The Hunter College Hawks: A History of the Mascot

Hunter College, a public university in New York City, has a rich history dating back to its founding in 1870. Originally established as a women's college, Hunter has evolved into a comprehensive institution offering studies in numerous undergraduate and postgraduate fields. The college's identity is closely tied to its mascot, the Hawks, which represents the spirit and determination of its students and athletes.

Hunter College: A Legacy of Education and Empowerment

Hunter College originates from the 19th-century movement for normal school training for teachers which swept across the United States. Hunter descends from the Female Normal and High School, a women's college established in New York City in 1870. It was founded by Thomas Hunter from Ardglass in County Down, Ireland, who was an exile over his nationalist beliefs. The Normal School was one of several institutions occupying a site that the New York City government had reserved for "institutions serving a public purpose". Hunter was president of the school during the first 37 years. Created by the New York State Legislature, Hunter was deemed the only approved institution for those seeking to teach in New York City. The school incorporated an elementary and high school for gifted children, where students practiced teaching. In 1887, a kindergarten was established as well. During Thomas Hunter's tenure as president of the school, Hunter became known for its impartiality regarding race, religion, ethnicity, financial or political favoritism; its pursuit of higher education for women; its high entry requirements; and its rigorous academics. In 1888, the school was incorporated as a college under the statutes of New York State, taking on the name Normal College of the City of New York, with the power to confer Bachelor of Arts degrees. This led to the separation of the school into two "camps": the "Normals", who pursued a four-year course of study to become licensed teachers, and the "Academics", who sought non-teaching professions and the Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1913, the east end of the building, housing the elementary school, was replaced by Thomas Hunter Hall, a new limestone Tudor building facing Lexington Avenue and designed by C. B. J. Snyder. The following year the Normal College became Hunter College in honor of its first president. At the same time, the college was experiencing a period of great expansion as increasing student enrollments necessitated more space. The college reacted by establishing branches in the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. By 1920, Hunter College had the largest enrollment of women of any municipally financed college in the United States.

The late 1930s saw the construction of Hunter College in the Bronx (later known as the Bronx Campus). In 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt dedicated a town house at 47-49 East 65th Street in Manhattan to the college. The house had been a home for Eleanor and Franklin D. Hunter became the women's college of the municipal system, and in the 1950s, when City College became coeducational, Hunter started admitting men to its Bronx campus. In 1968-1969, Black and Puerto Rican students struggled to get a department that would teach about their history and experience. These and supportive students and faculty expressed this demand through building take-overs, rallies, etc. In Spring 1969, Hunter College established Black and Puerto Rican Studies (now called Africana/Puerto Rican and Latino Studies). An "open admissions" policy initiated in 1970 by the City University of New York opened the school's doors to historically underrepresented groups by guaranteeing a college education to any and all who graduated from NYC high schools. Many African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, Puerto Ricans, and students from the developing world made their presence felt at Hunter, and even after the end of "open admissions" still comprise a large part of the school's student body. As a result of this increase in enrollment, Hunter opened new buildings on Lexington Avenue during the early 1980s.

The Hunter Hawks: Symbol of Athletic Prowess

The Hunter College mascot is the Hawks. The origin story of how the Hawks became the mascot is not detailed in the provided text, but the Hawks represent the college's athletic teams and their competitive spirit. Hunter College is anchored by its main campus at East 68th Street and Lexington Avenue, a modern complex of three towers - the East, West, and North Buildings - and Thomas Hunter Hall, all interconnected by skywalks.

