NYU-SCPS at 75: Achievements and Milestones

This fall, NYU-SCPS celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding in 1934 as NYU’s Division of General Education (DGE). Opening its doors in the midst of the Great Depression, the fledgling Division faced daunting challenges, but was driven from the start by a clear sense of purpose: to help get New Yorkers back to work by extending the educational resources of NYU to adults of all ages.

"In and of The City"

This tradition of adult education at NYU harks back to the university’s earliest days. In 1832, Samuel F.B. Morse, among NYU’s first faculty members and the inventor of the first practical telegraph, gave evening lectures for adults on the new technology of photography. One of his students was Matthew Brady, the famous Civil War photographer. Two other students founded ANSCO, the first major American supplier of photographic supplies.

In the 1850s, John W. Draper, an NYU chemist, called for a course of evening instruction for adults who worked during the day. His proposal included giving police officers and firemen the opportunity to listen to “literary and scientific discourses,” and establishing a special chemical laboratory for manufacturers, engineers, miners, and “artizans.” The University Council accepted Draper’s proposal and authorized “courses of evening instruction” in “literary and scientific subjects.” NYU at this time also offered evening courses in civil engineering and in the “Arts of Design,” as well as German and French classes three nights a week.

Three-quarters of a century (and several name changes) after its inception, the Division’s commitment to public service and higher education with practical applications remains just as strong at today’s NYU-SCPS. As NYU President John Sexton said when he announced in September 2005 the appointment of Robert Lapiner as the new NYU-SCPS dean, Albert Gallatin and the other NYU founders “had a distinctive idea—that we should be a University in and of the city, that we should serve an emerging merchant and middle class, providing an education that is not only intellectually enriching but that permits one to prosper in one’s professional life. Of all of NYU’s schools, none lives that original mission more fully than the School of Continuing and Professional Studies.” As NYU-SCPS marks a major milestone in its history, here is a glance back at 75 years of educational excellence and achievement.

1930s

On July 1, 1934, the Council of New York University creates the Division of General Education (DGE) “to serve . . . as the instrument through which the University might make its contribution to the adult education movement.”
With the national unemployment rate at nearly 22 percent, the new NYU Division offers training programs for social workers and establishes the Reading Clinic to address literacy problems in the adult job-seeking population.
As the Depression begins to loosen its grip, DGE’s career-focused programs proliferate. Among the pioneering initiatives of the 1930s are the Washington Square Writing Center, the first Real Estate Appraisal course (a forerunner of the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate), programs in foreign languages and English as a Second Language, the Center for Graphic Design, the Radio Workshop, and the earliest courses in television production.

1940s

To help meet an acute need for skilled technical workers as the U.S. enters World War II in 1941, DGE participates in the government’s Engineering, Science, and Management War Training Program and opens a War Training Center.
In response to wartime changes in the U.S. tax code, DGE organizes the first NYU Institute on Federal Taxation, which continues to this day.
At the end of World War II, the Division’s enrollment soars as the GI Bill enables returning veterans to take advantage of programs tailored to their educational and career needs.
Building on the success of its English as a Foreign Language program, the Division creates the American Language Institute in 1945.
In 1948, the Division lays the groundwork for a degree-granting function with a new, two-year noncredit liberal arts program leading to a “Certificate in General Education.”

1950s

In January 1950, DGE conducts a three-day conference on nuclear energy. New courses in construction are offered in response to New York’s ongoing building boom, and the Office of Special Services to Business and Industry is chartered.
The Division’s liberal arts program flourishes in the 1950s with a folk music and jazz class held at a Greenwich Village club, a Workshop in Practical Politics that draws praise from then Mayor Robert Wagner, and a Poetry Workshop featuring readings by Dylan Thomas, Langston Hughes, and John Ashbery.
The Center for Graphic Industries and Publishing, now the Center for Publishing, is established in 1951. The following year DGE holds its first Biennial Conference on Charitable Foundations, a harbinger of today’s George H. Heyman, Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising.
A DGE course entitled Today’s English is broadcast on television in 1952. It is the first NYU course ever televised and will lead to the development of Sunrise Semester, the Emmy Award–winning NYU/CBS coproduction that airs on CBS from 1957 through 1982.
By mid-decade, the Division’s enrollment surpasses that of any other school at NYU.

1960s

The Division offers an associate in arts degree program for the first time in 1964, a forerunner of the undergraduate degree programs offered by the Paul McGhee Division.
In 1966, the Division, now renamed the School of Continuing Education and Extension Services (SCEES), takes its place among the constituent schools and colleges of NYU.
The NYU Real Estate Institute, today the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate, is founded in 1967.

1970s

In 1972, the Division of Business and Management begins offering diploma programs in real estate, data processing, and systems analysis, and as of 1976, in computer technology.
Ann Marcus, dean of the Division of Continuing Education at LaGuardia Community College, becomes dean of the renamed School of Continuing Education (SCE) in 1976. She is the first female dean to lead an NYU school.
In October 1979, SCE opens its Midtown Center at 11 West 42nd Street, soon to be the headquarters of the Real Estate Institute.

1980s

New practitioner-taught courses are introduced in information technology, publishing, construction, and hospitality. By mid-decade, the School offers 13 diploma programs in seven areas: magazine publishing, direct marketing, hospitality, finance, information technology, real estate, and human resources management.
In 1988, the Real Estate Institute initiates the first master’s degree program offered by the School. The M.S. in Real Estate Development and Investment will be followed by another 13 master’s programs over the next two decades.

1990s

In 1992, the newly created Center for Hospitality Industry Studies, which started in the NYU Real Estate Institute and is today the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management, offers the School’s second master’s program, the Master of Science in Hospitality Industry Studies. By the end of the decade, M.S. programs in Tourism and Travel Management, Publishing, Direct Marketing Communications, and Management and Systems, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Tourism Management, are introduced.
A distance-learning pioneer since the days of Sunrise Semester, SCE establishes the Virtual College in 1992. Using a PC and an early version of Lotus Notes, students can access IT courses in the School’s “teleprogram.”
SCE founds the Center for Advanced Digital Applications in 1996. The M.S. in Digital Imaging and Design will be the School’s first new graduate program of the new millennium.
The School’s increasing focus on specialized professional programs is recognized in a 1998 name change to the current School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS). In the same year, the Undergraduate Degree Programs for Adults are renamed the Paul McGhee Division, in honor of the visionary second dean of the Division of General Education.
In 1999, NYU-SCPS establishes the George H. Heyman, Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising.

2000s

In 2003, NYU-SCPS inaugurates its new Downtown Center in the historic Woolworth Building, becoming one of the largest new tenants to open a facility in Lower Manhattan after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The Center for Global Affairs is formed in 2004 and is based in the Woolworth Building.
In June 2009, the NYU Board of Trustees unanimously approves an official, consolidated home for NYU-SCPS, at 7 East 12th Street.
In 2009, the NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies celebrates its 75th anniversary.