Heritage & History
- Herbert M. Sussman
- 1972-1977
Herbert Sussman, a Brooklyn-born Erasmus High School alumnus who had served as president of Allegheny County Community College in Pittsburgh for the previous six years, was named the College’s fifth president in 1972 following a nationwide search. He held a bachelor’s degree from New York University and a master’s from the University of California-Berkeley.
Sussman presided over what were unquestionably the most difficult years in the College’s history. The early 1970s saw a nation in deep recession and a local fiscal crisis that brought New York City to the verge of bankruptcy. The impact was deeply felt by The City University of New York and all of its constituent colleges, with Sussman facing an estimated $2 million deficit (eight percent of the College’s annual budget) during 1972/73. Dealing with the College’s fiscal crisis necessitated a reduction in personnel and programming at a time when enrollment reached record levels as larger numbers of adults returned to school in search of better or new skills in response to this period of high unemployment.
Yet Sussman managed to prevent what had once threatened to be the dismemberment of the College and laid the groundwork for the moving the College from city to state budgeting authority. He resigned in 1977 to accept an administrative post in the San Francisco community college system.
→ Back to Presidents