Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK)
Founded in 1965, the Percy Ellis Sutton Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) program was the first higher education opportunity program in the U.S. and continues today at CUNY's four-year colleges.
Lost & Found
- "What we are a part of": Teaching at CUNY: 1968-1974 byCall Number: PS3535 .I233 Z94 2013Publication Date: 2013In this collective effort, a team of Lost & Found editors explore Adrienne Rich’s teaching materials from her formative years during the turbulent and exhilarating student strike for Open Admissions in the late 1960s at the City University of New York. Drawing on memos, notes, course syllabi, and class exercises, this collection provides insight into Rich’s dedication, passion, and empathy as a teacher completely dedicated to her students as they take a leading role in reshaping access to public higher education. Rich’s characteristic public generosity and courage can be seen, for the first time, in an institutional setting through these materials. Accompanied by essays that contextualize both the pedagogy and the politics, this collection truly breaks new ground in presenting lesser-known aspects of a major poet’s work.
"Realizing the Dream of a Black University," & Other Writings by ISBN: 9780997679656Publication Date: 2017While Toni Cade Bambara is mostly known for her short stories, novels, and landmark 1970 anthology The Black Woman, “Realizing the Dream of a Black University,” & Other Writings explores lesser-known aspects of her work and revives her far-reaching pedagogical legacy. Through memoirs and texts drawn from City College of New York’s radical 1960s educational experiments, we learn how Bambara dedicated her life to embedding and expanding Black and Third World studies in academic institutions, community settings, and the larger collective consciousness while imbuing these efforts with her own unique form of infectious activism and unflinching clarity.
Dissertations
The SEEK program, and developmental education and remediation in general, are frequent subjects of graduate study. Below are a few dissertations that pay special attention to these issues at CUNY.
Alford, Schevaletta M. "An Exploratory Study of Peer Relationships Among Students in the SEEK Compensatory Educational Programs at Two Four-Year Urban Commuter Colleges." Ed.D. Diss, Teacher's College, Columbia University, 1995. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
Croke, Erin. "Toward An Understanding of Demographic Change at the City University of New York: 1990 – 2010." Ph.D. Diss, City University of New York, 2013). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
Duitch, Suri. "Open Admissions and Remediation: a Case Study of Policymaking by the City University of New York Board." Ph.D. Diss, City University of New York, 2010. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
Duncan, Patricia. "An Analysis of the Relationship of Identified Background Variables to Academic Achievement of Students in the SEEK Program in a Unit of City University of New York." Ph.D. Diss, New York University, 1989. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
Dyer, Conrad M. "Protest and the Politics of Open Admissions: The Impact of the Black and Puerto Rican Students' Community (of City College)." Ph.D. Diss, City University of New York, 1990. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
Fumita, Hirosuke. "Relationships of Remediation with Chances for Graduation and Time Taken to Graduate: A Study on the 1984 and 1989 Cohorts of CUNY SEEK Students." Master's Thesis, Hunter College, 2001. Available in print at Hunter College Cooperman Library Special Collection, 2nd floor.
Galinski, Raymond. "An Evaluation of the Effects of the Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) Program on Short- and Intermediate-Term Outcomes." Ph.D. Diss, City University of New York, 2017. Available from CUNY Academic Works.
Glazer, Judith S. "A Case Study of the Decision in 1976 to Initiate Tuition for Matriculated Undergraduate Students of the City University of New York." Ph.D. Diss, New York University, 1981. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
LaLande, Paula-Marie. "Perceptions of the Historical Changes in the Search for Education, Elevation and Knowledge Program (SEEK) at Queens College: A Historical Case Study Emphasizing the Views of Faculty, Counselors, and Administrators." Ed.D. Dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University, 2003. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
Molloy, Sean. "A Convenient Myopia: Seek, Shaughnessy, and the Rise of High-Stakes Testing at CUNY." Available from CUNY Academic Works.
Montague, Janice. "Weaving One's Way: First-Time College Students." Ed.D. Dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1991. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
Nazon, Marie C. "A Study of Predictors of College Completion Among SEEK Immigrant Students." Ph.D. Dissertation, City University of New York, 2010. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
Savonick, Danica. "Insurgent Knowledge: The Poetics and Pedagogy of Toni Cade Bambara, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, and Adrienne Rich in the Era of Open Admissions." Ph.D. Diss, City University of New York, 2018. Available from CUNY Academic Works.
Ziskin, Mary B. "The Construction of Race, Opportunity, and Merit in the Structure and Representation of Remedial Courses at the City University of New York." Ph.D. Diss, University of Michigan, 2004. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.