For anyone interested in reactions to Mayor Giuliani's call to end open admissions: The New York Times reports today that the Board of Trustees is divided but that many members, including the Republican-appointed chair, say that they do not want to end open admissions altogether. They admit that they are not ready to give up on the students and that there would be a great social cost in doing so. Instead, they reiterated their support for "higher standards." The paper judges that it is unlikely that the mayor's proposal will win a majority. But if it did, CUNY would be the only community college system in the country to abandon actual or virtual open admissions. The Democratic-dominated Assembly's Higher Ed. Committee has called a hearing on Jan. 29 on CUNY's future, so the discussion will undoubtedly continue. In the past, this committee has opposed Gov. Pataki's budget cuts to CUNY and SUNY (the last batch of which were overridden). Annette Gourgey [log in to unmask]