Hunter offers over 120 undergraduate programs. These include 5 undergraduate certificates, 73 BA degree programs, 10 BS degree programs, and 25 bachelor's-to-master's joint degree programs. Students at Hunter may study within the fields of fine arts, the humanities, the language arts, the sciences, the social sciences, and the applied arts and sciences, as well as in professional areas in accounting, education, health sciences, and nursing. Hunter offers several honors programs, including the Macaulay Honors College and the Thomas Hunter Honors Program. The Macaulay Honors College, a CUNY-wide honors program, supports the undergraduate education of academically gifted students. University Scholars benefit from a full tuition scholarship (up to the value of in-state tuition only as of Fall 2013, effectively restricting it to NY state residents), personalized advising, early registration, access to internships, and study abroad opportunities. The Thomas Hunter Honors Program offers topical interdisciplinary seminars and academic concentrations designed to meet students’ individual interests. The program is open to outstanding students pursuing a BA and is orchestrated under the supervision of an Honors Council. In addition to these honors programs, several honors societies are based at Hunter, including Phi Beta Kappa (PBK). Hunter offers approximately 150 clubs. These organizations range from the academic to the athletic, and from the religious/spiritual to the visual and performing arts. Hunter College has a campus radio station, WHCS, which once broadcast at 590AM but is now solely online. The Envoy is the main campus newspaper, published bi-weekly during the academic year.

Read also: Hunter Education Course Details

Hawk Productions: Amplifying the Hawks' Voice

Hawk Productions, led by media studies student David Horn, aims to help students gain beginner-level experience in broadcasting. Horn also serves as the host of Where Hunter College Speaks (WHCS) Radio show, “Hawk Athletics,” and the CUNY Uncut podcast. Horn is assisted by other media majors, such as Ray Rahim, Marvin “Kota” Jiminez, Robert Rada, Luis De Leon, Nick Mawhinney, Irwin Mok, Linda Yu, Brandon Denny, and Brandon Mantuano.

Horn: I had already been working in the athletics department and wanted to expand the broadcasts to have announcers and cameras like we see on TV. I also noticed that within the media department, students were having a tough time with finding internships and jobs with the current market and lack of attainable experience available.

Rahim: I was working in one of the Film and Media Tech offices at the time when David Horn, who I had known from a class we had taken together, was looking for some tech help on how to expand the Hawks broadcast from their initial sole Canon camcorder set up. From there, me and a couple of other FM [Film and Media] students jumped on. We combined resources from our various departments, a small switchboard from our tech office, and a couple of underused cameras from the rental office and arrived to make something interesting.

Horn: I think people have been drawn because of the direct hands-on opportunities. You are thrown right into the fire in the best way. The students are familiar with each other because they take the same classes and go to the same school.

Rahim: The Hawks Production team is the only area where sports media is pushed at Hunter. Besides a sole sports reporting class in our media department, there isn’t much overlap between sports and the FM department.

Expanding Horizons: Beyond Athletics

Hawk Productions has branched out into other subjects beyond athletics.

Horn: We have filmed different events for the school’s radio station WHCS Radio, who have held events such as their Battle of the Bands and their Snow-pen Mic. We also filmed a Blues Jam for the Office of the Arts in the assembly hall. We are looking to film any and all events that we can manage!

Rahim: I have been a part of the crew for two award-winning short films and have worked live events such as the Macy’s Fireworks show, or various comedy shows throughout the city, but I have always been drawn to sports.

Giving Credit Where It's Due

Horn: Credit should be shown where credit is due.

Rahim: We hope that students can use these opportunities for their reels and resumes and can point to them as a grand striving force for their careers. It also helps us recruit more personnel, by letting viewers see that they too could be involved in the broadcast.

Future Aspirations

Horn: I would love to do even more events of different varieties and to just get people involved.

Rahim: I am hoping to begin to develop a short documentary on the creation of our production team and how we have grown and aided students who weren’t initially aware of the advent of sports media. It’s still in its very early development, but I look forward to showcasing the background of how we get our games to our viewers.

Getting Involved

Horn: You can always come to help out on a broadcast and learn. We are looking to teach and give people experiences that can be hard to come by.

Rahim: And if you don’t want to be a part of the crew, at least attend or view one of our games live, and see the immensely talented Hawks teams that we are showcasing week by week!

