History of New York University

The history of New York University begins in the early nineteenth century. A group of prominent New York City residents – the city's landed class of merchants, bankers, and traders – established NYU on April 18, 1831. These New Yorkers believed the city needed a university designed for young men who would be admitted based on merit, not birthright or social class. Albert Gallatin, Secretary of Treasury under Thomas Jefferson, described his motivation in a letter to a friend: "It appeared to me impossible to preserve our democratic institutions and the right of universal suffrage unless we could raise the standard of general education and the mind of the laboring classes nearer to a level with those born under more favorable circumstances." To the school's founders, the classical curriculum offered at American colonial colleges needed to be combined with a more modern and practical education. Educators in Paris, Vienna, and London were beginning to consider a new form of higher learning, where students began to focus not only on the classics and religion, but also modern languages, philosophy, history, political economy, mathematics, and physical science; so students might become merchants, bankers, lawyers, physicians, architects, and engineers. This new school would also be non-denominational, unlike many American colonial colleges, which at the time offered classical educations centered on theology. Such innovations would result in the modern university that NYU would pioneer.

NYU would make available education to all qualified young men at a reasonable cost, would abandon the exclusive use of "classical" curriculum, and would be financed privately through the sale of stock. Establishing a joint stock company was aimed to prevent any religious group or denomination from dominating the affairs and management of the new institution. Although the university was designed to be open to all men regardless of background, NYU's early classes -- due to contemporaneous social and economic patterns -- were composed almost only of the sons of wealthy, white, Protestant New York families.

University development

On April 21, 1831, the new institution received its charter and was incorporated as the University of the City of New York by the New York State Legislature; older documents often refer to it by that name. In 1832, NYU held its first classes in rented rooms in four-story Clinton Hall, situated near City Hall. In 1835, the School of Law, NYU's first professional school, was established. The university has been popularly known as New York University since its beginning. The school was officially renamed New York University in 1896.

Clinton Hall, situated in New York’s bustling and noisy commercial district, would only be NYU's home for a few years, as administrators searched uptown for a more suitable and permanent academic environment. For example, the administrators looked towards bucolic Greenwich Village. Land was purchased on the east side of Washington Square and, in 1833, construction began on the "Old University Building," a grand, Gothic structure that would house all the school's functions. Two years later, the university community took possession of its permanent home, thus beginning NYU's enduring (and sometimes tumultuous) relationship with the Village.

Whereas NYU had its Washington Square campus since its beginning, the university purchased a campus at University Heights in the Bronx because of overcrowding on the old campus and the desire to follow New York City’s development further uptown. NYU's move to the Bronx occurred in 1894, spearheaded by the efforts of Chancellor Henry Mitchell MacCracken. The University Heights campus was far more spacious than its predecessor was, and housed most of the university’s operations and the undergraduate NYU College of Arts and Science and School of Engineering. With most of NYU’s operations transferred to the new campus, the Washington Square campus declined, with only the law school remaining until the establishment of Washington Square College in 1914. This college would become the downtown Arts and Sciences division of NYU. In 1900, NYU founded its undergraduate School of Commerce, Accounts, and Finance, which ultimately became the Leonard N. Stern School of Business, providing professional training in business for young people. NYU's Long Island extension started in 1935 and later became Hofstra University. [cite web |url=http://www.bartleby.com/65/ho/HofstraU.html |title=Hofstra University. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07 |accessdate=2008-02-14 |format=HTML ]

NYU offered women access to graduate studies in 1888, teaching and law in 1890, and undergraduate studies at Washington Square College (then a satellite campus). Important academic discussions took place at NYU around this time, as the American Chemical Society was founded here on April 6, 1876. When women were first admitted to the University Heights College (which would later become the College of Arts and Science) in 1959, many alumni and male undergraduates were unhappy. The student newspaper remarked on the instituting of coeducation by applying a quote from Mark Twain offered on another subject, “the position undignified, the pleasure momentary, and the consequences damnable”.One early attempt to increase the egalitarian nature of the university failed: In 1871, an attempt to offer free tuition to students who were academically qualified backfired. The wealthy, Protestant alumni viewed a free university as a charity institution inappropriate for their own children to attend; thus, the attempt of implementing free tuition was abandoned.

Beginning in the 1920's, NYU attracted the most talented Jewish students, as they were turned away from Ivy League institutions due to “Jewish quotas” that especially targeted first generation Jewish (and other) immigrants living in New York City for exclusion. Despite NYU’s experimentation with these quotas, a good portion of its students was Jewish during this period. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, financial crisis gripped the New York City government and many of the city’s institutions, including NYU. Feeling the pressures of imminent bankruptcy, the then president of NYU, James McNaughton Hester, negotiated the sale of the University Heights campus to the City University of New York, which occurred in 1973. Although University Heights alumni battled to keep the campus, many people suggest the sale was a "blessing in disguise" because the uptown campus was losing money; NYU managing two campuses was impracticable. Chancellor Sidney Borowitz said on the matter, "There was so much pressure from uptown alumni to preserve the Heights that it was only under the threat of possible financial ruin the campus could be sold. With two campuses, NYU could never have prospered as it has." After the sale of the University Heights campus, University College merged with Washington Square College. NYU's most significant loss from this challenging period was the School of Engineering that officially merged with Polytechnic University in Brooklyn. [cite web |url=http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/arch/test/175/facts8.htm |title=New York University > Timeline of University History |accessdate=2008-02-14 |format=HTML |publisher=New York University ]

Beginning in the mid-1980's, NYU became increasingly popular to students from outside New York City. To meet the demand for housing and classroom space, the university began purchasing old office buildings, hotels, and even nightclubs. [William H. Honan. "A Decade and a Billion Dollars Put New York U. in First Rank". "New York Times". March 20, 1995. http://www.nyu.edu/financial.aid/nytimes1995-03-20.pdf] In the 1980's, under the leadership of President John Brademas, [Laura Turegano. "Fundraising Beyond U.S. Borders - NYU: A Success Story". "onPhilantrophy", December 13, 2001. http://www.onphilanthropy.com/prof_inter/pi2001-12-13a.html] NYU launched a billion-dollar campaign that was spent almost entirely on updating facilities. [Kenneth R. Weiss. "NYU Earns Respect". "Los Angeles Times". March 22, 2000. http://www.nyu.edu/financial.aid/latimes2000-03-22.pdf] In 2003, under the leadership of current President John Sexton, the university launched a 2.5-billion dollar campaign for funds to be spent especially on faculty and financial aid resources. [http://www.nyu.edu/alumni/newsletter/0105/campaign.html (Dead link as of 02-14-2008)]

NYU is one of the largest landholders in New York City. However, endowment investments have delivered mediocre returns in recent years. [cite web |url=http://www.nyu.edu/alumni/newsletter/0105/campaign.html |title=NYU Endowment|accessdate=2008-02-14 |format=HTML |publisher=GSOC/UAW Local 2110 ]

In 2008 Polytechnic University of Brooklyn, New York has become the part of NYU giving the university an engineering school for the first time since it lost it in 1973 to Polytech. It will be known as the Polytechnic Institute of NYU until the merger is fully completed in following years to once again be called the School of Engineering.

External links

* [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/arch/ NYU Archives]

References