Quietly, Poly consolidation progresses

In late August sophomore and NYU volleyball player Rachel Sawyer had an admittedly odd moment at the Coles Sports Center.

She was getting ready to play in the first game of the volleyball Labor Day Invitational when she realized that she was playing both for and against NYU. The first game of the day pitted the NYU Violets against the Polytechnic Institute of NYU’s Fighting Blue Jays.

“It was really weird playing Polytech knowing that we were essentially playing ourselves, in a way,” Sawyer said.

When students returned to NYU in September, a major rebranding effort had draped Polytechnic in purple and labeled it with NYU’s name. But a less visible sign of the speed at which the merger is moving is hidden in the amendment to Polytechnic’s Educational Charter that made the deal official. Throughout the merger negotiations, the timeline most administrators gave for the merger to be completed was most often a decade. But now the charter says — and administrators confirm — that Polytechnic may be consolidated into NYU in as quickly as three to five years.

The two schools are currently affiliated. NYU owns Polytechnic, and though NYU supervises the operations of its newest institute, Polytechnic’s administration will continue to run the school. NYU will appoint trustees to Polytechnic’s board until the schools consolidate and Polytechnic becomes NYU’s engineering school, at which point the board will be appointed in an advisory capacity.

Research collaboration has already begun, and cross-registration is set to start in the spring semester. Closer to home, NYU will acquire a long-term lease on a 400,000-square-foot Financial District building at 55 Broad St. The building is currently used for Polytechnic graduate students.

The agreement has been secured by an approximately $50 million dollar loan from NYU to Polytechnic.

NYU spokesman John Beckman, along with NYU chairman of the Board of Trustees Martin Lipton and Polytech President Jerry Hultin, said Polytechnic plans to reimburse NYU for the loan, even if the schools merge.

“Whether or not Poly ultimately becomes a school of NYU — and we expect and hope that it will — the principal and the interest on the loan will be fully repaid to NYU,” Lipton said.

While Polytechnic will pay interest on the loan, it is not required to repay the principal until consolidation occurs unless it sells its air rights — in financial terms, likely Polytechnic’s most valuable asset.

In past years, Polytechnic has admitted to having financial difficulty; the charter amendment, while saying Polytechnic was fiscally healthy, also notes that the engineering school’s long-term debt increased by $20 million.

Hultin said money was not a driving factor in the negotiations between NYU and Polytechnic and that it will not affect the speed at which the merger proceeds.

NYU Board of Trustees Vice Chairman William Berkley said of the loan, “This is merely a way to say, ‘Look we’re going to move together.’ ”


Robyn Baitcher is staff writer. E-mail her at rbaitcher@nyunews.com.