June 25, 2008

New York Regents Approve Merger of Polytechnic U. and NYU

The New York State Board of Regents has approved the merger of Polytechnic University and New York University despite vehement opposition from some Polytechnic alumni and a critical report from the chairman of the State Senate’s Committee on Higher Education, NYU’s student newspaper, The Washington Square News, reported today.

Under the terms of the deal, the Brooklyn engineering school will be renamed the Polytechnic Institute of New York University. The state board approved an amendment altering Polytechnic’s educational charter to allow the merger.

The arrangement had been approved by trustees of both institutions, although it was bitterly opposed by some engineering alumni, who argued that Polytechnic was giving away control of their alma mater without assurances that it would benefit the institution.

In a statement on Polytechnic’s Web site, President Jerry Hultin called the merger “the perfect fit between two great universities.” The provost of NYU, David McLaughlin, released a similar statement, calling it “a great day for NYU, for Poly, and for New York.”

Unconvinced, some Poly alumni, current and former trustees, and faculty members filed a petition to delay the vote and to remove the entire board of the Brooklyn university, the alumni group said. —Katherine Mangan

Comments

1. McLaughlin is NYU’s provost, not president.

   — Mark    Jun 26, 08:12 AM    #

2. I responded to a number of news editorials and blogs over the past few months as an alumnus in favor of the merger. In my opinion, the audacity of the alumni association at Poly to totally disregard opposing views is troubling. There was really no way to make them see the benefits of the merger. The lack of visionaries at the leadership level in academia appears to be a systemic problem becoming increasingly more apparent across the nation. I completed a leadership program once at the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education. It was one of a trilogy of summer programs that the education department at Harvard University offers. You would not believe the number of participants who attended that I would not put in charge of a day care facility. The good news is that the Board of Regents approved the merger. As a retired executive dean of a state community college, it looks like I may have to run for alumni president at the new Polytechnic Institute of NYU. This is a time for visionaries to take charge. Let’s see if someone will draft me first.

   — MajorT (Dr. Turner)    Jun 26, 08:19 AM    #

3. As an NYU alum and regular reader of The Chronicle, I’d like information to be accurate and up to date. Please adjust to cite the correct person. Provost McLaughlin or President Sexton?

   — Jolie    Jun 26, 08:28 AM    #

4. This is a sad day in Polytechnic history. In exchange for virtually nothing but the right to borrow against its own assets, Polytech’s trustees gave away hundreds of millions in real estate assets. 153 years of independence sold out for vague promises in a secret contract. Let’s see who collects the cash on this deal.

   — Mark from Polytech    Jun 26, 10:49 AM    #

5. As the New York State Education Department staff member responsible for reviewing this action, I need to point out a correction. Polytechnic and NYU have entered into an affiliation between two institutions that remain legally separate corporations, not a merger of Polytechnic into NYU. The Board of Regents amended Polytechnic’s charter to bring the affiliation agreement into effect; however, the two continue to be separate corporations. Polytechnic and NYU contemplate a possible consolidation of the two corporations; however, such a step is at least three years away.

   Byron P. Connell
   Associate in Higher Education
   Office of Higher Education
   New York State Education Department

   — Byron P. Connell    Jun 26, 10:53 AM    #

6. As a Polytechnic alumnus who has spent decades dealing with universities worldwide, I believe that this union is a win-win case for both institutions. The synergism between a large university lacking engineering and technology and a university specializing in these very subjects is so obvious that the opposition is difficult to comprehend. In fact, the trustees of both institutions should be congratulated for their vision.

   — N. Bikales    Jun 26, 11:28 AM    #

7. I am one of many Poly alumni that strongly oppose the “affilation.” I took the time to examine the Poly reports to the Internal Revenue Service. One big fact jumped out at me: the true financial condition of Poly was NOT reported by Poly administrators in their negotiations with NYU; they purposefully misrepresented Poly’s financial assets to help justify the merger/affiliation.

