Other name | Free School of New York (from 1966) |
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Type | Free university |
Active | 1965–1970/71 [1] |
Founders | Allen Krebs, Sharon Krebs and Jim Mellen |
Address |
The Free University of New York (FUNY) was an educational social enterprise initiated by Allen Krebs, his wife Sharon Krebs, and James Mellen in July 1965. [2]
FUNY began as a home for professors dismissed from local universities for protesting the Vietnam War, or for holding socialist views. Course topics included: Black Liberation, Revolutionary Art and Ethics, Community Organization, The American Radical Tradition, Cuba and China, and Imperialism and Social Structure. FUNY opened on July 6, 1965 in a loft at 20 East 14th Street overlooking Union Square. [3] FUNY began as an experimental school for the New Left, built on models such as Black Mountain College ( North Carolina), though it became closely aligned with the Maoist Progressive Labor Party. Tuition for the 10-week session was $24 for the first course, and $8 for each additional course; welfare recipients could attend for free. [4] FUNY also published the quarterly magazine Treason!. By July 1966 the FUNY had been forced to change its name to the Free School of New York (FSNY) [5] after city authorities threatened to prosecute them for using the word "university" in their name without meeting the requirement of at least $500,000 in assets. [1] After the first year, many of the initial collaborators left or were forced to leave, and it shut down a few years later. [6] [3]