This Staten Island school complex was once the borough’s first community college | Then and Now

Building B at the old Sunnyside College of Staten Island campus on March 23, 1995 (Staten Island Advance/Tony Carannante). Staff-Shot STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.

-- The College of Staten Island (CSI) was launched in 1976 by merging two existing colleges: Staten Island Community College (SICC) and Richmond College. SICC, which opened in 1956, was the first community college in the City University system. Richmond College, founded in 1967, was an upper-division institution that offered undergraduate and graduate degrees to students who had completed their first two years of college elsewhere.



Today the old CSI campus holds the Michael J. Petrides Educational Complex. Monday March 31, 2025.

(Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel) STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE CSI occupied the Sunnyside campus of SICC in 1967, now known as the Petrides Education Complex, for nearly 20 years. Its current campus, located in Willowbrook on the former Willowbrook State School site, was completed afterward. A 2017 article in the Staten Island Advance highlights the college’s history.

To see more of CSI’s history, take a look at some vintage photos from the Advance archives. This plaza is the hub of Staten Island Community College's new Sunnyside campus. The school occupied quarters in St.

George until the new buildings, on Ocean Terr. at the Staten Island Expressway, were completed. April 28, 1968 (Staten Island Advance) Staff-Shot This current plaza also the hub of the Petrides Educational Complex.

Monday March 31, 2025.(Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel) STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE Over view from the back of the Petrides campus. Monday March 31, 2025.

(Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel) STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE Staten Island Community College on September 17, 1967, the year it opened. (Staten Island Advance/Robert Parsons). Staff-Shot Over view from the back of the Petrides campus.

Monday March 31, 2025.(Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel) STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE The Staten Island Community College campus in Sunnyside was taking shape when this photo was taken in 1966, a year before it opened. (Staten Island Advance/John Padula).

Staff-Shot Residents near Staten Island Community College in Sunnyside and Emerson Hill have been complaining as of late about the crowded parking conditions caused by students at the college. This is Little Clove Rd. on September 18, 1971 (Staten Island Advance/Robert Parsons).

Staff-Shot There is talk fo expanding the Sunnyside campus of Staten Island Community College to accommodate the thousands of students seeking enrollment there. April 28, 1974 (Staten Island Advance/Hans J. Jung) Staff-Shot This parking area and the access roads leading to the $8.

6 million Staten Island Community College campus in Sunnyside have been completed. June 15, 1965 (Staten Island Advance) Staff-Shot The quadrangle at Staten Island Community College on May 14, 1971 (Staten Island Advance/Tony Carannante). Staff-Shot A policeman at Narrows Rd.

North and Clove Rd., Sunnyside, persuades Staten Island Community College marchers not to go up Grymes Hill to join the Wagner College students in their tuition strike on March 14, 1969 (Staten Island Advance/Barry G. Schwartz).

Staff-Shot An aerial view of some of the main buildings at the College of Staten Island's Sunnyside campus on September 5, 1982, which was being sought as a judicial center for the Island's court system. (Staten Island Advance). Staff-Shot.