   — Joel S. Hirschhorn    Jun 26, 11:56 AM    #

8. Any way one looks at it, Poly has been absorbed, not ‘affiliated’ and for good or ill, can no longer serve its historical purpose; raising its entrance standards for one, will exclude all the marginal students who look for a better life. Sometimes making an institution ‘ better’ actually is a bad idea. Certainly, we know that NYU’s exit from engineering in the 1970’s was because this type of education was both not in high local demand and because it is very expensive to provide. There is nothing going on in domestic science or engineering employment that suggests any edubusiness justification for investment in these areas, and poor Poly, mismanaged for half a century, brings nothing to the table except real estate. Give it a couple of years, and there most likely will be no discernible traces of something called Poly. RIP

   — Dr. R.J. Stein    Jun 26, 01:28 PM    #

9. This transaction is a disposition of Polytech’s assets to NYU. Under the amendments to the Polytechnic Charter, NYU will become the sole member of the Polytechnic Corporation and hence, by definition, the owner of Poly’s vast real estate holdings. This transaction was disguised and sold to the NYS Education Department (NYSED) as an “Affiliation.” It appears that the Regents and NYSED never saw or examined the Definitive Agreement (DA) which sets forth the transaction between NYU and Polytechnic. Senator Kenneth LaValle published a detailed report on his website recently which includes comments on the DA. The Senator notes that: “there is no mechanism in the DA for Polytech to terminate their affiliation with NYU and regain their independence as an institution…and rather locks Polytech into an eventual consolidation.” If Byron P. Connell
   quoted above read the DA he could not be calling this an affiliation. The charter amendments recommended to the Board of Regents will irreversibly change Polytech’s corporate structure from a Type B Corporation into a sole membership corporation with NYU as the sole member. It appears that Senator LaValle’s report was never considered by NYSED or the Regents since there was no mention of it in the NYSED recommendation. This transaction and the DA needs to be examined.

   — Mark from Polytech    Jun 26, 03:05 PM    #

10. When the suggestion was raised several months ago that Polytechnic should mount another capital campaign to raise funds that would allow Poly to implement the Strategic Plan, the Board and the poly community was told that consultants said that a new capital campaign would not work. Now that poly’s Pres. has succeeded in giving Poly away to NYU we hear that there will be a new capital campaign.

    — Ed T. Barron    Jun 26, 05:43 PM    #

11. The NYS Senate Report on the NYU-Poly “affiliation” states that the decisions of Poly’s Board appear to be questionable and to have been made in bad faith. Unfortunately it appears no one at the State Education Department and the Board of Regents cared to read the Senate Report. Also, I agree with Mark from Polytech that this deal was cleverly disguised to State regulatory agencies as an affiliation when in fact it is an
    acquisition.

    — George Likourezos, Poly Alumni President    Jun 27, 09:43 PM    #

12. We’ve corrected the identification for NYU’s David McLaughlin. He is the university’s provost, not its president. Apologies for the error.

    — News Editor    Jul 1, 10:44 AM    #

13. I am the incoming speaker of the faculty (starting September 1), a tenured full professor of mathematics, and a faculty member at Polytechnic since 1990. I would like to point out that all but two of the tenured faculty I have spoken to have told me that they support strongly our affiliation with NYU under the conditions of the Definitive Agreement.

    The overriding reason for this is quite simple. Times have changed, and the field of engineering can no longer stand apart from other academic and professional disciplines. It is not possible for Polytechnic to restore its once proud status as a leading institution in technology and engineering without strengths in fields such as biology, medicine, business, law, and even the arts. To attempt to build such strengths alone would require extremely generous benefactors that Polytechnic has never been able to find. To become part of NYU is therefore a golden opportunity for Polytechnic to realize its fullest potential as a school of technology and engineering, something it simply cannot do alone. The converse is also true; it is a golden opportunity for NYU to become a complete university that contributes to the practical as well as academic and artistic needs of society.

    And the terms of the deal are completely fair and equitable. It is a merger between two healthy institutions that is more comparable to a marriage than a corporate takeover. The goal is to form a single cohesive institution that unifies the intellectual assets of both NYU and Polytechnic to exploit the exciting cross-disciplinary opportunities in both research and education.

    I would also note that I am one of two Polytechnic faculty members who were permitted to read the Definitive Agreement in its entirety. I can say categorically that every material point in the Definitive Agreement has been made known to the full Polytechnic community, and there are no hidden clauses, conditions, or agreements. The Definitive Agreement simply formalizes exactly what was agreed upon in the Memorandum of Understanding, which has been seen by everyone.

    I would also like to correct the misleading description of the signers of the petition submitted to the Board of Regents. The petition was submitted by the Committee to Save Poly, which consists of Poly alumni only. One is an adjunct (i.e., part-time) faculty member. Another is a former (untenured) Industry Professor. Some of the signers have represented the Alumni Association as non-voting advisory trustees on the Polytechnic Board. No full-time faculty member or voting trustee signed this petition.

    — Deane Yang    Jul 2, 09:08 AM    #

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