The Aftermath

Although there was a surprising amount of cordiality between both sides considering the old rivalry between the two schools, there was a great amount of conflict within each side. At Brooklyn Poly, faculty and students openly criticized President Arthur Grad who ended up resigning before the merger was finished (Thorsen 8). Even in the polytechnic reporter, the writer Howard Sarbrin wrote that "[w]ith all this, President Grad is still here, which we regard as unfortunate" (Sabrin, 2, 7 December 1972). At NYU, the faculty felt betrayed by the sale of the Heights campus and they were convinced that their school would not always act in their best interest.

Following the 1973 merger, PINY decided to select for president Dr. Bugliarello, the former dean of engineering at the University of Illinois - Chicago Circle. They chose to support Dr.Bugliarello with an advisory committee consisting of two members from each of the former faculties. Together they strove to strengthen the board with corporate leaders, build new facilities and invest in faculty development.

In the new era of Brooklyn Poly, the board wanted to spread word of the new school. They were embarrassed that they often were confused with the  New York Institute of Technology and had adopted the nickname "tiny Piny". As such, professor Richard Thorsen was chosen to represent the school on Channel 5's Monday segment of the Science Times for promotional advertising (Thorsen 26). Additionally, they wanted to create a welcoming, safe neighborhood that was attractive to prospective students. As such, Dr. Bugliarello led the development of a downtown Brooklyn area and created plans for the Metropolitan Technology Center (more commonly known as Metrotech). 

Later in 2007, NYU once again approached Brooklyn Poly about a potential merger. Former NYU President John Sexton was so convicted to add an engineering school that he told Brooklyn Poly President Jerry Hultin that if he were not able to merge schools, Sexton would "build one from scratch" (Thorsen 147). Facing consistent financial troubles and an impending difficulty to remain autonomous, the two schools agreed to merge together initially as a separate institution and ultimately as a school under NYU by 2014. Amongst the important details of the merger was that "Poly's current tenured and tenure-track faculty would have their current rights and status continued and maintained through the continuation of Poly as a corporate entity" (Thorsen 150). According to longtime Poly Professor and current finance and risk engineering department chair Barry Blecherman, this detail was critical to the merger of the two schools. Initially when NYU began negotiations with Brooklyn Poly, they sent representatives to meet with all of the poly professors in which they confidently announced that poly professors would have to earn their tenure again. This proposal from NYU was swiftly met with disapproval from Brooklyn Poly staff and the representatives were “boo’d out of the meeting” (Blecherman). After NYU finally agreed to give the staff their NYU, professors at Brooklyn Poly began to entertain the idea much more. While some of the older-faculty members took the merger as their cue to retire, the remaining staff was eager to have the financial stability that they had craved for years.

In 2015 for instance, NYU renamed the school to the Tandon School of Engineering after receiving 100 million dollars from Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon. The school used this money for many renovations as well as the construction of the makerspace which has been able to foster academic development for students and professors alike. Additionally, NYU announced in 2022 that they plan to invest 1 billion dollars into Tandon with the purchase of 3 Metrotech Center and the recruitment of 40 full-time tenure track faculty. Ultimately with the complete absorption of the engineering school into NYU in 2014 and the purchase of various buildings and infrastructure for academic and research development, the school has been able to emerge from the days of consistent financial struggle.