Behind the Scenes Letters - Bugliarello Fights to Save Poly
Despite the financial struggles of Polytechnic University in the early 2000s, there was still an impressively high level of faith by some at the school, especially by some of those in upper administration and the board of trustees. George Bugliarello, former president of Polytechnic University at that time, especially seemed to have the utmost faith that the university could survive on its own. In a letter from Bugliarello written in December of 2004 to Richard W. Foxen, a Polytechnic alumni and board of trustees member, includes an entire short essay titled How Poly Can Survive by Itself. There is an acknowledgement that “Poly is severely ill and, as is the case in all severe illnesses, it needs to take strong medicine (Bugliarello, 2004). There isn’t a total ignorance to the dire situation, but levels of hope varied among those involved.
Bugliarello has a strong belief that in fact the biggest issue that put Polytechnic in this position is its current leadership (apparently himself not included). He believes that they do not see a way in which the school can survive without a crutch from NYU. The first task with new leaders in his opinion is to fundraise and rally alumni, friends, faculty and staff, and the community to “imbue them with a vision of the future of Polytechnic and with the confidence that that future can be achieved” (Bugliarello, 2004).
Behind the scenes, Bugliarello was also working tirelessly to convince current administration, faculty, and staff that there was simply no reason to give up on his vision of Polytechnic University. Many letters were sent out over the months of 2004, all echoing a similar message. In November of 2004, Bugliarello wrote to Dr. Linda K. Jacobs, board of trustees member and daughter of alum and Professor Joseph J. Jacobs, who had recently passed. (NYU Tandon School of Engineering, 2015). It is an interesting appeal to Jacobs, who had a unique investment in Polytechnic in the sense of her family members. He poses that Polytechnic is a cause dear to her, just as it was to her father. It is arguable whether taking advantage of her fathers passing to voice her emotions is a dirty tactic, but nonetheless, that is what he did.
In the letter, he attempts to persuade Linda Jacobs to make her voice heard to the rest of the board of trustees in her support of Polytechnic remaining its own entity. He proclaims that a short-range financial difficulty should not become the death of a historied 150 year old institution. In addition, with the size of NYU, Polytechnic will simply become submerged and as in the past, NYU had no qualms ditching its own engineering school. He also points out that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was in a similar situation several years back and was almost consumed by Harvard. However, at the last second a group of alumni rebelled and stopped the merger, and the subsequent success of MIT can be a model for what Polytechnic could be in the coming years without its own merger (Bugliarello, 2004, Bugliarello to Linda Jacobs, November 12, 2004).
This was not the first time Bugliarello had written to the Jacobs family either. Just one month prior in October of 2004, Bugliarello wrote to Linda Jacob’s father, Joseph Jacobs, before his passing, even mentioning a quick recovery from illness in the beginning of the letter. He echoes what he later wrote in his short essay, How Poly Can Survive by Itself, blaming mismanagement of the large donations given to the school just 10 years before. As mentioned on the “Early 2000s Financial Trouble at Polytechnic” page of this website, a large sum of money breaking $100 million had been given to the school, but mismanagement, among other issues, let the school falter even with the money. He says to Joseph Jacobs that “because of the dreadful mismanagement and the inability or unwillingness of the board to deal with the situation and to take obvious actions, Polytechnic is finished” (Bugliarello, 2004, Bugliarello to Joseph Jacobs, October 8, 2004). He also mentions the same thing he did to Linda Jacobs about the MIT-Harvard proposed merger. His goal is the same: to convince Joseph Jacobs to voice opinions against a merger to the board of trustees, catering to his emotions of loyalty to the school based on his professor status (Bugliarello, 2004, Bugliarello to Joseph Jacobs, October 8, 2004).
These letters present the sense of loyalty to Polytechnic that some had. Bugliarello especially, with his past presidency, was incredibly upset with the idea that anyone would consider an NYU merger rather than a restructuring of the school. While it is hard to know if the Jacobs ever truly voiced their opinions to the board and how those opinions were taken, there did not seem to be enough support to save Polytechnic as it stood. A split among old and new administrations as to how important Polytechnic was as its own institution seemed to grow deep, with the newer administration seeming to believe the only way out was with a merger (Foxen, 2005).