NYU to open DoBro engineering school in January

New York University, which has received a stormy response from neighborhood residents over the Manhattan expansion plans in Greenwich Village, is all set to expand into Downtown Brooklyn. The university will open the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering at 6 Metrotech Center next month.

Downtown Brooklyn City Council member Stephen Levin said that the engineering school – the result of an alliance between NYU and Polytechnic University – has the ability to transform the neighborhood into an innovation hub akin to Manhattan’s Silicon Alley and California’s Silicon Valley.

“We are thrilled to have the school here,” Levin told the Wall Street Journal.

NYU president John Sexton, whose tenure has been marked by rapid expansion and steep tuition hikes, told the Journal that Brooklyn was “sizzling.” The new school, he added, would give NYU the technical firepower to go along with its strengths in the liberal arts.

NYU has faced strong opposition to its so-called NYU 2031 expansion plan, a push to expand its presence by nearly 2 million square feet. The university is being sued over their alleged misdeeds in the city approval process for the expansion.  [WSJ] – Hiten Samtani