The New York State Education Department's Board of Regents gave the NYU-Polytechnic merger its approval on June 24 at the board's meeting - the final approval the deal needed to go forth.
NYU will now effectively own Polytechnic University, a Brooklyn engineering school, which will be renamed the Polytechnic Institute of New York University.
Just after 11 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the State Education Department's Board of Regents - a 16-member regulatory body - approved an amendment altering Polytechnic's educational charter to include the affiliation. The amendment will become effective July 1 of this year.
NYU provost David McLaughlin hailed the day as a "great" one for NYU, Polytechnic and New York. Representatives from Polytechnic, who declined interview requests, also hailed the decision as superb.
THE FUTURE
In five to 10 years, Polytechnic will be like any other school within NYU, McLaughlin said. But for the interim period, Polytechnic will operate as a separate entity, but "under the leadership of NYU," McLaughlin said.
"Its day-by-day operations will not change in September, but gradually some of the same operations will change as it becomes natural to do so," he noted.
The biggest change for Poly will be in admissions, McLaughlin said, as NYU begins to advertise the institution.
"Their applicant pool, which is mainly a regional one," he said, "will become almost immediately a national one."
Faculty collaborations in research and grants will also begin almost immediately, he said.
By the spring semester, students from both schools will see the change directly when students begin to cross-register.
NYU's provost office will be in charge of all "academic governance," he said. NYU will control the hiring and tenure processes. Polytechnic's president will make recommendations to NYU's provost office, McLaughlin said, then NYU will make the decisions.
The present board of trustees at Polytechnic will be appointed as an advisory board, charged to run Polytechnic as a separate entity. After the first year, NYU will begin to bring new trustees on to the board. During the interim period, "their board will make the business decisions with respect to Poly, but their board will be appointed each year by the NYU board."
Once the school is fully integrated, the board would become like the Law School council or the Faculty of Arts and Science council, he said. The amendment includes the provision that a member of Polytechnic's board will be appointed to NYU's board of trustees after the interim period, at the NYU board's discretion.
THE CONTROVERSY
The deal was delayed after Polytechnic's alumni association voiced strong opposition to the merger.
The group's concerns prompted multiple state investigations into the deal, and a vote by Polytechnic's board of trustees on the deal was postponed for one month after State Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Long Island) requested a delay to investigate. LaValle, who is the chairman of the state senate committee on higher education, issued a report last month detailing the findings of the committee's four-month investigation.
The report - the first independent look at the contentious negotiations - dismissed most of the alumni association's claims but sharply criticized Polytech's board of trustees on three points:
• Polytechnic's use of a three-year-old real estate appraisal in negotiations
• The exclusion of dissenting trustees from the board's merger committees
• Polytechnic President Jerry Hultin's failure to tell the board of trustees about merger negotiations until six months after they began
The report was not mentioned at the board of regents' public meeting and vote, but a spokesman for the board said that it had been considered by the voting regents in their decision.
Jane C. Timm and Eric Platt are staff writers. E-mail them at university@nyunews.com.
NYU will now effectively own Polytechnic University, a Brooklyn engineering school, which will be renamed the Polytechnic Institute of New York University.
Just after 11 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the State Education Department's Board of Regents - a 16-member regulatory body - approved an amendment altering Polytechnic's educational charter to include the affiliation. The amendment will become effective July 1 of this year.
NYU provost David McLaughlin hailed the day as a "great" one for NYU, Polytechnic and New York. Representatives from Polytechnic, who declined interview requests, also hailed the decision as superb.
THE FUTURE
In five to 10 years, Polytechnic will be like any other school within NYU, McLaughlin said. But for the interim period, Polytechnic will operate as a separate entity, but "under the leadership of NYU," McLaughlin said.
"Its day-by-day operations will not change in September, but gradually some of the same operations will change as it becomes natural to do so," he noted.
The biggest change for Poly will be in admissions, McLaughlin said, as NYU begins to advertise the institution.
"Their applicant pool, which is mainly a regional one," he said, "will become almost immediately a national one."
Faculty collaborations in research and grants will also begin almost immediately, he said.
By the spring semester, students from both schools will see the change directly when students begin to cross-register.
NYU's provost office will be in charge of all "academic governance," he said. NYU will control the hiring and tenure processes. Polytechnic's president will make recommendations to NYU's provost office, McLaughlin said, then NYU will make the decisions.
The present board of trustees at Polytechnic will be appointed as an advisory board, charged to run Polytechnic as a separate entity. After the first year, NYU will begin to bring new trustees on to the board. During the interim period, "their board will make the business decisions with respect to Poly, but their board will be appointed each year by the NYU board."
Once the school is fully integrated, the board would become like the Law School council or the Faculty of Arts and Science council, he said. The amendment includes the provision that a member of Polytechnic's board will be appointed to NYU's board of trustees after the interim period, at the NYU board's discretion.
THE CONTROVERSY
The deal was delayed after Polytechnic's alumni association voiced strong opposition to the merger.
The group's concerns prompted multiple state investigations into the deal, and a vote by Polytechnic's board of trustees on the deal was postponed for one month after State Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Long Island) requested a delay to investigate. LaValle, who is the chairman of the state senate committee on higher education, issued a report last month detailing the findings of the committee's four-month investigation.
The report - the first independent look at the contentious negotiations - dismissed most of the alumni association's claims but sharply criticized Polytech's board of trustees on three points:
• Polytechnic's use of a three-year-old real estate appraisal in negotiations
• The exclusion of dissenting trustees from the board's merger committees
• Polytechnic President Jerry Hultin's failure to tell the board of trustees about merger negotiations until six months after they began
The report was not mentioned at the board of regents' public meeting and vote, but a spokesman for the board said that it had been considered by the voting regents in their decision.
Jane C. Timm and Eric Platt are staff writers. E-mail them at university@nyunews.com.
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