The last stop on the E, J and Z lines has a new name. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced on Friday, Oct. 23, that Jamaica Center–Parsons/Archer is now Jamaica Center–York College, putting the CUNY campus a short walk away on the subway map for the first time.

The change lands in York College's 60th anniversary year. According to CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, York is the first college in Queens to have a subway station carry its name, and the station is the ninth in the system to include the name of a CUNY school.

What changes, and what does not

The station itself stays exactly where it is, at the hub of downtown Jamaica, and the same trains serve it. What changes is the name, so that a student, a visiting parent or someone heading to an event on campus can see at a glance which stop to use.

Jamaica Center is a terminal for all three lines that reach it, the E, the J and the Z, and it connects to 30 bus routes serving the surrounding neighborhoods of southeast Queens. The MTA counts about 23,000 subway riders using the station on an average weekday.

For York, the stop is the main front door. The MTA says roughly 80 percent of York College students rely on public transportation to get to class, which is the case the agency made for adding the college's name: it helps riders find a major destination near the station.

Joining the CUNY stops on the map

The new name puts Jamaica Center–York College alongside the other subway stations that point riders to a CUNY campus. Those include 23 St–Baruch College and 68 St–Hunter College on the 6, 137 St–City College on the 1, 149 St–Hostos on the 2, 4 and 5, Flatbush Av–Brooklyn College on the 2 and 5, Bedford Park Blvd–Lehman College on the 4, Franklin Av–Medgar Evers College on the 2, 3, 4 and 5, and President St–Medgar Evers College on the 2 and 5. Until now, none of them was in Queens.

Sixty years of York in Jamaica

York College was established in 1966 to meet demand for a new CUNY senior college, and it was permanently sited in Jamaica in 1968 after local businesses, community leaders and faith-based organizations pushed for it. While its permanent campus was being built, the college ran classes out of the former Montgomery Ward building on Jamaica Avenue, from 1978 until the new campus opened in 1986.

The renaming came a day after York held a gala celebrating its 60th anniversary. College President Dr. Claudia Schrader marked the moment with an official renaming and ribbon cutting at the station, and sshe credited State Senator Leroy Comrie, who championed the renaming, and Assemblymember Alicia Hyndman, along with the MTA and CUNY leadership.

Several Queens officials joined in. Senator Comrie said he had been talking with the MTA about the change for some time. Assemblymember Hyndman, who chairs the Assembly's Higher Education Committee, pointed to the generations of students who have used the station to reach class, and also credited former Assemblymember Vivian Cook for decades of funding for the campus. City Council Deputy Speaker Dr. Nantasha Williams tied the name to campus and infrastructure improvements in the Jamaica Neighborhood Plan, and Council Members Selvena N. Brooks-Powers and Ty Hankerson and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. all marked the college's anniversary.

For riders

The station is the same terminal for the E, J and Z, with the same 30 bus connections. What is new is the name, Jamaica Center–York College, which now appears on the MTA's subway map.

Anyone visiting York for the first time can now follow the name: ride the E, J or Z to the end of the line, and the campus is a short walk from the station.

Sources