A Small College Offering Rare Opportunities

York College is a small four-year college that offers a broad range of opportunities. Known for its strong liberal arts curriculum, the college has 44 programs of study, including accounting, chemistry, movement science and history; pre-professional programs, including pre-med, pre-law and pre-engineering and certificate programs in a variety of fields.

Last year, York launched three programs: pharmaceutical sciences, journalism and nursing program, which boasts a high-tech virtual hospital. The pharmaceutical sciences program collaborates with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's North East Regional office,housed on campus since 1999. A CUNY School of Pharmacy is in the planning stages.

Capitalizing on its proximity to Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, York is the only CUNY college to have an Aviation Institute and a B.S. in aviation management. Near a bustling commercial strip in Jamaica, Queens, York is easily accessible by Long Island Rail Road, Jamaica Air Train, the E, J, and Z trains and the Q4, Q5, Q25/34, Q30, Q31, Q42, Q44, Q54, Q65, Q83, Q84, Q85, Q110, Q111, Q112, Q113, and N4 bus lines.

The college opened its doors in 1967 in rented space at the Oakland Jewish Center in Bayside, Queens. It continued to operate in rented spaces until 1986 when it held its first classes in the Academic Core Building on its present 47.5-acre site.

The Academic Core, the largest building on campus, is the center of student life. Students study in its modern, well-equipped library, take a break at the Starbucks Coffee shop or relax in the lounge areas. The biggest and most popular lounge is on the third floor near the library's southern end. It is furnished with comfortable chairs and couches and equipped with computer stations, and features a skylight glass roof.

The college plans to build an Academic Village and Conference Center featuring spaces for student-oriented functions and activities; state-of-the-art classrooms; conference facilities for college and community use; a bookstore and galleries dedicated to a history of the Tuskegee Airmen and the role of southeast Queens in the community as a home for jazz greats.

York has 7,100 students; 75 percent of them were born outside of the United States, and they represent more than 50 countries and speak more than 60 languages.

Quick Facts About York

  • Established in 1966 • 47.5 acres
  • Original name: Alpha College, renamed York College after World War I hero, Sgt. Alvin York
  • Students representing over 50 countries and speaking over 60 languages
  • 7,100 students, 75 per cent born outside the U.S.
  • 44 programs of study
  • Over 200 full-time faculty and over 250 part time-faculty
  • 1,000 parking spaces

THE HOTSPOTS at YORK

  1. Academic Core Building: Starbucks Coffee shop, lounge areas near the main entrance to the building and on the third floor near the library, bookstore, cafeteria, Pandora's Box student newspaper, television studio, immigration center, art gallery, modern, well-equipped library andcomputer facilities.
  2. Performing Arts Center: 150-seat theater and a 1,500-seat auditorium
  3. Health & Physical Education Complex: Olympic-size swimming pool, indoor track gym equipment, Health Promotion Center
  4. Science Building: Houses health professions programs, the Queens High School for the Sciences and Small Business Development Center, FDA Regional Testing Laboratory
  5. Classroom Building
  6. Field Storage
  7. Child and Family Center: a new building on the former St. Monica's Catholic Church site, Historic chapel performance space

ART at YORK

Sculpture:

  • Torso (1985) by Elizabeth Catlett
  • Opus II (1986) by Marta Chilindron
  • Build-Grow (1986) by Richard Hunt
  • The Copper Airplane by James L. Johnson

Painting:

  • Farmer's Market (1986) by James Brown
  • The Annunciation (2000) by Nina Buxenbaum
  • Recent Works mural (1994) by Crash/Daze
  • Untitled (1994), print and cardboard collage by Al Loving
  • Landscape II (1993), acrylic and oil on canvas by Sina Yussuff

Prints:

  • Classical Composersby Penelope Bennett
  • On the Mountains of the Prairie..., (1971) by Robert Indiana
  • Model Child (The Saint) (1985) by Patricia Smith

Installation:

  • Neon for York (1986) by Stephen
  • Antonakos
  • Arc (1986)metals and concrete by Houston Conwill
  • Solar Canopy (1986) by Sam Gilliam
  • Ark (1985) by Martin Puryear
  • Mentor's Mark (2007) - latex on asphalt by Steed Taylor

Other Art:

  • Recollection Pond (1975) by Romare Bearden
  • Shoshone Spirit Marsh (1993) by Ernest Garthwaite
  • Phoenix by Doris Price
  • Brozozdowce III (1973) by Frank Stella