Hunter College High School: A Breeding Ground for Excellence

As a partnership with the New York City Department of Education, the Manhattan/Hunter College High School for Sciences (not to be confused with Hunter College High School) was opened in 2003 on the campus of the former Martin Luther King, Jr. High School on the Upper West Side. Hunter College High School is a public academic magnet secondary school located in the Carnegie Hill section of the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is administered and funded by Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY) and no tuition is charged. Hunter was established in 1869 as "The Female Normal and High School", a private school to prepare young women to become teachers. The original school was composed of an elementary and a high school. The high school was separated from what would become Hunter College in 1903. Hunter was an all-girls school for its first 105 years, with the official name "Hunter College High School for Intellectually Gifted Young Ladies". Since 1977, the school has occupied the former site of the Madison Avenue Armory at East 94th Street between Park and Madison Avenues on the Upper East Side.

Admission to Hunter College High School is selective, only being open to seventh-grade students, with the admission process consisting of two steps. Students from the five boroughs of New York City with high scores on their fifth-grade standardized tests are eligible to take the entrance exam during their sixth-grade school year. The only other pathway to the High School is through the elementary school, to which 50 students are admitted to kindergarten after taking an IQ test and being interviewed. In total, an entering 7th grade class contains approximately 225 students, known as "Hunterites," about 200 of whom will graduate from the school.

All Hunter students pursue a six-year program of study. Hunter is a college preparatory high school that provides a liberal arts education. The majority of subjects are accelerated such that high school study begins in the 8th grade and state educational requirements are completed in the 11th. Starting in their junior year, students are allowed to take a limited number of electives and AP courses.

Hunter's AP offerings are currently being evaluated by the Faculty and Curriculum Committee. There were 87 faculty members in 2013. 89% had advanced degrees. Many teachers are scientists, writers, artists, and musicians. Many come to Hunter with university-level teaching experience. The student/faculty ratio is 13:1, much lower than the city's other selective public schools.

Hunter students win many honors and awards during their high school careers, including numerous scholastic writing awards. Hunter wins approximately 23% of all New York State Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Of particular fame are the winners of the Regeneron Science Talent Search (formerly Intel and Westinghouse STS), of which Hunter has had four. Publicly available data indicate that Hunter has both the highest average SAT score and the highest average ACT score of any school in the United States, public or private, though complete data is needed to be conclusive.

Clubs are diverse in their topics, and include politics, film, music, and knitting. Clubs and organizations at Hunter are all student-run, with faculty members as advisers. Students can choose to further pursue their academic interests through school activities such as the National Economics Challenge, Hunter United Nations Society, Fed Challenge (economics), Mock Trial, Debate Team, Math Team, the Hunter Chess and Go Teams, Quiz bowl, Science Bowl, History Bowl, FIRST Robotics, and the Washington Seminar.

In the winter of 2006, the boys' fencing team won the PSAL city championship for the second year in a row. In 2011, both the Boys' and Girls' varsity lacrosse teams won the PSAL Bowl Division Championships.

Students at Hunter can attend social events sponsored by the school administration, faculty and the student-run General Organization (G.O.).

Notable Hunter College Alumni

Hunter College has produced numerous accomplished individuals across various fields. Some notable alumni include:

Vivian E.
Louise E.
Leon G.
Harry Connick, Jr.
DJ Ricardo!
J.
Helene S.
Robert R.
Thomas J. Murphy, Jr.
Pauli Murray (1933) - first African-American woman named an Episcopal priest; human rights activist; lawyer and co-founder of N. O.
Thomas P. Noonan, Jr.
Thomas S.
Jenny B.
Mary P.
Richard M.
J.
Dr. Neal L.
Mary P.
E. H.
Jeffrey T.
George Nauman Shuster, president of Hunter.
Edward P.
Dr. Ruth Westheimer (Dr.

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