Plans for a takeover of Brooklyn’s Polytechnic University by New York University collided with an eleventh hour attempt to postpone the decisive vote by Poly trustees unconvinced the engineering school was making a wise decision.
Several members of the Polytechnic board sent a memo to their fellow trustees on Jan. 30 urging them to delay their decision until they could review all the terms of the deal that would put the college, based at Metrotech, under the purple banner of NYU.
“We need to ask ourselves: With a 153-year history of independence and self-sustainability, why is Poly’s administration rushing to ‘merge’ with NYU on terms which remain questionable and without reviewing the alternatives Poly has with the entire board?” asked three trustees in the memo, provided to The Brooklyn Paper.
Polytechnic President Jerry Hultin told the New York Times that a case of “pre-vote jitters” afflicted some board members and that he was confident the decision would be made on Thursday, as scheduled.
But a Polytechnic alumnus who opposes the deal told The Brooklyn Paper on Thursday that the vote had been postponed.
