Hunter College Archives and Special Collections
The Hunter College Administrative Committee/Hunter College Committee Records (#94-11)
The Hunter College Administrative Committee formed alongside the creation of the Board of Higher Education and was renamed the Hunter College Committee in 1963. This collection comprises the Committee’s records, including minutes and resolutions, and documents related to decision-making such as academic appointments, promotions, leaves of absence, retirements and resignations, curriculum changes, recommendations, budgets, contracts, grants and awards from 1933 to 1970.
Minutes and Reports from the early to mid-1950s include reference to policies restricting outside speakers at Hunter College, a response to concerns about Communist speakers on campus. The papers also address the suspensions of Hunter professors Charles W. Hughes, V. Jerauld McGill, and Louis Weisner, all of whom were later investigated by the Board of Higher Education on charges relating to Communist Party membership.
The Administrative Council of the Board of Higher Education 1940-1971 (#92-08)
In 1945 the Board of Higher Education established the Administrative Council, stewarded by the presidents of the municipal colleges of New York City at the time – Hunter College, City College, Brooklyn College, and Queens College. This council initially operated as an advisory board and coordinating committee for issues affecting these colleges, with presidents of other CUNY schools joining in the years following CUNY’s creation in 1961. This collection covers the council’s agendas, minutes, correspondence, memoranda, and reports from 1940 to 1971.
Minutes, correspondence, reports and memoranda in this collection from the 1940s through the mid-1950s make frequent reference to the implementation of the provisions of the Feinberg Law for new employees and the impact of Section 903 of the City Charter, including the dismissal of teachers like Vera Shlakman, who took the 5th Amendment during McCarran Committee investigations[1]. Among these documents are copies of the Oath of Allegiance, forms and guidelines used to report teachers suspected of “subversive activities,” and a statement from President George N. Shuster announcing the Board of Higher Education’s intent to cooperate with the Rapp-Coudert investigations.
President Eugene A. Colligan Collection (#97-33)
Eugene A. Colligan was the 4th President of Hunter College, serving from 1932 until his resignation in 1939. Series III: Administration includes information about his resignation, the cause of which is disputed. The Rapp-Coudert Legislative Committee reported that it was given under pressure by the Board of Higher Education for Colligan’s lack of a “liberal” educational outlook[2]. Materials in this folder may offer insight into the controversy.
Under Colligan’s tenure Hunter students involved in various anti-war and anti-fascist organizing faced repression from his administration in the form of indefinite suspensions and attempts to halt demonstrations[3]. Flyers available from the City College Anti-War Notices Collection also indicate that the Hunter College Young Communist League was active during this time. As such, it may be fruitful to look through the various reports, committee notes, Board of Higher Education materials, and correspondence in Series III., specifically the subject file entitled “New York Teachers Union, 1938.”
The George N. Shuster Collection (#93-09)
George N. Shuster was the 5th President of Hunter College, serving from 1939 to 1960. His tenure oversaw the investigations and dismissals of Hunter College faculty members accused of membership in the Communist party. In this collection, Series XIII titled “Dismissal of Four NYC Municipal College Professors” contains correspondence, press clippings, court transcripts, reports, and other investigative materials related to the trials of Hunter professors V. Jerauld McGill, Louis Weisner, Charles W. Hughes, and Queens College professor David Dudley Straus. Hunter professors Henrietta Friedman and Bernard Riess were also tried and dismissed around this same time, but do not have their own dedicated folders within this series.
Within Series XIV, titled “General Files”, are the subject files “American Youth for Democracy, 1947-1949” and “Tead, Ordway, 1940-1941, 1950-1959”. The folder titled “American Youth for Democracy” contains material from and about several leftist student organizations on campus such as the John Reed Student Club and Walt Whitman Club of Communist Students, among others. It includes flyers and handbills, and correspondence concerning attacks on free speech and speaker bans. The folder titled “Tead, Ordway” contains correspondence between President Shuster and Ordway Tead, Chair of the New York Board of Higher Education, regarding supposed threats of indoctrination by Communist Party members in the municipal colleges.
Hunter College Student Clubs, Organizations and Publications Collection (#98-16)
This collection comprises materials created by students, with Series I: Clubs and Organizations consisting largely of documents related to iterations of the student government. Documents in this series related to the Student Self-Government Association (SSGA) include folders about the Faculty Council Committee on Student Activities materials, found in Boxes 27 and 28. These folders contain correspondence and resolutions highlighting the antagonism leftist student groups faced from Hunter administration in the 1940s and 1950s. Student groups represented in these folders include the American Student Union, American Youth for Democracy, Karl Marx Study Society, Young Progressives of America, The Academic Freedom Club and others. Also within this series are documents related to the Hunter College Day Session Student Government (DSSG), in which the National Student League (1930-1939) has its own folder, found in Box 20. This folder contains fliers and handbills distributed by the National Student League (and the Student League for Industrial Democracy) related to anti-war and anti-fascist student demonstrations, criticism of Hunter administration’s repression of student organizers, and students’ right to free speech and assembly.
Series II: Publications contains the student newspapers the Hunter College Bulletin (1939-1948) and the Hunter Arrow (1948-1966) which may also be a resource for student perspectives on leftist organizing and red-scare repression during this time. The Hunter Arrow covered the suspensions of V. Jerauld McGill, Louis Weisner, Charles W. Hughes, and the College’s adoption of the Feinberg Law.
In addition, Hunter College archives have a transcript of an interview with dismissed Hunter professor Bernard Riess and other materials related to his work, currently unprocessed but available upon request.
Contact Information
Advance appointments are required to view materials at these archives. Once you’ve determined which materials you’d like to view, please use the following contact information to make an appointment prior to visiting the archives.
Website: https://library.hunter.cuny.edu/archives
Email: archives@hunter.cuny.edu
Research Request Form: https://library.hunter.cuny.edu/forms/archives-request-form
Phone: (212) 772-4149
Location: Leon & Toby Cooperman Library, 4th Floor, Room 403
695 Park Avenue, East Building, New York, NY 10065
Notes
Roberts, A. (2017, November 27). Vera Shlakman, Professor Fired During Red Scare, Dies at 108. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/27/obituaries/vera-shlakman-professor-fired-during-red-scare-dies-at-108.html↑
Colligan Demands Review of His Case: Former Head of Hunter College Cites Report Made by Rapp-Coudert Committee HIS RESIGNATION FORCED Loss of Pension Rights and Cancellation Salary Are Threatened, He Says. (1942, April 25). New York Times. Retrieved from https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1942/04/25/85532551.html↑
Nation’s Students ‘Strike’ For Hour In Protest On War: 15,000 in Demonstrations Here, With City College the Scene of Only Disorder. (1934, April 14). New York Times. Retrieved from https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1934/04/14/95481794.html; Columbia Aids Hunter: Students Ask Reinstatement of Suspended Girls. (1935, May 9). New York Times. Retrieved from https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1935/05/09/94604819.html; 21 Ousters Upheld at City College: Board of Higher Education Backs Faculty’s Action on Anti-Fascist Agitation. (1935, May 22). New York Times. Retrieved from https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1935/05/22/95077351.html↑