By Mary Frost
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Last Friday, the Polytechnic University voted to enter into new discussions with New York University regarding a merger of the two institutions. Merger discussions were begun – but left off – three years ago.
Should the merger go through, the result would be an expansion of NYU to Brooklyn, not necessarily limited to Polytechnic’s present configuration, but into other areas of MetroTech and Downtown Brooklyn as well. Such an expansion could help fuel the economy in the city, state and even nation — and would go a long way to help relieve NYU’s present real estate constraints in Manhattan. Polytechnic University would become Polytechnic Institute of New York University.
Polytechnic’s president, Jerry Hutlin, said Wednesday that the two institutions share key values and have a strategic need for each other. Specifically, Polytech will gain through the “acceleration of our strategic objectives,” he told the Brooklyn Eagle. By merging with NYU, Polytech will gain a national marketplace, an outstanding science faculty and a broader range of courses for their students, he said.
“Both universities have a great interest in seeing science and technology turn into products and services — turning into jobs for New York City, the state and the nation, and growing the economy. And both need the other,” he said.
“NYU is ten times bigger in lots of factors,” he said, so it’s not a merger of equals in terms of size. “It’s a merger in terms of bringing in a component they don’t have – two strong universities teaming up to create an even stronger university.
“Polytech will move forward faster, and NYU will be closer to the comprehensive university they want to be – and it’s good for Brooklyn,” he said.
Hutlin said that the executive committees of both universities have already met individually to authorize the merger discussions, and have drawn up a memorandum of understanding regarding the basis for the merger. Key votes could take place as early as October. Then a series of integration and transition steps would unroll. “It may take three to four years before we are totally merged,” he said, though some components may be merged almost immediately. Hutlin said that Poly’s endowment would be under the control of Poly “forever.”
Past Merger Talks Failed
The merger talks of 2004 failed because Polytech felt there were not enough mutual benefits, Mr. Hutlin said. “Poly was just out of a bad series of years financially, and there were declining enrollments. The discussion was not between equals – it was about how to save Poly. It felt imbalanced.” The plan at that time called for moving a small cadre of the best students to New York City, and make Poly’s faculty go through the tenure process all over again. “It was not satisfactory to Polytech,” Hutlin said.
With Poly on a stronger footing now, “It has not been a difficult negotiation,” he said.
A statement released by the president of NYU, John Sexton, mentioned some of the possible synergies: NYU scholars in multi-media and the interactions between humans and technology could collaborate with Poly engineers working on media technology, for example. Also pictured were collaborations between NYU health care faculty and Poly faculty to produce advances in biomedical science and engineering.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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Just a reminder, though -- It’s not considered polite to paste the entire story on your blog. Most blogs post a summary or the first paragraph,( 40 words) then post a link to the rest of the story. That helps increase click-throughs for everyone, and minimizes copyright issues.
So please keep posting, but not the entire article. arturc at att.net
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