recommendations presented in this report also were reviewed with the Advisors who concurred unanimously that they represent the best possible policy for the University and the soundest course of action for education in the fields of business and public administration.

Criteria for Decision

In reaching its recommendations, the Special Committee considered carefully the role o f the Baruch School within the framework o f the demands of our urban society as well as from the point of view of the needs of the individual student. Its overview was long-range as well as immediate, looking forward to the impact of far-reaching trends both within the City and wits c he fields that broadly constitute the business professions and the administrative sciences. Its concerns ranged from the problems of public transportation to questions of public policy. In short, the Committee sought to resolve the immediate problem of the status of the Baruch School within one broader framework of the University role and its responsibilities as an institution of public higher education in New York City.

Several factors have been identified in all of the studies and they were considered in developing an appropriate policy recommendation.

1. Opportunities in the fields of business and public administration continue to grow and the City expands its role as a corporate headquarters center. The Baruch School has served and will continue to serve as a major resource for the City and its businesses in educating the City's youth so that they may take advantage of these opportunities.
2. The growing demand for public services has created critical problems for government in the areas of education, health and public administration and the. Baruch School must expand its role in finding solutions to these problems.
3. Management information and communications systems continue to grow more complex, requiring new and increasingly sophisticated administrative skills. If the Baruch School is to meet the Needs of administrators and professionals, its educational programs must be both broadened and strengthened in the behavioral and quantitative sciences.
4. The ethnic composition of the City's high school graduates is changing rapidly, requiring new educational approaches jointly with industry and new commitments of resources to educate students from minority groups so that they may function effectively in the urban economy.
5. The fields of administration are changing so rapidly that any new framework for the Baruch School must provide sufficient flexibility for its programs and its students so that both may develop in response to the changing environment.

Thus, the members of the Special Committee concluded that the demands of an urban society in business and public administration require a revaluation of existing programs in instruction, research and community development; new commitments of resources; and a fresh approach to the School's mission as a public institution in an urban setting.

After reviewing prev page studies the Committee also set forth the following criteria for reaching a decision:

1. Education for administration and the business professions must be offered in close proximity to the liberal arts and within the broadest possible framework. Instruction of the highest quality in the liberal arts is as essential to the Baruch School's mission as instruction in the fields of professional specialization.
2. If a new college is considered as the alternative, student enrollment must be sufficient to justify its establishment. Also, it should be located at a site that is large enough to provide a campus setting sufficient for expansion and located in an area where a new institution is now required.
3. The site of the school should be readily accessible by public transportation for the students, faculty and the adjunct faculty.

Recommendations

There is a need both in the City and in the nation for a pioneering institution concerned with the administrative sciences in their broadest sense, offering the highest quality education for the business professions and administration, committed to a research program that will bring knowledge in all of the disciplines to bear on the problems of business and administration, expanding opportunities for members of minority groups, and specializing in business education within the broadest possible framework. The Committee believes that the Baruch School can and should broaden its mission to be such an institution, and it therefore recommends:

1. That the Baruch School be reconstituted as an autonomous college of The City University of New York to be known as The Bernard M. Baruch College.
2. That at are undergraduate level, the College offer a general liberal arts program with specializations leading to the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science. As a practical matter, the College's initial efforts in the liberal arts should be directed to fields of specialization that complement business studies, such as in applied mathematics, humanities, and the social sciences.
3. That at the undergraduate level, the College offer four-year courses of study leading to a bachelor's degree in business specializations with heavy emphasis in liberal arts work.
4. That the College offer graduate programs at both the masters and doctoral levels in the business professions and in the administrative sciences in such fields as business, health and public administration and that it consider the development of integrated five-year professional programs.
5. That the College be situated in downtown Brooklyn at a site designed to accommodate approximately 6,000 full-time undergraduate students, equally divided between liberal arts and business.
6. That the College increases its commitment to community relations and economic development through increased research activity and expanded continuing education programs in cooperation with business, government and the community.
7. That the College expand opportunities for business careers to the City's minority population by increased participation in programs such as SEEK and College Discovery and by encouraging the City's business to participate to with the College in such programs.
8. That the Board of Higher Education recognize the importance of this broadened mission of the Baruch School and commit additional resources to the College so that it may effectively meet its new responsibilities.
9. That these recommendations be implemented at the earliest possible time to permit the school to move as rapidly as possible to College status.

admission to one-quarter of the high school graduating class (Projection B of the Master Plan, used in the Board of Higher Education's "100°l0" policy). It is estimated that two-thirds of these students will accept the offer of admission and matriculate.

Analyses of enrollment projections and space availability from 1966 to 1972 indicate the need for an additional senior college ("Beta College'') in 1968 or 1969.

A downtown Brooklyn site offers several advantages as the next location for a new senior college.

1. Population expansion during the next decade is likely to be greatest in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. A downtown Brooklyn site is accessible from all three boroughs.
2. New senior colleges have just been established in Queens (York) and Staten Island (Richmond) and will meet the enrollment needs of these boroughs for some time to come. Brooklyn College is operating at capacity and cannot accommodate significant increases in enrollment.
3. The present site of Brooklyn College is difficult to reach from the northern and eastern sections of the borough. downtown Brooklyn site is accessible from all parts or the borough and especially from the northern and eastern sections.
4. Downtown Brooklyn is one of the few areas of the City close by the Manhattan financial and business districts where sufficiently large tracts of land are available to permit the development of a campus.

