Annual Report: A Year of Historic Progress

The First Annual Report on the Affiliation of Polytechnic Institute of New York University with New York University; July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009 was prepared for the Board of Trustees of New York University by Polytechnic Institute of New York University (October, 2009). Here, we present the Executive Summary of the report which you can also download as a pdf.

Contents

Faculty Development and Research
Student Enrollment and Quality
Opportunities for Students
Curriculum Development
Branding and Marketing
Financial Soundness
Post Closing Covenants
Summary

Executive Summary

July 1, 2008 opened a new chapter for Polytechnic University as it began its path toward becoming a school of New York University. On that date, the two Universities entered into an Affiliation Agreement, creating Polytechnic Institute of NYU (NYU-Poly) and intended to conclude in complete consolidation at a future date. This report is a comprehensive summary of NYU-Poly’s progress in this first year of the affiliation.

We measure NYU-Poly’s progress against the Strategic Plan for Polytechnic which was embraced by both institutions as an appropriate path to the future, Guidelines for Becoming a School of NYU which was prepared by the leadership of the two institutions, and the Post Closing Covenants of the affiliation agreement. Together, these documents set the framework for NYU-Poly to becoming a fully integrated school of NYU.

Based on these yardsticks, in collaboration with our NYU colleagues, NYU-Poly has made significant progress. Areas of particular advancement highlighted in this report include: faculty development and research, student enrollment and quality, new opportunities for students, curriculum development, and financial soundness.  

Faculty Development and Research

Collaboration between the NYU and NYU-Poly faculties has been excellent, leading to joint research and academic ventures which strengthen both institutions and alignment of policies and procedures. Among the many achievements were:

• Initiation of 21 new collaborative research projects seeded by $1.4 million of a $5 million fund to be distributed over 5 years created by NYU. Each project has two principal investigators: 1 from NYU and 1 from NYU-Poly. The awards projects encompass investigators from every NYU-Poly department and nearly every school of NYU.
• Co-hosting of two major conferences, showcasing collaborative initiatives:
  • Image and Imagination: The Science, Engineering and Esthetics of Imaging held on October 24, 2009.
  • Malignant Spaghetti: A Symposium on Wireless Technologies in Hospital Health Care held on November 14, 2008.
• Design of new jointly offered academic programs, several of which have been approved by the New York State Education Department and have already been introduced into the curriculum.
• Creation of a multi-year plan to hire approximately 23 new tenure/tenure-track faculty at NYU-Poly (approximately 25% increase in faculty size). The first three of these joined NYU-Poly for the fall 2009 semester. We anticipate recruiting 10 new faculty members in 2010 and seven in 2011. In this effort, we will pay particular attention to opportunities for joint hires with NYU and NYUAD. All of the new faculty appointments have been reviewed and approved by the NYU Provost.
• Planning has been initiated for $25 million of facilities upgrade to modernize classrooms, expand research laboratories, provide an innovative environment for student and faculty collaboration, and reduce the backlog of deferred maintenance. Jonathan Rose Companies has been retained to assist in the design and execution of this effort.
• Consideration of cross appointments of faculty of the two institutions. Joint appointment of one NYU-Poly faculty member has been formalized; two others are under formal review, still others are being discussed.
• Revision of NYU-Poly’s tenure and promotion policies to assure alignment with those of NYU. These revisions have been formally approved by the NYU-Poly faculty and are already being followed.

Student Enrollment and Quality

The value of the NYU brand on recruitment and quality of NYU-Poly’s students has contributed to significant increases in the numbers, geographic diversity, and quality of students coming to Polytechnic. Through the support and advice of the NYU student enrollment services, NYU-Poly has re-evaluated many of its strategies while strengthening others. Among the achievements:

• SAT scores improved. NYU-Poly’s initiatives for the undergraduate class entering in 2007 had raised SAT scores from 1175 to 1215. In this first year of our affiliation, they continue to rise; now at 1275 for the class entering in the fall of 2009.
• GRE scores for graduate students are high. The average GRE score for the graduate students beginning their advanced training in the fall of 2009 is 763, competitive with scores of students at the most highly ranked graduate schools.
• Geographic diversity widened. Historically, NYU-Poly undergraduates have been primarily commuting students from New York City and parts of Long Island. Through joint recruitment efforts with NYU, NYU-Poly’s class recruited during the first year of the affiliation and entering in fall 2009 now includes 36% international students and students from across the nation with 64% from its traditional recruiting area.
• Numbers of both undergraduate and graduate students enrolling has increased.
  • Entering undergraduates increased from 424 in fall 2008 to 566 in fall 2009, a 33.5% increase.
  • Total enrolled undergraduates increased from 1,542 in fall 2008 to 1,732 in fall 2009, a 12.3% increase.
  • Total graduate student enrollment increased from 2,442 in fall 2008 to 2,782 in fall 2009, a 13.9% increase.
• NYU-Poly has successfully recruited one of NYU’s leading directors of enrollment services. 

