Polytechnic U and NYU: A Merger on Whose Terms?

Scott Jaschik dives into this likely merger, its opposition, and some of its consequences:

The board of Polytechnic University is expected on Thursday to vote to approve a plan for the institution to merge into New York University — a move that supporters say will give Poly access to the considerable resources of NYU and could give NYU a much desired base in engineering.

Beyond that surface logic for a deal, however, is an intense controversy that has led to unusually strong charges being leveled by some Polytechnic trustees against the university administration and board leaders. The dissident trustees have circulated a memo to the full board, along with many supporting documents, asking that the vote be delayed because of significant flaws in both the proposed agreement and the process by which it was reviewed.