DATE: January 6, 2014
TO: The NYU Community
FROM: President John Sexton and Provost David McLaughlin

This New Year is very special for NYU because we are welcoming engineering back to the University. As many of you know, in 2008 the then-Polytechnic University became affiliated with NYU, with the intent of becoming NYU’s School of Engineering. And beginning January 1, 2014, the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering became the University’s newest school.

Our new School of Engineering makes NYU a stronger institution by re-establishing capabilities in applied science, technology, and engineering that we have not had since the closing of the Heights Campus in the Bronx in the early 1970s; as many of you know, engineering is one of the oldest disciplines to be developed at NYU. There has already been extensive collaboration between our institutions during the past five years of our affiliation, including cooperative research projects among faculty and wider academic opportunities for students. We are confident that the merger will open up many new interdisciplinary opportunities for learning and research.

We look forward to connecting the applied science research in our new School of Engineering to our great strengths in other disciplines, from the social sciences to the humanities to the professions. Bringing engineering back to NYU will also enable us to strengthen our existing science programs at many of our other schools and institutes, including the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, the Medical School, the Dental and Nursing Schools, the Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP), the Global Institute of Public Health, and our degree-granting campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai.

At the same time, the merger reinforces NYU’s presence in Brooklyn, where the School of Engineering serves as a foundation to grow such programs as CUSP, the Media and Games Network (MAGNET), and our incubator sites that we are sure will continue to create exciting new possibilities for scientific development across the University.

We also want to personally thank K.R. Sreenivasan, who as the last president of NYU-Poly capably oversaw the merger and as the Dean of Engineering will now lead all aspects of engineering at NYU, both at the School of Engineering and throughout the University.

The return of engineering is one of many achievements that NYU has accomplished over the last decade, including strengthening the faculty, developing new areas of scholarship, and recruiting extraordinary students from around the world. For us and for NYU, this milestone represents a gratifying way to usher in the New Year. We ask that you welcome our new Engineering community of faculty, students, and staff to our midst, as we look forward to another successful year at NYU.