President James McNaughton Hester

On October 25, 1962, James M. Hester was inaugurated as the eleventh president of New York University. During his tenure as president, the University -- along with New York City as a whole -- went through a major financial crisis. In 1972, Hester appointed a task force to come up with ways to reduce expenses without compromising the university’s standards. In July of 1973, after the passage of a special bill by the state legislature, NYU sold the city its University Heights campus for $61.9 million. University college merged with Washington Square College downtown.