Four benchmarks may be noted in efforts to reduce barriers to minority access to higher education in New York City: (1) National Scholarship Fund for Negro Students (1949); (2) National Defense Education Act (1958); (3) Federal and New York State legislation (precollege programs to assist blacks and Puerto Ricans prepare for College, 1964); and, (4) Open Admissions Program in the City University. As a result of the various programs instituted, black and Puerto Rican enrollment in the city's institutions has substantially increased within the past few years. Only limited data are available to judge the success of these programs in achieving their goals: the precollegiate programs appear to be succeeding in that a higher proportion of the students finish high school, enter college, and succeed in college; the picture has been found to be less bright with respect to the college programs. Among the recommendations to accelerate progress in higher education for blacks and Puerto Ricans are: increased emphasis on education and intellectual development during the early childhood years; improved counseling at the high school level for the better selection of a post-secondary education opportunity; improved ongoing counseling and mandatory assessment counseling; reduction in faculty-student ratio and faculty load for remedial classes; systematic inservice training for teachers and administrators; use of trained tutors; and, a more educationally and economically integrated student-body. (Author/RJ)