NYU-Polytechnic Merger

[biggyboy]

<p><a href=“Home | NYU Tandon School of Engineering”>Home | NYU Tandon School of Engineering;

<p>Polytechnic is no where near walking distance from NYU. I don’t think prospective engineering students will be attracted to the school’s location in Brooklyn. Does anyone think it’ll make future engineering students more likely to apply to NYU, given they are now practically deracinated from a prominent engineering program?</p>

<p>

Dear Fellow Members of the University Community,</p>

<p>We want to make you aware of a development: New York University and Polytechnic
University – the second oldest private engineering school in the United States,
with a rich tradition of excellence among its students, alumni, and faculty –
have resumed discussions, left off three years ago, on a possible merger. We
now begin a period of conversation to give shape to that affiliation, but the
leadership of our two institutions, as well as members of our Boards of
Trustees, are optimistic that an agreement can be reached.</p>

<p>Let us offer some perspective on the resumption of these talks. Throughout its
176-year history, NYU has not been afraid to take bold steps to advance our
research mission, to enhance our students’ education, to address the rise of new
disciplines, or to respond to societal issues. Our present School of Medicine
is the result of a merger in the late 19th Century with the Bellevue Hospital
Medical College. Recognizing the possibilities of individualized instruction in
a research university setting, we established the Gallatin School within our own
time here. </p>

<p>NYU also has had to make painful choices. When we sold the Heights Campus to
the City University of New York, we disbanded our College of Engineering.
Though NYU obviously has thrived in the intervening years in all disciplines
including very much the sciences, the absence of a school of engineering and
applied science has been felt keenly in a world increasingly reliant on
technology. </p>

<p>As the possibility of this merger presented itself, we posed such questions as
the following to ourselves: Would it not be a great enhancement to our
University if our scholars who are renowned experts in multi-media and the
interactions betweens humans and technology could collaborate with Poly
engineers working on media technology? Might not collaborations between NYU
health care faculty and Poly faculty offer new advances in biomedical science
and engineering? Would it not be advantageous to our students, who prove
themselves to be problem-solvers in so many fields, to have ready access to an
engineering courses and programs? Wouldn’t this location in Brooklyn – so
vibrant and so near our own location in Manhattan – be a wonderful neighborhood
of which to be a part in the future? </p>

<p>Beyond that, there is an additional symmetry: a number of NYU’s engineering
faculty went to Poly when the College of Engineering was closed. Though most
have retired by now, in some modest way, this agreement would be not only an act
of uniting, but also an act of re-uniting.</p>

<p>We share important values with Poly. We are both institutions that are “in and
of the city” and that draw their strength from our presence in New York. We are
both committed to constant self-improvement and to drive towards excellence. We
are both historically committed to serving the strivers, the talented
entrepreneurs, the men and women who are the first in their family to go to
college, those who see higher education as an opportunity to be seized not a
birthright to be passively accepted. We both share a spirit of innovation, and
are both interested in seeing our communities concretely engaged with
problem-solving in the real world.</p>

<p>The new leadership at Poly has been vital to resuming these conversations, and
they will be excellent partners in this important undertaking. I invite you to
read the memo from Poly’s president, Jerry Hultin, which can be found on the web
here (<a href=“Home | NYU Tandon School of Engineering”>Home | NYU Tandon School of Engineering; ).</p>

<p>The joining of our two institutions will not be immediate or abrupt; it will be
a gradual process. We will keep you informed of developments as we move forward
on this exciting path. </p>

<p>We are convinced that the next generation of NYU stewards will look back at this
decision from 15 or 20 years hence and recognize it as among the most important
for NYU in the first decade of the 21st Century. We are very pleased that NYU
and Polytechnic are taking steps down this pathway.

-President John Sexton</p>

[lauraware]

<p>that sounds sweet…I wish it were happening sooner (like now, haha).</p>

[ken285]

<p>It’s a great deal for polytech, since it gives them a nationwide recognizable name. Just because of the name change, they’ll attract better students from across the country, and not just the New York City area. </p>

<p>For NYU, they gain applicants who would have never considered NYU and applied to Columbia’s or Cooper Union’s engineering schools instead. It’s a win-win situation for all parties involved.</p>

<p>Location-wise, it isn’t so bad. It’s a short subway ride from Greenwich Village, and I’m assuming NYU will invest in shuttle bus service between the Downtown Brooklyn campus and the other campuses. NYU, probably more than any other school in the country, is spread all over the city, so having some more buildings just across the river won’t cause anybody any additional inconvenience. </p>

<p>This will be a big improvement over the 3-2 program NYU has had with the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ.</p>

[biggyboy]

<p>The undergraduate schools of NYU (including some grad school divisions) are all located on the Washington Square Park campus, all just a few minutes away by foot. But I guess it is pretty good news for Polytech.</p>

[ken285]

<p>Some dorms are in lower Manhattan though, right? If I remember correctly, there’s one by the South Street Seaport? Of course, there’s still Poly’s dorm… </p>

<p>Assuming this merger doesn’t fall apart like it has in the past, I don’t believe that students will have to travel between the two campuses too often. Most of the frosh/soph courses will probably be at Washington Square, while most of the junior/senior/grad courses will be in Downtown Brooklyn. Non-engineering majors will have no need to go into Brooklyn at all.</p>