Department of Teaching and Learning Resolution Regarding NYU 2031
(May 10, 2012)
The faculty of the Department of Teaching and Learning wishes to go on
record as opposed to the NYU 2031 plan as currently formulated, even after
taking into account the proposed 16% reduction in square footage and
the recent mitigation plan for faculty. Among our concerns are the following:
- We are concerned that the plan was developed without meaningful
and sufficient faculty input or adequate transparency regarding its long
term impact on the university's academic mission, departments, programs,
or finances.
-
We are concerned that the plan is based on an unexamined assumption that
grown, specifically groth in the university's physical space in Washington
Square. is a good strategy or an effective and efficient direction, without
time for sufficient faculty discussion of very different images of
the future NYU.
-
We are concerned that it will impede in the foreseeable future NYU's ability
to recruit new faculty and create a prolonged assault on the living and
work environments of current faculty and students.
-
We are concerned that the declared rationale (NYU students need more space)
locks the university into a specific financial model and does not present
sufficient grounds for launching a costly building campaign in a time
of chronic economic uncertainty when the university needs to be
especially nimble.
-
We are concerned that NYU students --- already among the most indebted
in the nation --- will almost certainly bear the burden of footing the
expansion bill in the form of increased tuition and other fees.
-
We are concerned that the execution of the 2031 plan will result in an
irreparable rift with our community neighbors, and that their right to shape
the destiny of Greenwich Village as a residential community should be
respected.