From CUNY to Columbia: A Comparative Analysis of Student Movements at Private and Public Institutions

In this paper, I will argue that while student movements at Columbia were often able to achieve short-term institutional changes, in part due to the University’s flexibility to cede to their demands due to their status as a private institution, these wins often do not hold in the long term. While they may impact broader social conditions, the long term impact on political conditions is somewhat limited by the institution’s insular and elite nature. In contrast, student movements at CUNY, though often less able to affect immediate institutional reform due to financial constraints and bureaucratic resistance, had a more profound long-term influence on higher education public policy, particularly in the context of securing and improving access to higher education for marginalized communities. This analysis, which spans from the late 1960s to present day, will reveal how the specific characteristics of private and elite versus public and non-elite universities. Demographics, political engagement, institutional power, and resources all shape the efficacy of student activism and its broader implications for societal policy change.