New York University College of Arts and Science - 20th Century

20th Century

In 1894, NYU Chancellor Henry Mitchell MacCracken decided to relocate University College to a campus in the Bronx and concentrate NYU's professional schools at Washington Square. The area of the Bronx where University College relocated was named University Heights and the University Heights campus was designed by Stanford White and Associates. In 1903, undergraduate liberal arts education resumed at Washington Square with the development of the "Collegiate Division". In 1913, the "Collegiate Division" became Washington Square College, another predecessor college to CAS that existed for 60 years. From 1913 until 1973, NYU provided undergraduate liberal arts education in two colleges and in two locations - at University College in the Bronx and Washington Square College in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. Until 1959, women were only allowed to attend undergraduate summer sessions at NYU and since then, women have been permitted to matriculate as Full-Time undergraduate liberal arts students.

In 1973, while the university was under extreme financial pressure, NYU President, James McNaughton Hester, sold the University Heights campus to CUNY which then establshed Bronx Community College on that campus. While at the time, some alumni argued that the University Heights campus should not be sold, today many suggest that the sale was a "blessing in disguise" because the University Heights campus had become a financial burden and the management of two liberal arts colleges had become difficult. The sale of the University Heights campus allowed NYU to consolidate and focus undergraduate liberal arts education at Washington Square. University College was merged with Washington Square College to form the single liberal arts academic unit that exists today. The college was named Washington Square and University College of Arts & Science (WSUC) and in 1989, this name was modified to the College of Arts & Science. In the years following the consolidation of undergraduate liberal arts education at Washington Square, the infrastructure for the College of Arts & Science has been renovated and significantly expanded.