Some trustees and alumni of Polytechnic University, in Brooklyn, N.Y., are urging their board to reconsider a plan to merge with New York University.

The board is expected to vote on the plan on Thursday.

Several trustees have written to the board and asked for a delay, suggesting that the deal was not good for Polytechnic and that some trustees would personally benefit from the merger, according to The New York Times.

“We need to ask ourselves: With a 153-year history of independence and self-sustainability, why is Polytechnic’s administration rushing to ‘merge’ with NYU on terms which remain questionable and without reviewing the alternatives Poly has with the entire board,” said the letter, signed by Deborah L. Devedjian and Steven M. Rittvo, both voting trustees, and Michael E. Hora, a nonvoting advisory trustee.

Some influential alumni also oppose the deal, but the president of Polytechnic told the newspaper that the concerns were “pre-vote jitters.”

Polytechnic once rode high on the heels of one of the biggest gifts in the history of higher education, but subsequently struggled with budget deficits and little enrollment growth. —Goldie Blumenstyk