NYU, Brooklyn Polytechnic Merger Talks To Resume

Talks between New York University and Brooklyn's Polytechnic University over a possible merger will resume after a three year interval, the universities' presidents announced yesterday. The president of NYU, John Sexton, said the possible merger would enhance the university's efforts to enhance its science and research curriculum. "As NYU has become stronger and stronger in science in the last five years, and more and more committed to it, the absence of engineering is a significant absence," Mr. Sexton told The New York Sun.

The Polytechnic University, known as Brooklyn Poly, recently launched a strategic plan to expand entrepreneurial and innovative opportunities for its student body, comprised largely of students who are the first in their families to attend college, its president, Jerry Hultin said. The university's plan is constrained by its size, however, he added.

"As you begin to feel the power of innovation tied to engineering, you begin to feel the limits of being small," Mr. Hultin told the Sun. "As soon as NYU said, ‘We're interested in talking,' I could begin to see how far this could really go. This became a way to advance Poly's role in New York. This expands our limits significantly."

Miscommunications about the working relationship and balance between the schools prompted the initial talks to fall through in 2004, but conversations continued among faculty until they reached the universities' provosts, Messrs. Sexton and Hultin first began talking earlier this summer, and late last week, trustees of both schools agreed to restart the talks, which will be open to discussions within the university communities, spokesmen from both universities said.

Concerns surrounding the merger included moving Poly from Brooklyn and shrinking the institution, claims that Mr. Sexton insisted would not happen.