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Maritime College, New York State
Functions
Originally established by the city of New York in 1875 as the New York Nautical School, the Maritime College is the oldest maritime training school in the country. The campus is located at Fort Schuyler, Bronx County. As a specialized college within the state university system, its four-year course (complete with summer training cruises) includes course work in both marine engineering (engineering officers) and marine transportation (deck officers). Under the respective courses of study students major in marine or electrical engineering or naval architecture, leading to a bachelor's degree in engineering; or in marine transportation, meteorology and oceanography, or computer science, leading to a bachelor of science degree. A master's degree in marine transportaion management is also offered. All undergraduates must satisfy minimal physical requirements established by the U.S. Coast Guard for licensure as Third Mate or Third Assistant Engineer, and graduates are eligible for reserve commission in the U.S. Navy. Non-license/non-commission programs are available to those who cannot meet the minimum physical standards, and veterans. The college is supervised locally by a council consisting of members appointed by the governor, pursuant to Chapter 525 of the Laws of 1953. The council's duties include reviewing budget plans; recommending the president; regulating the conduct and behavior of students; governing the care and custody of grounds, buildings, and equipment; and fostering citizens committees to aid the work of the college.
History
The Maritime College originated as the New York Nautical School, which was established in 1875 and conducted by the New York City Board of Education until 1913. It then became a state institution called the New York State Nautical School authorized by Chapter 322 of the Laws of 1913. That law provided for the maintenance and government of a school for education and training in the "science and practice of navigation, seamanship, steam and electrical engineering" open to male pupils from various counties of the state. Its purpose was to "insure the continuance of the [New York Nautical] school and to extend its privileges to young men throughout the state." The law provided that when the former school was discontinued and New York City transferred its training ship (the U.S.S. Newport) and equipment to the state, the governor would appoint a board of governors to the newly authorized New York State Nautical School.
Tuition to the school was free (with an initial fee to subsidize uniforms and equipment). Qualifications were "good moral character, elementary education and physical fitness" as required by the board of governors. The board of governors consisted of the commissioner of education and eight appointed members who served without compensation (but with allowance for expenses). They were charged with providing and maintaining the school "aboard a proper vessel" which was stationed at the port of New York. The board's authority was to purchase "all necessary books, charts, instruments apparatus and supplies" required for school work and for the "proper accommodation and keep of the superintendent, instructors and pupils" aboard the ship; appoint and remove the superintendent, instructors, and employees and determine their duties and salaries; fix terms and conditions for pupil admission, instruction, discharge or suspension; establish all rules and regulations on the proper management of the school; and arrange for occasional cruises to and from New York harbor. The superintendent was also the commander of the ship and could appoint a board secretary.
The board was responsible for keeping full and detailed accounts of all expenditures and reporting on them and the work of the school annually to the legislature. The purpose of the school remained unchanged for decades, as it evolved under the authority of a board of visitors, the commissioner of education, the board of regents, the newly created State Education Department, as a degree granting school, and finally as part of the state university system. Chapter 398 of the Laws of 1923 continued the school and vested its supervision with the commissioner of education, who could approve expenditures and disbursements.
In 1923 administrative supervision was delegated to the Assistant Commissioner for Secondary Education, and in 1924 responsibilities were given to the Special Schools Bureau. Chapter 544 of Laws of 1926 replaced the school's board of governors with a board of visitors. By Chapter 153 of Laws of 1927 the superintendent was continued, but under appointment by the board of regents upon recommendation of the comissioner. Instructors and employees were also appointed by the regents upon the recommendation of the superintendent, as approved by the commissioner of education.
In 1928 the department's Special Schools Bureau was transferred to the Vocational and Extension Education Division. By the late 1920s the school's course of study was two years and it accommodated 100 students. The school's name was changed to the New York State Merchant Marine Academy in 1929 (Chapter 6). Admission was opened to non-state residents in 1931 (Chapter 295) with the commissioner of education prescribing the payment of fees to funds designated by the comptroller and the department being charged with reporting on receipts and disbursements of the funds. Chapter 760 of the Laws of 1933 authorized the governor to acquire land as a shore base for the academy, to be maintained "at the port of New York along with a proper vessel or vessels for practical training."
The education Department continued free tuition and keep until the shore base was established; thereafter all entering students were required to pay a fee to cover part of the cost of board. Beginning in 1934 the academy was maintained aboard the Training Ship Empire State and also ashore at Fort Schuyler, Throggs Neck (Bronx County). Fort Schuyler itself was constructed in the 1830s to protect New York City from attack by water from Long Island Sound. It was conveyed to the state by the federal government as a permanent shore-based home of the school.
Chapter 720 of the Laws of 1940 provided that state funds (and private donated money or federal funds) could be used for improvements of the shore base lands and for construction of additions or alternations to buildings. At this time the provisions of free tuition and keep of pupils on board ship were omitted. In the 1940s laws changed the number, terms, and makeup of the school's board of visitors (Chapter 656, Laws of 1942; Chapter 632, Laws of 1945); allowed federal scholarship money to be used as scholarships for out of state students, with the number of non-state students not to exceed one-third of the total complement (Chapter 656, Laws of 1942); provided for establishing an undergraduate course of study leading to the degree of Bachelor of Marine Science (Chapter 478, Laws of 1946); and amended the education law as to the employment, classification and salaries of the staff of the academy (Chapter 166, Laws of 1948).
