Introducing Boricua College

Boricua College is the first post-secondary educational institution in the United States specifically designed to meet the educational needs of Puerto Ricans and other Spanish-speaking people. Located in New York City, one campus is in the historic Audubon Terrace of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, while a second campus is located in the Williamsburg and Greenpoint sections of Brooklyn. The College enrolls 1,200 full-time students in degree programs leading to the Associate in Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts, and Master of Arts and Master of Science degrees. Fields of study include Childhood Education, Human Services, Business Administration, Liberal Arts and Sciences and Inter-American Studies. The College employs one of the largest concentrations of Latino bilingual professionals in the City of New York including 130 full-time and 100 part-time faculty and staff members. Consistent with its Latino world view, Boricua College offers New York City a broad base of expert knowledge about Latin America, the Caribbean, and the experience of Puerto Rican and Latino immigrants in New York.

History

In the early 1970’s, leaders of the Puerto Rican community founded the Puerto Rican Research and Resources Center, Inc. to study the most pressing problems facing Puerto Ricans. During the course of that study, the Center’s leaders became convinced that an educational crisis lay at the root of many of the problems facing Puerto Ricans in the United States. They judged that the creation of a college expressly directed to the needs of Puerto Ricans and other Latin Americans offered at least the promise of a break-through on this vital front. The following milestones are significant:

• In 1973, this leadership entrusted Dr. Victor G. Alicea to head a planning team, composed of Agustin Rivera, Maria Morales, Julie Mathis, Gladys Correa, Hector Montes, Clarice Staff and others to develop and implement the plan for such a college to be located in the City of New York. It was the belief of this group, embodied in their original plan, that a college serving Puerto Ricans and other Latinos must not only employ a bilingual faculty and staff and offer courses in Puerto Rican and Latino culture and history, but must employ in all its activities, an educational philosophy and method consistent with the basic principles of Latino Culture.
  
• In February 1974, Boricua College received “authorization to operate an educational program” from the New York State Education Department and enrolled its first class of twenty-six students in a newly designed Associate in Arts degree program.
  
• In 1975, the College was provisionally chartered by the New York State Board of Regents to offer instruction leading to the Associate in Arts degree, and enrolled an entering class of 67 men and women. During the following years, the college flourished with the financial and curricular support of several institutions such as the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Bank Street College and Pace University.
  
• In 1976, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools granted Boricua College candidacy status.
  
• In 1979, the College was authorized by the New York State Board of Regents to offer instruction leading to Bachelor of Science degrees in Human Services, Business Administration, and Elementary Education.
  
• In 1980, the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools grants Boricua full accreditation.
  
• In 1981, the College became the first private minority institution of higher education in New York State ever to be granted an absolute charter and full accreditation. 1985, the College initiates its first Bachelor of Arts program, offering degrees in Inter-American Studies and Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts and Sciences.
  
• In 1996, the Charter was amended by the New York State Board of Regents authorizing the College to offer programs leading to the Master of Science in Human Services and Master of Arts in Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

Mission

Within the diverse constellation of America’s institutions of higher education, Boricua College has these unique aims and commitments:

1. as a Puerto Rican institution deriving its name from the Taino word for the Island Borinquen the College seeks to strengthen Boricua culture through a bilingual, bicultural approach to all learning, and special course offerings in Puerto Rican history, art and culture. At the same time the institution focuses many of its learning activities on understanding and finding solutions to problems facing Puerto Rican and other Spanish-speaking people in America, and aims to prepare students for effective leadership of their communities in future years.
   
2. as a liberal arts institution, Boricua College aims for high standards of academic performance from both students and faculty. Its curriculum offers students a solid foundation in the concepts and methods of the humanities, the social sciences, and physical sciences. Careful attention is given to the development of both the personal and intellectual skills required for further learning and leadership in the world. Many of the College’s graduates pursue advanced training in distinguished educational institutions throughout the United States.
   
3. as an innovative and non-traditional institution, Boricua College offers students the opportunity to design highly individualized learning programs, and work at their own pace towards intellectual and career goals. Such programs build upon prior student achievements, for which special credit may be granted. These learning programs combine individual and group instruction, academic study and clinical experience beyond the College’s walls; and give serious attention to both intellectual and affective dimensions of human growth. A Boricua College education is therefore well adapted to the needs of all students, but especially adult students returning to college after some years of employment or homemaking, and to students whose continuing family or employment responsibilities would otherwise make a college education impossible.

Affiliations

Boricua College is a member of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities, the College and University Personnel Association, the National Association of College and University Business Officers, Eastern Association of College and University Business Officers, and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.

Non-Discrimination Policy

Boricua College has no limitations to admission or employment based on race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, geographical origin or handicap of the applicant