The Feelings of Brooklyn Poly Before the Merger
According to the Poly Meeting Minutes of March 23rd, 1972, the rumor of Bronx Community College acquiring the University Heights campus created hope in the eyes of the Poly board. They knew that the engineering center would need to relocate or else it would be scrapped entirely. Poly's motivation then seemed to be to "present a package as economical as possible and at the same time provide something for both institutions" (Rowley 2). They cited that they believe engineering will make a comeback precisely because enrollment is dropping. They said," by 1974 the drop in enrollments will have an effect on the labor market, and by 1976 there will be a severe shortage of graduating engineers. There is every reason to believe, however, that the trend will be reversed" (Rowley 2). Board Member Mr. Leistner added that pressure should be placed onto the trustees of NYU and that "President Hester should be brought around to our way of thinking" (Rowley 3). Mr. Spruck, the Vice President of PINY Finance, suggested that although they can be optimistic for the future, they have "an operating deficit of $3,065,000 which cannot be reversed by cost reduction alone." He added that, "current fund surpluses and reserves and unrestricted endowment have been depleted in previous years of deficit operations" (Rowley 5, 23 March 1972). Together, these statements make it clear that if Poly did not get new streams of income, the school would be at risk of permanent closure.
Fast forward 2 months, the Poly Meeting Minutes of June 1st, 1972 had shown that meetings between Poly and NYU had begun, but were initially unsuccessful. NYU had denied Poly access to information "pertinent to discussions" (Rowley, 2, 1 June 1972). An offer was made to reimburse NYU for undergraduates who transfer to Poly, but this was met with little enthusiasm. The board agreed that they wanted to make some kind of goodwill gesture towards NYU if there was a merger by changing the name of their institute to give the appearance of "two partners joining forces" rather than the demise of one.
Moreover, some of the most prominent NYU engineering professors had threatened not to be a part of the merger unless the joint institute idea was specifically included in the merger document. According to the November 1972 Student Newspaper the Polytechnic Reporter, " “A large number of Poly professors had stated their opposition to the joint institute concept, claiming that it would drain Poly of some of its best researchers and would give NYU a chance to drown out Poly in the research field" (Sarbin, 1, 30 November 1972).
Across the student newspapers through 1972-1973, there was a strong sense of low-morality throughout the papers. Almost every edition of the newspaper featured a headline related to the merger talks and segments about whether particular departments or activities would stay alive. Nonetheless, negotiation talks between the two schools began in early 1973 after being prompted by the state to merge. Each school was represented by four faculty members, two trustees, and one attorney. Amongst the many ambiguous areas that would need to be resolved when the two schools would merge were a few that particularly sparked controversy amongst faculty and students. For instance, the schools would need to decide how many tenured and non-tenured faculty from each school will join the new institution. Another important matter throughout the matter was the role that state funding would play in the merger. Although NYU was going to provide much of the financial support throughout the merger, they were not in the best financial shape themselves and so the merger was dependent on state funding to assure its success. Most importantly, the merger was centered around the guarantees that NYU would make to not re-enter the engineering space and steal potential students away from the new institution. As an example, aerospace professor Antonio Ferri who previously left Brooklyn Poly joined NYU before merger talks and decided to remain at NYU rather than join the new institution. What role would he be able to play at NYU and would him and similar faculty be able to compete with the new school for students?