New York University

History

New York University was founded by a group of prominent New Yorkers in 1831 — the city's landed class of merchants, bankers, and traders — who felt that New York needed a university designed for young men of the middle class. Gallatin 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."

Related Topics:
1831 - Middle class - Gallatin

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To the school's founders, the classical curriculum offered at American colleges seemed out of touch with the needs of the working classes; a more modern and practical education was needed. Institutions in Paris, Vienna, and London were beginning to experiment with this 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, and physical science, so that students might become merchants, mechanics, manufacturers, architects, and engineers. This new school would also be non-denominational, unlike Columbia College, which had the support of the Anglican Church and offered sons of the wealthy a classical education.

Related Topics:
Paris - Vienna - London - Classics - Religion - Modern languages - Philosophy - History - Political economy - Physical science - Non-denominational - Columbia College - Anglican Church

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The institution, itself, was modeled after the University of London. The school would provide education to all young men at a reasonable cost, would abandon the traditional "classical" curriculum, and would be financed privately through the sale of stock. The establishment of a joint stock company would prevent any religious group or denomination from dominating the affairs and management of the institution.

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University development

On April 21, 1831, the new institution was incorporated as the University of the City of New York by the New York State Legislature, though it had been known as New York University since its inception. The school was officially renamed to New York University in 1896. Notable among NYU's founding fathers is Albert Gallatin, after whom one of the University's schools is named. Gallatin proposed an English-based curriculum that did not require learning Latin or Greek. In the beginning, the University focused primarily on teaching modern languages, engineering, agriculture, and other pragmatic subjects. In a move that was considered bold and innovative at the time, students could enroll for regular course work leading to a diploma, or they could take individual courses according to their own means, desire, and convenience, a philosophy that predated modern-day schools of continuing education. In 1832, NYU held its first classes in rented rooms in four-story Clinton Hall, located near City Hall. In 1835, the School of Law, NYU's first professional school, was founded.

Related Topics:
1831 - 1896 - Albert Gallatin - English - Latin - Greek - 1832 - City Hall - 1835 - School of Law

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Clinton Hall, which sat in the heart of New York's bustling and noisy commercial district, would only be NYU's home for a few years as administrators looked uptown for a more suitable and permanent academic environment. More specifically, they looked towards then-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 of 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.

Related Topics:
Washington Square - 1833

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While NYU has had its Washington Square campus since its inception, the University purchased a campus at University Heights in the Bronx, as a result of overcrowding on the old campus. NYU's move to the Bronx took place in 1894, spearheaded by the efforts of Chancellor Henry Mitchell MacCracken, who is credited with turning the school into a modern university. The University Heights campus was far more spacious than its predecessor, and housed the bulk of the University's operations, along with the undergraduate College of Arts and Science (University College) and School of Engineering. With most of NYU's operations moved to the new campus, the Washington Square campus declined, with only the Law School remaining until the founding of Washington Square College in 1914. It would become the downtown Arts and Sciences division of the university.

Related Topics:
Washington Square - University Heights - The Bronx - 1894 - Henry Mitchell MacCracken - College of Arts and Science - 1914

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During the 1960s and 1970s, feeling the pressures of imminent bankruptcy, then-President of NYU, James McNaughton Hester, negotiated the sale of the University Heights campus to the City University of New York, which took place in 1973. While University Heights alumni fought to keep the campus, some suggest that the sale was a "blessing in disguise" as the Uptown campus was losing money and the management of two campuses was financially impossible for NYU. 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 that 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 School of Engineering was shut down, and most of its students transferred to Polytechnic University in Brooklyn.

Related Topics:
James McNaughton Hester - City University of New York - 1973 - Polytechnic University - Brooklyn

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As at other college campuses nationwide, NYU became a hotbed for activism during much of the 1960s and 1970s. Groups like the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Non-Violence Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organized students to demonstrate throughout New York and to support community voter registration and legal counseling. By 1965, student concerns began to change focus, concentrating on the escalating American involvement in Vietnam. Washington Square Park was the setting for protests on tuition hikes, civil rights, repressive government actions, the Vietnam War, and women's rights.

Related Topics:
1965 - Vietnam

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During the 1990s, NYU became increasingly more and more popular to students from outside of the New York City area. To meet the demand for housing and classroom space, the university began purchasing old office buildings, hotels, and even nightclubs.{{ref|transformation}} In the 1980`s, NYU launched a billion-dollar campaign which was spent almost entirely to update facilities{{ref|campaign1}} under the leadership of President John Brademas.{{ref|campaign2}} In 2003, the university launched a 2.5-billion dollar campaign for funds to be spent especially on faculty and financial aid resources.{{ref|campaign3}}

Related Topics:
1990s - John Brademas

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Cultural life

Washington Square has been a center of the cultural life in New York since the middle of the 19th century. Artists of the Hudson River School, the country's first prominent school of painters, settled around Washington Square at that time. Early tenants of the Old University Building were Samuel F.B. Morse and Daniel Huntington. Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville and Walt Whitman contributed to the artistic climate or at least sought refuge in the surrounding bars.

Related Topics:
19th century - Hudson River School - Washington Square - Samuel F.B. Morse - Daniel Huntington - Edgar Allan Poe - Herman Melville - Walt Whitman

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In the 1870s, sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French lived and worked near the Square. By the 1920s, Washington Square Park area was nationally recognized as a center for artistic and moral rebellion. Notable residents of that time include Eugene O'Neill, John Sloan and Maurice Prendergast. In the 1930s, the abstract expressionists Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning as well as the realists Edward Hopper and Thomas Hart Benton had studios around Washington Square or the Village. From the 1960s on, Square and the Village became one of the centers of the beat and folk generation, when Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan settled there.

Related Topics:
1870s - Augustus Saint-Gaudens - Daniel Chester French - 1920s - Washington Square Park - Eugene O'Neill - John Sloan - Maurice Prendergast - 1930s - Jackson Pollock - Willem de Kooning - Edward Hopper - Thomas Hart Benton - 1960s - Allen Ginsberg - Bob Dylan

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