CUNY Academic Commons

The CUNY Digital History Project – description/scenario
(modeled after NEH’s Division of Preservation and Access 2012 grant application guidelines, “scenarios” section)

A group of faculty, staff, and students at the City University of New York are building an online digital collection that will capture and disseminate information about the history of the university.  They will collaborate with archivists across the university’s 23 colleges to gather, digitize, and catalog existing historical records, ranging from institutional to student publications.  Site visitors will enrich the database by depositing text, image, and video contributions.  These data sets will be complemented by  oral histories conducted with individuals and groups whose voices would otherwise be underrepresented in the repository.  Selected materials pertaining to prevalent themes in CUNY history (e.g. student and faculty activism, open admissions, academic freedom, and the immigrant experience) will be curated and contextualized for use by scholars, teachers, and students.