My letter to the Board of Trustees
Mordechai
Subject: Merger-I think it's a bad idea in it's current state
Good morning Polytech Trustees,
I am a 1972 BSEE and 1973 MSEE graduate of the Polytechnic Institute
of Brooklyn. I continued my post graduate studies at the Farmindale
campus in Electrical Engineering and Management. I feel that it is
necessary to contact you since it appears that Polytechnic University
is rushing to conclude a merger with NYU without proper input from the
alumni who have paid millions in tuition, given millions in donations,
in addition to donating many hours of volunteer time over the past 153
years.
I have written to Chairman Matthews and President Hultin and do not
feel that the answers to critical questions and essential documents
have been provided to me or the alumni. I have examined the August
21, 2007 answers to August 16, 2007 questions of the Polytechnic
Alumni Association that has mysteriously moved from the Poly Merger
Central Website http://www.poly.edu/mergercentral and can be found
with great difficulty when you search all over at
http://community.poly.edu/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?&pid=273&srcid=272.
There is no current operating deficit and no deficit projected through
FY 2009. We have a $135 million endowment. The Brooklyn Campus has 7
buildings only partially encumbered by 2007 long-term, low-interest
bonds. The bond approval allows you to raise 10% more than the $125
million that was initially approved. Investments are carried on the
books at $134,370,000 and depreciated real estate and equipment are
carried on the books at $127,562. This is a far cry from the current
market value of these real estate holdings. Where is the Commercial
Appraisal by a MAI-Certified Appraiser for the true market value of
the real estate? Why is the administration scared to produce the
appraisal if it exists? Replies to the Interrogatories of the Alumni
Association exhibit the pittance we would receive from NYU in exchange
for all of our assets.
On March 14, 2005 the Polytechnic Farmingdale Campus was sold to
developer Wilbur Breslin and associates for $12,500,000. It was
flipped less than 3 years later, on August 15, 2007 for $42,856,000.
It seems to me
that Poly got the short end of that deal for failing to develop the
property itself or become a joint-venture partner in the development.
Why didn't we lease it, instead of selling off the best private
engineering school on Long Island? I'd hate to see another really
good real estate deal like that happen again.
When I entered Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1968 as a student
in the Electrical Engineering Department, it was one of the top 10
schools in the USA for Electrical Engineering. The Polytechnic Press,
under the guidance of Mr. Jerome Fox, may he rest in peace, the
Director of the Research Office, had already published 18 volumes of
the Microwave Research Institute Symposia Series on state-of-the-art
topics that included: opto-electronics, networks, electrodynamics,
fluids, and plasmas. Poly was doing research on CO2 lasers for the
military. These Symposia and its Proceedings attracted scientists and
engineers (from organizations like Perdue, General Electric, MIT, IBM,
Hughes Aircraft) from all over the world (University of Manchester,
United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, and Russia during the cold
war) at an annual meeting that was funded by the Air Force Office of
Scientific Research. Poly's Chemical Monograph Series was famous for
state-of-the art publications in that discipline.
By the time I graduated in 1973 with my MSEE, the University,
recognizing the explosion of the computer age, published additional
books on: Computer Processing in Communications, Computers and
Automata, Computer Communication Networks and Teletraffic, Computer
Software Engineering, and Optical and Acoustical Microelectronics.
These were all based on the expertise and international recognition of
the Poly faculty in the Microwave Research Institute and Computer
Science Department, its laboratories, the research facilities in
Farmingdale and Brooklyn, in addition to numerous Polytechnic Alumni
who supported and assisted. The classrooms were filled with students
eager to learn from Professors equally eager to teach at a world-
famous University. The University was on the cutting edge of the
hardware and software explosion in the computer industry. The
Research Office was deriving income from the patents of the PhD
candidates and faculty while large research grants and Base Contract
funding were brought in from the Government and Industry.
I am shocked and dismayed to see the current state of affairs of my
alma mater. Poly has been degraded to a Tier III school. Its
engineering students are struggling to do the math. How is it
possible to graduate as an engineer if you don't understand calculus
and advanced mathematics? Why are the admission standards so low?
Poly is not a humanities or political science school. If it needs
this curriculum it should buy it, not get absorbed by one. Why does
the Strategic Plan have the goal of only achieving Tier II status?
Are we seizing defeat from the historical jaws of victory?
Poly has the assets. They are just grossly undervalued. The acres of
prime downtown Brooklyn property and air rights are worth hundreds of
millions of dollars if developed properly. What is the great
secrecy? Why is Vice President Duncan holding on to the essential
data requested in my e-mails that will to allow the Alumni to do a
proper evaluation of what's going on? Why aren't we leasing our
assets instead of selling them? If Poly lacks the expertise to
properly develop its real estate assets, why can't it hire a competent
construction engineering company to submit proposals under public
bidding? Why can't we do a joint venture with a major developer to
develop the air rights of the Brooklyn campus? Are we scared to get a
variance to more fully develop the property? We could live off the
lease income of another Metrotech Complex for 100 years and fund
everything Poly needs into the next century if our real estate assets
were properly developed instead of sold off.
Why is there no transcript of the last Alumni Conference Call? What's
the big secret? How much will it cost to transcribe a 1 hour phone
call? Why were the alumni informed of a new phone number for this
call one day before it happened? Is that adequate notice? Is the
University fearful of a dissenting opinion? Don't we want to examine
everything before we sell off our alma mater?
In my years of experience at Sperry, Litton, and Grumman before
starting my own business, I have seen the results of mergers that
offer little in exchange for many assets. Sperry no longer exists
while Elmer Sperry turns over in his grave. Litton has been absorbed.
Grumman is a hyphen attached to Northrop. Its headquarters building
is now Cablevision. Almost all of its real estate assets have been
sold off. Its employees have been scattered to the engineering
companies that would take them. I made my presentation to the Division
President before he shut down Grumman Data Systems. Grumman later
solved its dilemma by merging with Northrop.
The merger of Poly and NYU is a big real estate win for NYU. There are
many acres of prime Brooklyn property available for a song. NYU puts
up nothing credible and gets all of the very tangible Poly assets. As
students flunk out of engineering because they can't perform under the
curriculum they can get absorbed by the other NYU departments.
That's an instant feeder school for NYU. What is Poly getting in
exchange for this? Just a name and vague promises?
I was there when NYU merged its Engineering School into Polytechnic in
1973. NYU couldn't make it work then. What proof do we have that it
will work now? Poly has managed to survive as an internationally
known engineering school for 153 years. Do we just give it up in
exchange for vague promises and no real hard cash?
Best regards,
Mark H. Schlam BSEE '72, MSEE '73, Postgraduate Studies: Electrical
Engineering and Management