In the 1975-1976 fiscal crisis Medgar Evers College was restructured as a community college with specific authorization to retain its six baccalaureate degree programs.

The vision and energy evident in the first few years became compromised in the 1975-1976 economic and political crisis in CUNY. Under President Trent, the College lost its senior college status and became a community college with six baccalaureate programs, an unusual hybrid which caused a great deal of confusion among students and the Community. Questions were raised about the meaning and worth of a Baccalaureate degree obtained from a community college. While the degree granting privileges at Medgar Evers College did not change, the mood and energy shifted. The deal made between the Board and the College’s administration angered the community, faculty and students. It seemed to them that the long struggle to make Medgar Evers a four-year institution had been forgotten. Additionally, CUNY, for the first time in its more than one hundred years of serving New York City, imposed tuition at the University in spite of student and faculty protests. (…)

Medgar Evers faculty and students acted in conjunction with faculty and staff from around CUNY to fight the imposition of tuition and the proposed changes that would be made to several of the colleges within CUNY. There were many demonstrations by the College community, including a take-over of the Board of Higher Education (BHE) buildings as well as a sit-in on the East River Drive.

Florence Tager & Zala Highsmith-Taylor. Medgar Evers College: The Pursuit of a Community’s Dream. 2008. P. 97-98.