Columbia University Archives: Seth Low Junior College

Seth Low Junior College

Seth Low Junior College was an extension of Columbia University, which was meant to serve the educational needs of Brooklyn. Columbia had been offering pre-med courses in Brooklyn since 1916 as part of the University Extension. The courses, using the facilities of the Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, were offered during the day and were open to both men and women. In 1925 the University Extension started offering pre-law liberal arts courses in the rooms of the Brooklyn Law School to prepare students to join those professional schools. The two-year community college was named after Columbia's 11th President and former Mayor of Brooklyn Seth Low.

The school had the same requirements for entry, some of the same Columbia faculty, and even charged the same price of tuition as Columbia College. While they had their own library, zoology and psychology laboratories, lecture halls and classrooms, Seth Low Junior College students still had to travel to the Morningside Heights campus for chemistry and physics courses. Students who completed the non-degree, two-year program could go on to enroll in the professional schools (such as Architecture, Business, Engineering, Journalism, Medicine, Law, Library Service, Optometry, etc.). Others could remain for three years and pursue the liberal arts at the Morningside Heights campus as "University Undergraduates" (not Columbia College students). Graduates would receive Bachelors of Science degrees in General Studies (instead of Bachelors of Arts degrees). The demographic makeup of the Seth Low Junior College student body was predominantly Jewish and Italian. With the opening of Brooklyn College in 1930 (free tuition), enrollment at Seth Low dropped off. The Junior College operated from 1928 to 1936. 

If you are looking to learn more about Seth Low Junior College, below are the sources easily available online:

• Course Information
  The Columbia University Bulletins finding aid lists the Seth Low Junior College course catalogues or announcements and includes links to the digitize copies. The Announcements include the list of faculty members, admissions information, tuition and fees, courses of study, course descriptions, and the academic calendar. You can also find information about courses and the programs in the yearly Catalogues (for example, see here for the section on Seth Low Junior College in the 1929 Catalogue).
   
• Annual Reports
  The University published a yearly President's Annual Report to the Board of Trustees. These volumes include reports from Deans, Directors and other administrators of the various schools and programs. The 1928 Annual Report includes information about the formation of the Seth Low Junior College (for example, see the reports from President Nicholas Murray Butler, Columbia College Dean Herbert E. Hawkes, and University Extension Director James C. Egbert). In subsequent years, the Director of the Seth Low Junior College provided his own report.
  • Acting Director Edward.J. Allen, 1929
  • Acting Director Edward J. Allen, 1930
  • Director Edward J. Allen, 1931
  • Director Edward J. Allen, 1932
  • Director Edward J. Allen, 1933
  • Director Edward J. Allen, 1934
  • Director Edward J. Allen, 1935

The school's closure in discussed in the 1936 Annual Report by President Butler as part of the changes in the University Extension offerings.

• Enrollment numbers
  To find enrollment numbers and other statistical information about the student at Seth Low Junior College, look for the Office of the Registrar's reports and tables in the yearly President's Annual Report.  For additional resources, see the Statistics research guide.
  • 1929
  • 1930
  • 1931
  • 1932
  • 1933
  • 1934
  • 1935
  • 1936
  • 1937
     
• Information booklet
  The small, illustrated booklet or pamphlet Seth Low Junior College seems to have been published around 1935. The volume has been scanned here for convenience (call number CT2 Se7).
   
• Histories and Other Sources
  • Allen, Edward J. Seth Low Junior College, Columbia University Quarterly, March 1932, Volume 24, Issue 1, 42-51.
  • The school is also briefly mentioned in the 1954 Bicentennial History of Columbia volume by John Angus Burrell, A history of adult education at Columbia University; University Extension and the School of General Studies (see page 53).
  • Carron, Blossom R. Seth Low Junior College of Columbia University: A Case Study of an Abortive Experiment, 1979.  Columbia University, Teachers College dissertation, available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global database.
  • Hurt, Leeza. Columbia for Jews? The Untold Story of Seth Low Junior College. The Current, Fall 2016.
  • Gohn, Claudia. Nearly a Century Ago, Columbia’s Jewish Applicants Were Sent to Brooklyn. The Eye, April 15, 2019.
  • The podcast Gatecrashers about "the hidden history of Jews and the Ivy League, from Unorthodox co-host Mark Oppenheimer," features an September 2022 episode on the short-lived Seth Low Junior College and former SLJC student Isaac Asimov, Columbia and Its Forgotten Jewish Campus. 
  • The Columbia student newspaper for the Morningside Heights campus The Spectator is another fruitful source. The paper has been digitized and is easily searchable.
     
• Alumni Recollections: Isaac Asimov
  • Asimov, Isaac. "Memoirs of a ’Noted Alumnus'," Columbia Magazine, Fall 1978, 11-12. In this personal essay, the author recalls his days at Seth Low Junior College and Columbia.
  • In the same issue, Columbia Magazine editor Ceil Cleveland interviews Asimov: "Close Encounter with Isaac Asimov," Columbia Magazine, Fall 1978, 13-16.
  • Asimov also discusses this in his autobiography, In memory yet green : the autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920-1954 (1980) 139-165. (Also available via the Internet Archive).