Formed in 1961 from municipal institutions and serving almost 220,000 students, CUNY includes eleven urban colleges, six community colleges, law, medical and graduate programs. Descended from the Free Academy of 1847, CUNY remained free of tuition fees until 1973. Long the immigrants’ springboard out of poverty its student body has evolved from an earlier dominance of mostly Jewish, leftist intellectuals to its current diverse range of African American, Arab American, Latino and Asian American populations. As state and city funding have been slashed, however, CUNY faces increasing pressure to balance generally open admissions with “efficient results,” a controversy polarizing university and city.