How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
The boards of trustees at NYU and Brooklyn's Polytechnic University will vote this week on a plan for a merger between the two schools that, if passed, would make the deal almost certain, officials from both schools said.
Meanwhile, NYU President John Sexton said at last Thursday's University Senate meeting that, if the agreement is approved, NYU would gain ownership of Polytechnic and become the sole shareholder of the 153-year-old engineering school.
But NYU provost David McLaughlin told WSN yesterday that the deal is "primarily an academic action," not a financial transaction and "certainly not an acquisition."
The plan is outlined in a document called a memorandum of understanding, which serves as a letter of intent, outlining the merger process and paving the way for both schools to move toward a legal commitment.
Sexton said circulation of the memo will be limited. But he offered some details at the senate meeting Thursday, which was expanded upon by McLaughlin, NYU spokesman John Beckman and Polytechnic president Jerry Hultin in a phone interview with WSN yesterday.
McLaughlin said NYU's board is scheduled to meet this afternoon to discuss and vote on the memorandum. A "board retreat" has been arranged today for Polytechnic's trustees to discuss the document, Hutlin said; they will have a formal vote tomorrow.
If the boards approve the document, a deal will be "98 percent certain - in many ways, 100 percent certain," McLaughlin said, as long as its arrangements details match what the memo says.
But, under New York state law, three-fourths of Polytechnic's board must approve the memorandum because it calls for dissolving that board, Hutlin said.
If the deal does go through, the NYU-owned Polytechnic would at first operate independently under an NYU-appointed board of directors.
Polytechnic "would be a separate entity, but a part of NYU," McLaughlin said, "and it would have the advantages that it currently has as a stand-alone university, but it would also have the advantages of being a part of a research university."
Eventually, NYU would adopt the engineering school beneath its banner.
"There's a period in which Polytechnic needs to come to equilibrium with NYU," Hultin said, as various issues are resolved - tuition and financial aid, for example.
He added: "We would want some time to essentially bring the temperature to the same temperature."
Similar talks between NYU and Polytechnic in the 2004-2005 school year fell apart after Polytechnic's faculty voted against a merger. But McLaughlin said that allowing Polytechnic to operate independently addressed some of the issues that stopped a deal three years ago.
"At that time, we envisioned Polytechnic becoming a school at NYU almost immediately," McLaughlin said. "And therefore the issues of this equilibrium - the equalizing of the temps that Jerry referred to - had to be handled in one day, the day that the merger agreement was signed, and that led to certain obstacles that just couldn't be overcome."
Polytechnic has also spent the last three years balancing its operating budget, Hutlin said.
"It doesn't look nearly as much as though you're rescuing a university as much as teaming up with someone who can handle their affairs," he said.
At the senate meeting, Sexton also said that for at least 10 years, any money made from Polytechnic's assets - like its real estate or $140 million endowment - would go to Polytechnic, not NYU.
Yesterday, Hultin said that NYU has been "very generous," and that he thinks it's a good business decision.
"Let us use those assets to build up our strength," he said. "We need to become a much stronger university to match NYU in a number of areas, so this helps us do that."
Hultin and McLaughlin also said the merger could benefit both schools.
"NYU's bringing other assets to the table like their national reputation, ability to recruit and attract students from across the nation that Poly doesn't have - assets that will really allow Poly to thrive in this relationship," Hultin said.
For NYU, McLaughlin said the merger would help the university achieve its academic goals by giving it an engineering program.
"Poly as a small private engineering school. ... It's hard to see how it can achieve its goals in the world of technology and the world of technological education without being attached or a part of a major research university," he said.
"It just doesn't have the breadth that you need," he added, "and its faculty and students feel that absence the same as our faculty and students feel the absence of engineering."
Sergio Hernandez is university news editor. E-mail him at shernandez@nyunews.com.
