The university enrolls more than 275,000 students and counts thirteen Nobel Prize winners and twenty-four MacArthur Fellows among its alumni.

CUNY, established by New York state legislation in 1961 and signed into law by governor Nelson Rockefeller, was an amalgamation of existing institutions and a new graduate school.

The 1960s saw student protests demanding more racial diversity and academic representation in CUNY, leading to the establishment of Medgar Evers College and the implementation of the Open Admissions policy in 1970.

In 1960, John R. Everett became the first chancellor of the Municipal College System of the City of New York, later renamed CUNY, for a salary of $25,000 ($257,000 in current dollar terms).

Its four-year colleges offered a high-quality, tuition-free education to the poor, the working class, and the immigrants of New York City who met the grade requirements for matriculated status.

During the post-World War I era, when some Ivy League universities, such as Yale and Columbia, discriminated against Jews, many Jewish academics and intellectuals studied and taught at CUNY.

In fall 1957, for example, nearly 36,000 attended Hunter, Brooklyn, Queens and City Colleges for free, but another 24,000 paid tuition fees of up to $300 a year ($3,300 in current dollar terms).

In 1964, as New York City's Board of Higher Education moved to take full responsibility for the community colleges, city officials extended the senior colleges' free tuition policy to them, a change that was included by Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. in his budget plans and took effect with the 1964–65 academic year.

[30] Like many college campuses in 1970, CUNY faced a number of protests and demonstrations after the Kent State massacre and Cambodian Campaign.

The Administrative Council of the City University of New York sent U.S. president Richard Nixon a telegram in 1970 stating, "No nation can long endure the alienation of the best of its young people.

[35] Under pressure from community activists and CUNY Chancellor Albert Bowker, the Board of Higher Education (BHE) approved an open admissions plan in 1966, but it was not scheduled to be fully implemented until 1975.

CUNY administrators and Mayor John Lindsay expressed support for these demands, and the BHE voted to implement the plan immediately in the fall of 1970.

[18] All high school graduates were guaranteed entrance to the university without having to fulfill traditional requirements such as exams or grades.

[39][40] Meanwhile, CUNY students were added to the state's need-based Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), which had been created to help private colleges.

[41] Within a few years, the federal government would create its own need-based program, known as Pell Grants, providing the neediest students with a tuition-free college education.

[45] In 1995, CUNY suffered another fiscal crisis when Governor George Pataki proposed a drastic cut in state financing.

[48] That year's final state budget cut funding by $102 million, which CUNY absorbed by increasing tuition by $750 and offering a retirement incentive plan for faculty.

In 1999, a task force appointed by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani issued a report that described CUNY as "an institution adrift" and called for an improved, more cohesive university structure and management, as well as more consistent academic standards.

[51] By autumn 2013, all CUNY undergraduates were required to take an administration-dictated common core of courses which have been claimed to meet specific "learning outcomes" or standards.

It also reduced the number of core courses some CUNY colleges had required, to a level below national norms, particularly in the sciences.

[58] On February 13, 2019, the board of trustees voted to appoint Queens College president Felix V. Matos Rodriguez as the chancellor of the City University of New York.

[64][65] In 2021, CUNY launched a College Immigrant Ambassador Program in partnership with the New York City Department of Education.

In 1926, the legislature established the Board of Higher Education of the City of New York, which assumed supervision of both municipal colleges.

Both the mayoral and gubernatorial appointments to the CUNY Board are required to include at least one resident of each of New York City's five boroughs.

The task force has developed a number of initiatives, including training for faculty and staff on how to identify and address antisemitism.

[85] In June 2024, the United States Department of Education concluded that CUNY has failed to protect Jewish students from discrimination following the October 7 attacks.

In response, Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez stated that CUNY is dedicated to maintaining a discrimination-free and hate-free environment, and that new measures will ensure consistent and transparent investigation and resolution of complaints.