City Tech was founded in 1946 as The New York State Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences. The urgent mission at the time was to provide training to GIs returning from the Second World War and to provide New York with the technically proficient workforce it would need to thrive in the emerging post-war economy. From its beginnings as an Institute—to being chartered as a community college—and subsequently transitioning to senior college status during the 1980s—it has grown from serving 246 students in 1946, to a population today of more than 30,000 degree and non-degree seeking students.
Students and faculty
City Tech has an enrollment of more than 17,000 students in over 66 baccalaureate, associate, and specialized certificate programs including several engineering technology fields as well as architecture, construction, nursing, hospitality management, entertainment technology, dental hygiene, vision care technology, technology teacher training and paralegal training. Non-degree continuing education is also offered, and serves approximately 14,000 students each year. City Tech is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
The eleven departments housed in the school provide instruction at the associate and baccalaureate levels, leading to degrees in the areas of healthcare, business, hospitality, paralegal studies, human services and career and technology teacher education.
The School of Arts and Sciences is home to a number of majors: transfer degrees in Liberal Arts and Liberal Arts and Science, associate degrees in computer science and chemical technology, and the baccalaureate degree in applied mathematics. The school is also home to a new and rapidly growing bachelor's degree program in Biomedical Informatics, which is at the intersection of IT and biomedical research.
Departments
African American Studies
Biological Sciences
Biomedical Informatics
Chemistry
English
Humanities
Liberal Arts & Sciences
Mathematics
Physics
Social Science
Library
The college hired its first library director in 1957. The current college library building went up around 1987. In 2012 the library staff adopted an open-access policy to make its members' professional research publicly accessible online.
Campus
City Tech occupies nine buildings within Downtown Brooklyn's Tech Triangle, MetroTech BID and DUMBO. College Administration and Offices, the Ursula C. Schwerin Library, the School of Professional Studies, and the School of Arts & Sciences are primarily based in a complex formed by the Namm, Library, General, and Pearl buildings in MetroTech. The School of Technology & Design is primarily based in Voorhees Hall in DUMBO with Graphic Arts based in the MetroTech Complex. A supertall skyscraper designed by Renzo Piano, which would have been known as City Tech Tower and contain 65 floors for the college and 600 units of housing, was proposed, but scrapped. In October, 2013, City Tech held a ceremonial groundbreaking to mark the construction of a new 350,000 square foot academic complex at the corner of Tillary and Jay Streets in Downtown Brooklyn, which would open in August, 2018. The new complex occupies the site formerly occupied by the Klitgord Center. The new eight-story building, known as the Academic Complex, is home to City Tech’s expanding programs in healthcare and the sciences. The departments moved into the new building include the core sciences: Physics, Chemistry and Biological Sciences. It is also home to the health programs: Nursing, Radiologic Technology & Medical Imaging, Dental Hygiene, Restorative Dentistry, and Vision Care Technology. The Academic Complex includes a 1,000-seat concert hall quality auditorium, the largest of its kind in Downtown Brooklyn. A wellness center and faculty office space is also located in the Academic Complex.
Athletics
City Tech teams participated as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division III. City Tech began CUNYAC competition in the community college section from the conference's inception in the 1987-88 season, later to join its senior college section in the 1999-2000 season. Men's sports included basketball, cross country, soccer, tennis and volleyball; while women's sports included basketball, cross country, softball, tennis and volleyball. City Tech's athletic program is in hiatus until new facilities are available.
Frank McCourt, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angela's Ashes, taught in the English department. In a 1997 New York TimesOp-Ed essay, Mr. McCourt wrote about his experiences teaching immigrant mothers at New York City Technical College during the Spring 1990 semester.
