Queens College Institute for Community Studies Collection

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: SCA-0040

Staff Only

Scope and Contents:

The Institute for Community Studies Collection consists of materials collected and donated by Maurice R. Berube relating to his involvement with the Queens College Institute for Community Studies program and school decentralization in New York City. The materials consist of newsletters, essays, and reports, a number of which are published by the Institute for Community Studies, relating to the 1960-70 school decentralization/community control movement in New York City. Of note, there is a self conducted oral history by Maurice R. Berube from 1997 in which he recollects this history and his involvement.

Dates

1966-1999
Majority of material found within 1968 - 1972

Creator

Berube, Maurice R. (Person)

Language:

Most materials in English, one pamphlet in Italian, one pamphlet in French.

Access

Collection is open for research on site.

Copyright Note

The Institute for Community Studies Collection is physically owned by the Queens College Libraries. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assignees. The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Queens College assumes no responsibility for the infringement of copyrights held by the original authors, creators, or producers of materials.

Historical Note:

The Institute for Community Studies was an organization based out of Queens College, led by Professor Marilyn Gittell, that studied the effect of decentralization of the New York City public schools in 1969. The decentralization moved control of school boards to the school districts, allowing for local communities to have more say in the way their schools are run. This decentralization was a result of the massive citywide school boycotts in 1964 and the New York City teachers' strike in 1968, which saw the locally elected school board of the Ocean Hill-Brownsville school district in Brooklyn face off with the United Federation Teacher’s Union.

The Institute for Community Studies was set up with the goal of renewal of the New York City urban university and the surrounding community. With assistance from the Ford Foundation, the Institute served as a channel for funds to the then experimental school districts, provided technical services that the districts required as if they were truly autonomous until the community was able to provide the services themselves, and researched and recorded how these experiments progressed.

The Institute was disbanded in 1973, as the community control movement lost steam.

Extent

1.5 Linear Feet (3 document cases and 1 half-sized document case)

Additional Description

Abstract

The Institute for Community Studies Collection consists of materials published by the Institute as well as publications and other materials donated by Maurice R. Berube, relating to the topic of community control of New York City schools and a restructuring of the New York City public school system.

Arrangement Note:

The collection is arranged in three series based on the origin of the materials.

Source

Queens College Institute for Community Studies Publications were collated from holdings of the Queens College Library (a few items from Maurice Berube and Bruce Hoffaker may have been integrated into this series). The Maurice Berube Papers were donated to the library by Berube in the late 1990s. Bruce Hoffaker donated additional publications in 2022.

Related Collections:

The Elliot Linzer Papers and Harvey Silver Papers contain small quantities of materials on the community control movement (Queens College Special Collections and Archives, Queens College).

Special Formats:

Audio cassette

Processing Information

The collection was reprocessed and made accessible in 2015 by Thomas Cleary. Changes were made to accommodate more found materials published by the Institute for Community Studies and to make the previous “Miscellaneous Studies” section less vague. The Maurice Berube Oral History was digitized in 2021. Publications by Bruce Hoffaker were added in 2022.