LIU Brooklyn
| LIU Brooklyn | |
|---|---|
 LIU Brooklyn logo | |
| Motto | Urbi et Orbi (Long Island University) |
| Established | 1926 |
| Type | Private |
| Provost | Gale Stevens Haynes |
| Students | 11,200 |
| Location | Brooklyn, NY, USA |
| Campus | Urban |
| NCAA | Division I |
| Nickname | Blackbirds |
| Website | |
LIU Brooklyn it is a private institution of higher education located in Brooklyn, United States. It is the original unit and first of two main campuses of the private Long Island University system.
Mission statement
Established in 1926, Long Island University's mission is "to open the doors of the city and the world to men and women of all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, who wish to achieve the satisfaction of the educated life and to serve the public good and to awaken, enlighten and expand the minds of its students." The campus is recognized by the New York Times as being one of the most diverse in the U.S.[1]
Campus
LIU Brooklyn is located at the intersection of Flatbush and DeKalb avenues (across the street from Junior's restaurant). The campus is served by several New York City Subway lines as well as the Long Island Rail Road (the Atlantic Terminal is located three blocks from campus).
History
The first class at the Campus’ original site, located at 300 Pearl Street, had 312 students from the surrounding neighborhoods. The majority of students were immigrants or the children of immigrants, many of which were the first in their families to ever attend college or school in general.[2]
In 1929, the University affiliated itself with the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy. The momentum behind the university's growth slowed drastically due to the Great Depression in the United States. During World War II, the university filed for bankruptcy protection due to enrollment decreases caused by the draft. The G.I. Bill of Rights increased enrollment exponentially following the end of the war.[3]
Starting in 1964, William Birenbaum was named as the vice president and provost at LIU Brooklyn. In that role he supported keeping lower tuition and approved changes that eliminated a dress code and allowed students to have a beard. He was opposed in these efforts by the traditionalist chancellor R. Gordon Hoxie who had sought to raise tuition as a means of dealing with the college's mounting debt burden. Hoxie demanded Birenbaum's resignation in March 1967, despite the fact that the faculty had voted by a nearly 4–1 margin to keep him as provost. 1,500 students gathered to mount what turned out to be an unsuccessful protest against Birenbaum's dismissal, chanting "We want Bill" and physically confronting Dr. Hoxie.[4]
In the late 1960s, plans were proposed by several trustees to sell the Brooklyn Campus in order to finance a new graduate campus on Long Island. Students and faculty held demonstrations protesting those plans. In 1972, administrators and faculty members negotiated the first collectively bargained faculty agreement at a private university in the United States.[5]
Athletics
LIU Brooklyn is the only unit of the LIU system to compete in Division I athletics and has 18 varsity teams. The school mascot is the Blackbirds.
The men's basketball team won the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in 1939 and 1941 under the guidance of coach Clair Bee. However, in 1951, the Blackbirds basketball players were involved in the CCNY Point Shaving Scandal that resulted in five players receiving a suspended sentence and one player a one-year prison sentence.[6] The basketball team was suspended for six years from 1951-1957.[7] Games were played at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater until recently.
In 1997, The Blackbirds were seeded 13th in the East Region of the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament. They lost in the first round to Villanova, 101-91. In 2011, LIU Brooklyn won both the Northeast Conference regular season and tournament championship, winning 13 in a row at the end of the season. The Blackbirds were seeded 15th in the East Region of the 2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament losing in the first round to 2nd seeded University of North Carolina.
The Paramount Theater
The former Brooklyn Paramount Theater, was the world’s first theater built specifically for talking pictures.[8] The theater, which abuts the original core campus, was bought in 1960 by LIU and converted into a gymnasium in 1963. Parts of the theater's balcony were used as lecture rooms. The theater's original Wurlitzer organ was used as a basketball court for LIU Brooklyn's Blackbirds' home basketball games until the Wellness, Recreation and Athletic Center (designed by Arquitectonica) was built.
Academics
- Arnold and Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, LIU's only professional school and one of the largest and oldest pharmacy schools in the U.S.
- School of Business, Public Administration, and Information Sciences
- Richard Conolly College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- School of Education
- School of Health Professions
- School of Nursing
- School of Continuing Education
- Global College, the only global studies program in the U.S. integrating a series of yearlong cultural immersions around the world into a four-year bachelor's degree
- Honors Program
- A unique United Nations graduate advance certificate program
References
- ↑ New York Times, Retrieved February 23, 2009.
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ Honan, William H. "R. Gordon Hoxie, 83, Chancellor of Long Island University in 60's", The New York Times, October 30, 2002. Accessed October 10, 2010.
- ↑
- ↑ Explosion: 1951 scandals threaten college hoops, Retrieved June 14, 2008.
- ↑ Blackbirds fly back to LIU for alumni basketball game, Retrieved February 22, 2009.
- ↑ Brooklyn Paramount Theatre, Retrieved June 14, 2008.
Coordinates: 40°41′28″N 73°58′51″W / 40.6911°N 73.9808°W