Engineering Transformed and Story of Renaming
Timeline: (According to the website "Our History: Roots of Greatness", NYU Tandon)
- In 2008, an affiliation is forged between Polytechnic and New York University, creating the Polytechnic Institute of NYU and paving the way for an official merger.
- In 2014, merger with New York University becomes official — name changes to the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering.
- In 2015, Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon generously donate $100 million and the school is renamed NYU Tandon School of Engineering in recognition of the Tandons’ generosity and their belief in the school’s mission and promise.
As seen in the timeline, Polytechnic Institute underwent the process of merging into NYU from the years 2012-2014, with NYU officially becoming NYU Polytechnic Institute on January 1st, 2014(“New York University Tandon School of Engineering.”, Wikipedia). Less than a year later in 2015, the NYU Polytechnic Institute would become the recipient of a substantial $100 million gift designated for mostly faculty hiring and academic programs ("Don’t Look a $100 Million Gift Horse in the Mouth", Collison). This gift made waves in the New York Philanthropic community, as the gift's size landed it on Chronicle's top 50 list in Philanthropy, but the couple was largely unknown in the community. That couple was no other than the Tandons, who in exchange, got the school renamed to the Tandon School of Engineering - the school many university students (like us) attend today. But with so many decades of history between NYU and Polytechnic Institute, and much backlash from the community (as seen by the change.org petition, which boasts over 1,400 signatures), why did NYU decide to follow through with this?
