SEEK at CCNY

In the fall of 1965 City College of New York began an experimental “Pre-Baccalaureate” program designed to desegregate their student population and better integrate students from the surrounding black and Puerto Rican neighborhoods. In its first year the program accepted 113 students who did not initially meet the school’s admission criteria and provided them with comprehensive support through special coursework, remedial workshops, financial assistance, and extra academic and social support. The program was overwhelmingly successful, and the following year the college renamed and launched its expanded “Operation SEEK -  the Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge,” across multiple campuses.
In the summer of 1967 Shaughnessy was hired to start teaching for the SEEK program that fall, but when the program’s director fell ill, Shaughnessy met with him in the hospital and after a long conversation about their shared views on teaching and students, they agreed that Shaughnessy  should take on the role of director.  
According to Shaughnessy, the success of the students in SEEK program was proof of the inherent potential of young people who otherwise would never have had the opportunity to study at a four-year institution. Shaughnessy knew that that these were never “failing students;” it was that these students were being failed by the very institutions that should have been helping them.

In terms of techniques in the SEEK program, one of the methods that Shaughnessy developed and implemented was to find out what kind of writing her students would be expected to do in other courses outside the program. She encouraged her faculty to audit courses in other disciplines like biology and psychology so they could observe first-hand and document the experiences of the students, and to discover the “language problems” they needed to teach their students to overcome (Maher 100).

Resistance to SEEK 

Even before Shaughnessy joined the SEEK program, there were objections in the form of memos, internal meetings, and even scholarly essays and articles by faculty from the English, and other departments who claimed they worried that CUNY was dropping its high standards (Maher 94).
Often times the opposition was more direct. One of the program’s more vocal critics, Professor Geoffrey Wagner, upon seeing a long line of students waiting in the hall to meet with their writing instructor was known to have said "Is this what I’m being paid to do? You've brought the slums to my office." SEEK instructors were often harassed, or had their credentials questioned, or were straight out accused of being incompetent (Maher 94).
In a memo to the chair of the English department, Mina wrote, “I have persuaded most of the Pre-Bac teachers to attend the English department faculty meetings, but they clearly feel unwanted and uncomfortable. I hope something can be done to reduce that feeling” (Maher 93).

Shaughnessy’s strategy was to not to confront her detractors, but to befriend them and show them that her interest was solely on helping the student. Ann Petrie, who was hired by Shaughnessy  as a teacher in the SEEK program said this about her:

Everybody says this, I know, but Mina Shaughnessy changed my life. She was one of the most charismatic people I have ever met, and her interest in the students was so far above the politics swirling around her. Her motives were genuine; that's what set her apart. She insisted on high standards and helped us to develop the pedagogy to achieve those standards and everything she did was so that the students would have a chance. It was that simple.