The City College of the City University of New York (more commonly referred to as the City College of New York, or simply City College, CCNY, or City) is a public senior college of the City University of New York(CUNY) in New York City.
Located in Hamilton Heights overlooking Harlem in Manhattan, City College's 35-acre (14 ha) Collegiate Gothic campus spans Convent Avenue from 130th to 141st Streets. It was initially designed by renowned architect George B. Post, and many of its buildings have achieved landmark status. Affectionately known as the "Harvard of the proletariat," the college has graduated ten Nobel Prize winners, one Fields Medalist, one Turing AwardWinner and three Pulitzer Prizes. Among these alumni, the latest is a Bronx native, John O'Keefe (2014 Nobel Prize in Medicine).
Founded in 1847, City College was the first free public institution of higher education in the United States. It is the oldest of CUNY's 24 institutions of higher learning, and is considered its flagship college.
Other primacies at City College that helped shape the culture of American higher education include the first student government in the nation (Academic Senate, 1867); the first national fraternity to accept members without regard to religion, race, color or creed (Delta Sigma Phi, 1899); the first degree-granting evening program (School of Education, 1907); and, with the objective of racially integrating the college dormitories, "the first general strike at a municipal institution of higher learning" led by students (1949).
