jerseyshorejohnny
Well-known member
NYU Polytechnic Gets $100 Million Donation
By MIKE VILENSKY / Wall Street Journal
Oct. 5, 2015 12:00 a.m. ET
NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering in Brooklyn is getting a $100 million contribution and will change its name Monday in recognition of the large gift.
Chandrika Tandon, a musician and New York University trustee, and her husband, Ranjan Tandon, have agreed to make the donation. The school will be renamed the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, NYU is planning to announce Monday.
“Engineering is not just making machines move,” Ms. Tandon said in an interview. “Technology permeates every discipline, and that’s the future of solving the world’s problems.”
NYU President John Sexton said the money would go toward faculty, financial aid and new programming.
The school originally opened in 1854 as the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute, an engineering school in the borough’s downtown area. It became the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1889.
Graduates include former Yahoo Chairman Alfred Amoroso, venture capitalist Eugene Kleiner and biochemist Jasper Herbert Kane.
In 2014, after a merger, the institute became the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering, one of NYU’s 19 institutes. The engineering school now has approximately 5,000 students and an endowment of about $115 million.
Ms. Tandon, a 61-year old Manhattan resident, went to business school in India and became a partner at the corporate consulting firm McKinsey & Co. before founding an investment-advisory firm in 1992. Her husband, Mr. Tandon, is an engineer by training who founded a hedge fund in 1990.
Ms. Tandon has also embarked on a music career. Her self-produced album, “Soul Call,” was nominated for a Grammy in 2011, and she said three more albums are on the way.
Ms. Tandon joined NYU’s board in 2010 after serving as an executive-in-residence.
On the 64-person board, which includes many boldface names from business, media and entertainment, “getting the best resources and the best scholarships are things we think about all the time,” said Ms. Tandon. The donors have challenged the school to raise a separate $50 million for scholarships, and the administration said it would oblige.
The NYU Tandon School of Engineering will join other schools at the university that are named for donors. NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development is named for Michael and Judy Steinhardt, who donated $10 million to the institute. The university’s Tisch School of the Arts is named for members of the Tisch family, who also donated.
The engineering school marks one of the last big initiatives under Mr. Sexton’s watch. In January, he will be succeeded by Andrew Hamilton, currently vice chancellor of Oxford University in England. NYU has opened new campuses far from its home in Greenwich Village and raised its tuition.
In his last months on the job, “I just want us to continue on the trajectory we’re on,” Mr. Sexton said.
Write to Mike Vilensky at mike.vilensky@dowjones.com
By MIKE VILENSKY / Wall Street Journal
Oct. 5, 2015 12:00 a.m. ET
NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering in Brooklyn is getting a $100 million contribution and will change its name Monday in recognition of the large gift.
Chandrika Tandon, a musician and New York University trustee, and her husband, Ranjan Tandon, have agreed to make the donation. The school will be renamed the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, NYU is planning to announce Monday.
“Engineering is not just making machines move,” Ms. Tandon said in an interview. “Technology permeates every discipline, and that’s the future of solving the world’s problems.”
NYU President John Sexton said the money would go toward faculty, financial aid and new programming.
The school originally opened in 1854 as the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute, an engineering school in the borough’s downtown area. It became the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1889.
Graduates include former Yahoo Chairman Alfred Amoroso, venture capitalist Eugene Kleiner and biochemist Jasper Herbert Kane.
In 2014, after a merger, the institute became the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering, one of NYU’s 19 institutes. The engineering school now has approximately 5,000 students and an endowment of about $115 million.
Ms. Tandon, a 61-year old Manhattan resident, went to business school in India and became a partner at the corporate consulting firm McKinsey & Co. before founding an investment-advisory firm in 1992. Her husband, Mr. Tandon, is an engineer by training who founded a hedge fund in 1990.
Ms. Tandon has also embarked on a music career. Her self-produced album, “Soul Call,” was nominated for a Grammy in 2011, and she said three more albums are on the way.
Ms. Tandon joined NYU’s board in 2010 after serving as an executive-in-residence.
On the 64-person board, which includes many boldface names from business, media and entertainment, “getting the best resources and the best scholarships are things we think about all the time,” said Ms. Tandon. The donors have challenged the school to raise a separate $50 million for scholarships, and the administration said it would oblige.
The NYU Tandon School of Engineering will join other schools at the university that are named for donors. NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development is named for Michael and Judy Steinhardt, who donated $10 million to the institute. The university’s Tisch School of the Arts is named for members of the Tisch family, who also donated.
The engineering school marks one of the last big initiatives under Mr. Sexton’s watch. In January, he will be succeeded by Andrew Hamilton, currently vice chancellor of Oxford University in England. NYU has opened new campuses far from its home in Greenwich Village and raised its tuition.
In his last months on the job, “I just want us to continue on the trajectory we’re on,” Mr. Sexton said.
Write to Mike Vilensky at mike.vilensky@dowjones.com