Opportunities for Students

The affiliation with NYU has provided new opportunities for students of both institutions. Among these are:

• Opportunities for students to earn joint NYU and NYU-Poly degrees through a new 3-2 program. In this program, requiring 5 years of coursework, students earn a bachelor’s degree in one of a number of engineering disciplines from NYU-Poly while simultaneously earning  a bachelor’s degree in one of a number of options in science and mathematics from NYU.
• Participation in courses at the affiliated institution. In the first year of the affiliation, approximately 50 graduate and undergraduate students capitalized on this opportunity, with approximately half of the students traveling from NYU-Poly to take courses at NYU and the other half of the students traveling from NYU to take courses at NYU-Poly. The challenge in this arrangement was met by incredible collaboration of functional units to work out mechanisms of scheduling, record keeping, appropriate recording and transfer of credits, etc.
• Collaborative arrangements between NYU and NYU-Poly to provide counseling and specialized psychological services, expanding services available to NYU-Poly students. Among these was a well utilized flu immunization program offered to NYU-Poly students by NYU’s student health services.
• Open access to affiliated campuses. Students at each institution now simply swipe their badges at either institutions for access to classrooms, libraries, student centers, and similar facilities.
• Expanded opportunities for study-abroad. NYU has opened its study-abroad programs, now encompassing 18 locations throughout the world, to NYU-Poly students on the same terms as those that apply to NYU students.

Curriculum Development

Involving NYU-Poly in planning and developing NYU’s new campus in Abu Dhabi created a number of exciting opportunities. Expanding on the i²e (invention, innovation, entrepreneurship) intrinsic in NYU-Poly’s curriculum, NYU-Poly worked closely with NYU colleagues to explore new ways to integrate basic sciences (physics, math, biology) into the engineering curriculum and expand engineering student’s exposure to courses in humanities, social sciences, and other liberal arts. The new program permitted NYU-Poly to design innovative courses that can be tested in NYUAD’s small classes and then integrated into NYU-Poly’s larger scale. These activities resulted, in part, in the new Dean of Engineering at NYUAD being selected from NYU-Poly’s faculty. 

New engineering faculty, recruited for NYUAD, spend their first year in New York, familiarizing themselves with NYU and NYU-Poly and establishing collaborations. In this first year of the affiliation, we have two NYUAD faculty members on campus. Both bring new insight into and constructive criticism about our existing programs.

Branding and Marketing

Subject to NYU approval, which during the first year of affiliation has been extraordinarily constructive and generous, NYU-Poly has developed logos, a new seal, banners, publications, diplomas and certificates, a style guide and promotional materials which draw upon the strength of the NYU brand while preserving a unique identity for NYU-Poly. There are strong indicators that this has helped improve enrollment both in numbers and quality, enabled an extended geographic reach and assisted in improving our national rankings.

Financial Soundness

The improved financial health of Polytechnic has been driven, in large part, by dramatic enrollment growth, particularly at the graduate level. This has enabled us to not only weather the global economic recession of the past two years, but additionally to generate a small operating budget surplus in our fiscal year ended June 30, 2009. Also, we are embarking on a $75 million comprehensive campaign to provide growth revenues. In addition to this campaign we are engaged in joint fund raising with NYU to secure an additional $50 million from separate sources.

The impact of these successes and initiatives is to allow us to project growing budget surpluses in the coming years.

Post Closing Covenants

The Affiliation Agreement contains a number of post closing covenants which provide a framework within which NYU-Poly can operate and flourish while we concentrate on execution of our strategic plan and moving towards consolidation. Chief among these are:

• Polytechnic’s mission and goals summarized in its Strategic Plan are to continue.
• Polytechnic’s principal location will remain in Brooklyn.
• Polytechnic will be preserved in the name of the school.
• Endowment and other gifts for support of Polytechnic will continue to support Polytechnic upon consolidation as a school of New York University.
• NYU-Poly’s right of first refusal to develop engineering programs that are new to NYU.
• A loan from NYU to NYU-Poly for faculty recruiting and facility improvement.
• A commitment by NYU and Polytechnic to engage in $50 million joint fund raising, over 5 years, from sources heretofore not likely to be accessible to Polytechnic.
• Continuation of tenure for tenured faculty.
• NYU’s right, as sole owner, to appoint the Board of Polytechnic with the exception that at least one of three explicitly identified trustees who approved the Affiliation Agreement will serve for ten years after closing (July1, 2008).

Summary

Through remarkable collegiality across faculty, student, functional, administrative units, NYU and NYU-Poly have made significant strides. Both have reaped benefits. NYU-Poly is an important addition to NYU’s breadth of expertise, particularly in today’s economy where world-wide attention is focusing on the role of innovation and technology in redefining and reinvigorating economies.  NYU creates an exciting and unprecedented opportunity for growth, excellence, and distinctiveness for NYU-Poly. In all areas of importance in meeting the goals of NYU-Poly’s strategic plan and progress toward satisfying the criteria for becoming a school have met or exceeded early expectations.

• Effective collaboration and collegiality between the faculties and staff of the two institutions in coordinating programs and administration.
• Growth in undergraduate enrollment, while simultaneously improving SAT scores by 100 points. 
• Robust growth in graduate student enrollment.
• NYU and NYU-Poly faculty collaborations on important research fronts and in curriculum development.
• New opportunities for students from both NYU and NYU-Poly.
• Improved financial base of the Institute, led by substantial enrollment growth and resulting in a budget surplus.