The point is that even in the absence of the issue of the Baruch School., it is likely that The City University would establish a new senior college in downtown Brooklyn.

Advantages of a Baruch School at a Downtown Brooklyn Site

1. Accessibility: The site is centrally located for both public transportation and travel by private automobile. All three major subway lines converge in downtown Brooklyn providing access from all parts of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. The area is near the Long Island Railroad Station and is no further from the Staten Island Ferry and Hudson Terminal than the present Baruch site. Travel time by subway from downtown Manhattan (South of Brooklyn Bridge) to Brooklyn is approximately the same as to the present Baruch School. An additional 15-25 minutes of transportation is required from the Grand Central and Pennsylvania Stations.

Adequate parking facilities can be made available at a Brooklyn site which is also convenient to major parkways and expressways in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Manhattan.

In many ways, the site is more conveniently located than the present Baruch site considering that two-thirds of the undergraduate students live in Brooklyn and Queens (this proportion in increasing) and over 80% of the part-time undergraduate and graduate students work in downtown Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

2. Potential for a Combined Liberal Arts and Business College:

The committee for Economic Development in Educating Tomorrow's Managers recommended that students considering a business career be en ..aged to pursue the type of education which would serve them for the rest of their lives. A liberal education would develop _ -arson's entire character and provide the necessary framework within which . specialized knowledge can be most effectively used.

The combination of business administration and the liberal arts will offer a source of mutual strength. The College will be able to attract a high-quality liberal arts faculty. This will enable the school to better

The combination of business administration and the liberal arts will offer a source of mutual strength. The College will be able to attract a high-quality liberal arts faculty. This will enable the school to better provide the broader education and increased scope of knowledge which is considered essential for a high-quality business education and a successful business career.

It will also permit students a wider range of choices before they commit themselves to a specific area of specialization. It will be possible for students who originally enroll in business to transfer to liberal arts specializations and vice versa.

Further, the presence of a strong liberal arts component would permit graduate study to be better differentiated from undergraduate study. A Baruch College with specializations in business administration and the liberal arts will permit a balanced faculty in both areas and a wide range of alternative programs of study for the students. Five-year liberal arts professional sequences can be developed in such fields as public accounting, public administration, computer methodology, economics and finance, management sciences, health administration, and marketing research. The tendency for professional specialization in these fields at the graduate level (the fifth year provides more extensive undergraduate liberal arts course work) warrants serious considerations of a five-year course sequence, which would be feasible under this proposal.

Further fields of specialization naturally strengthen and are strengthened by related undergraduate specializations in the liberal arts, e.g., industrial psychology and psychology, behavioral sciences in the doctoral programs and sociology and anthropology, and public administration and political science. In addition, course work in quantitative methods

Programs of study leading to the degree of Master of Public Administration will be strengthened considerably with increased competence in the field of political science. Since 1953, when it awarded the first MPA degree, the school has been able to draw upon its competence in the administrative sciences to offer programs of study for public service. The program has not been able to reach its full potential because of the limited number of full-time faculty members in political science and other social science fields; such faculty members are necessary to support a broad program in public administration. With a still stronger faculty in the social sciences and drawing upon existing strength in such areas as accounting, computer sciences, organization theory and quantitative methods, the college can offer an expanded rich and varied program in public administration. It also can contribute more fully in its urban research activities.

4. The Downtown Brooklyn Site in Relations to the City's Needs:
Downtown Brooklyn is an area of major urban renewal and the establishment o f two City University centers (the other one is New York City Community College) can contribute significantly to the upgrading of the area. The site is a business center in itself, in close proximity to the Brooklyn Navy Yard which will be developed as an industrial park, and the commercial and civic center of the borough. Downtown Brooklyn now houses Pratt Institute and Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and a new senior college will contribute to recognition of this area as a major educational center.

5. Support Facilities Possible at a Brooklyn Site:
Since its inception in 1919, the Baruch School has never had a campus environment, which in itself, contributes to the intellectual atmosphere of an institution of higher learning: A relatively large campus is available at several possible sites in downtown Brooklyn with potential for still further expansion. A campus complex may be developed with Student housing not now available at any University campus. Student ,., housing may be especially helpful for students from low-income families who lack an adequate environment for study at home.

6. Expansion of Opportunities for Minority Groups:
The City University has adopted several programs, such as SEEK and the College Discovery Program, in an effort to expand opportunities for New York City's minority populations. The Baruch School has played a minor 'role in such programs for reasons largely beyond control of the school. Under this proposal, the school could do more for the City's Negro and Puerto Rican populations by providing a bridge between the City's ghettos and the business community. It can do so by establishing a SEEK unit at the school and identifying arrangements with the city's businesses for part-time employment, job opportunities and partial financial support for such students during their studies. The availability of dormitory facilities at the school, its strong student services program and the fsble direct payoff of a career oriented course of college study suggest that the business program can play a meaningful role in the expanding Business opportunities for minority-group members.

The Committee on the Future of the Baruch School

Francis Keppel, Chairman
David I. Ashe
Louis Nunez
Edward D, Re
Porter R. Chandler, ex officio

 

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