It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a 35-acre (14 ha) campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall 2023.

[12] In 1932, architect Randolph Evans drafted a plan for the campus on a substantial plot that his employer owned in Brooklyn's Midwood section.

[13] Evans sketched a Georgian campus facing a central quadrangle, and anchored by a library building with a tower.

[18] At the groundbreaking ceremony was Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and Brooklyn Borough President Raymond Ingersoll.

[22][23][24] During the tenure of its second president, Harry Gideonse, from 1939 to 1966, Brooklyn College ranked high nationally in number of alumni with doctorate degrees.

[25][26] As academics fled Nazi Germany, nearly a third of refugee historians who were female would at some point work at Brooklyn College.

[9] In 1944, sociologist Marion Vera Cuthbert became the first permanent black faculty member appointed at any of the New York municipal colleges.

"[32][33] In addition to his curricular and student life reforms, Gideonse was known for his decades-long campaign to ferret out Communists among the college community and his testimony before congressional and state investigating committees during the Second Red Scare.

[34][35][36][37][38] On the other hand, perhaps retaining the memory of the time when, as a University of Chicago professor, he was unjustly accused of being a Communist and advocating "free love,"[39] Gideonse also attacked those who, without evidence, charged faculty, staff and students with being subversives and defended faculty free speech rights against outside critics.

[52] After Gideonse's retirement in June 1966,[53] a newly-appointed dean of administration, Dante Negro, said he was not bothered by the students' more casual dress "that makes it hard to distinguish between the sexes," calling it "a passing fad.

"[54] On October 21, 1967, a front-page story in The New York Times reported that the college was virtually closed down by a strike of thousands of students angered by police action against antiwar demonstrators protesting U.S. Navy recruiters earlier in the week.

[55] Five days later, another front-page Times story reported that students had agreed to return to classes after an agreement was reached with college administrators after negotiations.

In May 1968, Brooklyn College news again made the front page of The New York Times when police broke up a 16-hour sit-in at the registrar's office to demand that more Black and Puerto Rican students be admitted to the school.

[61][62][63] In late April 1970, students demanding more open admissions and racial diversity staged a sit-in at President Kneller's office, holding him and five deans there for several hours.

[68][69][70] In October 1974, 200 Hispanic students took over the registrar's office to protest President Kneller's appointment of a chair of the Puerto Rican Studies Department different from that of the person selected by a faculty search committee.

[71] Defying a judge's temporary court order to leave the building, the protesters were supported at a rallies outside Boylan Hall by many student groups and the alumni association, but Kneller refused to rescind his controversial appointment.

[29] In January 1978, the college's Faculty Council approved a vote of "no confidence" in President Kneller on Wednesday and recommended to the Board of Higher Education that he be replaced.

[80][81] As of 1989, Brooklyn College ranked 11th in the US, and ahead of six of the eight Ivy League universities, by number of graduates who had acquired doctoral degrees.

[90][91][92][93][94] During Lattin's tenure, Brooklyn College began a complete overhaul of campus buildings[95] and vastly improved computer and Internet access for students and faculty.

[5] The campus also serves as home to BCBC/ Brooklyn College Presents complex and its four theaters, including the George Gershwin.

Gershwin Hall was demolished and replaced by The Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts, for which ground was broken in 2011.

[12] The performing arts center was named for alumni Leonard and Claire Tow, who gifted $10 million to the college.

[5][102] Other changes to the original design include the demolition of Plaza Building, due to its inefficient use of space, poor ventilation, and significant maintenance costs.

[103] To replace the Plaza Building, the college constructed West Quad Center, designed by the notable Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly.

During one summer of their undergraduate studies, students are required to volunteer in a clinical setting where they are involved in direct patient care.

Students admitted as incoming First-Year receive a Brooklyn College Foundation Presidential Scholarship that provides full tuition for their two years of full-time undergraduate study in the Coordinated Engineering Program.

In the Commons they find study facilities, computer access, academic, scholarship, internship, and career opportunities, and, above all, intellectual stimulation among other talented students like themselves.

Men's sports include basketball, cheerleading, cross country, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis and volleyball; while women's sports include basketball, cheerleading, cross country, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis and volleyball.

1978), Warner Bros. and Los Angeles Dodgers CEO Robert A. Daly, New York Mets President Saul Katz (B.A.

1960), Boston Celtics owner Marvin Kratter (1937), David Geffen, New Line Cinema CEO Michael Lynne (B.A.