During World War II the complement of the academy was expanded and its coursework, which was by then a three year program, was condensed to eighteen months. A training unit of the U.S. Navy, the Naval School for Midshipmen (previously the Naval School of Indoctrination) was maintained at the Fort Schuyler Military Reservation at the academy. The complement of the academy was reduced for the postwar period, and when the emergency peak was passed the course was returned to two years, and then expanded to three years in 1946. In 1956 the former Army Hospital Ship Mercy was acquired. It became the Empire State III and was used for summer training cruises. The academy became a campus of the state university in 1948. It was renamed the New York State Maritime College in 1949 (Chapter 352), and the office of superintendent was changed to president. From that time it became generally known as the Maritime College at Fort Schuyler, one of a group of specialized colleges within the university system.
Legal Citations
L. 1913, Ch. 322; L. 1926, Ch. 544; L. 1929, Ch. 6; L. 1933, Ch. 760; L. 1946. Ch. 478; L. 1949, Ch. 352; L. 1953, Ch. 525.
History
New York's first British colonial governors ruled the province only with the aid of a Council but with no assembly representative of the colonists. Between 1664, when King Charles II granted the conquered New Netherland territory to his brother James, Duke of York, and 1863, citizens increasingly called for the establishment of a general assembly. In 1681, members of the Court of Assizes petitioned the Duke for an Assembly to be elected by freeholders, and citizen unrest was apparent in, among other things, their refusal to pay taxes. Finally, in 1683, James appointed Colonel Thomas Dongan as New York's new governor and, to quiet the colonists' unrest, instructed him to call an Assembly. The Assembly was to share with the governor and Council the power to make laws and raise money, although custody and the actual distribution of the funds remained with the governor. The Assembly delegates met with Dongan and his Council in October 1683 and passed the "Charter of Liberties and Privileges". This act authorized the election by freeholders and freemen of an Assembly which would share legislative powers with the Governor and Council. Dongan and James approved the act although it was vetoed by the King in March 1684. In 1686 James, having assumed the throne, disallowed the act and abolished the Assembly. A representative assembly was revived under the controversial administration of Jacob Leisler. An elected assembly was permanently reestablished (Laws of 1691, Chapter 10) following Leisler's execution for treason in 1691. This body continued uninterrupted until dissolved in 1776 under Governor Tryon. During this time, the Assembly gradually won from the Governor oversight and then a measure of control over public funds, and it increased its legislative activity concerning all aspects of colonial administration. The Assembly also attempted, although with little success, to establish control over the courts. Although the Assembly fought long and hard with governors and Parliament over control of financial matters and objected to many of the oppressive measures taken by the British government in the years leading to the Revolution, it nevertheless remained loyal to British rule -- probably a major factor in the provincial governors' refusal to call elections for a new Assembly. When the Assembly refused to appoint delegates to the Second Continental Congress scheduled to meet in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, New York City's radical Committee of 60 called on county citizens' committees to select delegates to a provincial convention which would choose representatives to send to the Continental Congress. This convention, or First Provincial Congress, met on April 20, 1775 and constituted New York's first extralegal government organization representing the entire state. When the Fourth Provincial Congress convened on June 9, 1776, it immediately approved the Declaration of Independence and renamed itself the Convention of the Representatives of the State of New York. The Convention appointed a committee to draft a proposal for a new state government. On April 20, 1777, the Convention approved the Committee's proposed state constitution, thus establishing New York's first state government. The Constitution of 1777 followed closely the colonial form of government but also incorporated some changes. The bicameral legislature was comprised of a Senate whose members were elected from four districts every four years; and the Assembly, whose members were elected to one-year terms. The number of Assemblymen elected from each district was proportionate to the district's population. The Constitution did not specify the powers and duties of the Assembly, merely stating that it would continue to act in the manner and with the privileges of the colonial Assembly. The early State Assembly conducted much of its business through ad hoc committees appointed to deal with single issues as they arose, including the disposition of petitions from citizens requesting settlement of civil disputes or other legal issues. Many of these issues, and the records documenting them, concerned land, then the state's greatest economic asset. Among the land-related issues reflected in these records are the confiscation during the Revolution of lands belonging to loyalists; the distribution of bounty lands to those serving the state during the Revolution; and settlement of claims and confirmation of title to Indian lands. The increasing complexity of legislative activity and the passing of the Revolutionary War generation encouraged better care of the Legislature's records. As early as 1801, the Assembly had resolved to employ John McKesson, former Supreme Court Clerk, to arrange records of the Revolutionary War era, but the Senate did not concur. On April 20, 1830, the Assembly passed a resolution directing Secretary of State A. C. Flagg to examine the Assembly archives and select records to be transferred to the Secretary of State's office. An 1831 law (Chapter 323, Section 11) appropriated funds to pay for the examination and arrangement of the Assembly's records. From May 30-July 19, 1831, Flagg examined the Assembly's archives dating from 1778-1831, selecting records of historical, legal or other value to the state and its citizens. The selected records were deposited in the Secretary of State's office, organized by subject and arranged chronologically, indexed, and bound into 43 volumes. A concurrent resolution of the Legislature passed December 15, 1847 directed the transfer of the "Assembly Papers" to the State Library. In 1911, the library, then located in the State Capitol, was destroyed by the Capitol Fire. The Assembly Papers survived the fire but suffered burn damage. The volumes were disbound and most of the records were placed on silk mesh.
