South Asian Leadership Positions and Perspectives on School Name
While looking at the archives with Professor Lindsay Anderberg, she stumbled upon folders from the Dean's Office Records Collection labeled “India” which caught my interest. Although I originally intended this inquiry to focus on student life, I revisited the idea on how “South Asianness” permeates within the administrator level. Jerry Hultin was the President of NYU-Poly between 2007-2010. At this time, Polytechnic University formed an affiliation with New York University, leading to the renaming of the institution as the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (The New York Senate, 2008). Jerry Hultin was featured in an English-language Indian newspaper clipping I found in the India 2007-2008 folder shaking hands with Professor B.D. Pathal of Delhi Technological University. The reason for his visit was to “to have a better understanding of India’s educational requirements and explore opportunities [...] [that have] mutual benefit[s] to both the countries,” (“NYU Poly’s President visits Deltech”, 2008).
I surmise following the Immigration Act of 1990, Poly’s South Asian student population rose so much that the former president wanted to learn how to encourage more cultural exchange between Poly and Indian universities. There was even talk of an NYU-Poly campus in India. Vinoo Urs of Duke University’s India office reached out to Jerry Hultin basically outlining his “best pitch” of NYU building their site in Bangalore. He states that locations are scenic, close drive to city centers, have no pollution, and have housing grounds for students (Jerry Hultin’s Work Emails, 2009). Unfortunately President Hultin, debunked the rumors by responding “NYU is not considering a de nova campus in India at this time,” (Hultin, 2009).
However, during Katepalli Sreenivasan’s Poly presidency from 2013-2018, the university saw many institutional changes–one may say it was South Asian influence. During draft presentations, Professor David Holzman brought up an excellent point that he read in a news article at the time that Tandon is one of the few universities named after a South Asian surname. I decided to do a deeper dive into the media around the 2015 school renaming to the New York University Tandon School of Engineering. I received no search results for “South Asian” or “South Asian influence.” I decided to try to query “Indian” and was met with large Indian news outlets covering the prolific influence of Indian Americans Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon–who gifted the university $100 million (Rajghatta, 2015).
One of the most fascinating findings on why the couple made the donation was through a Times of India interview with Chandrika Tandon. When asked about her impact on reshaping philanthropy for Indian Americans, she emphasizes the significance of giving back to communities and organizations that contribute to the achievements of Indian Americans (Duttagupta, 2023). She believes that STEM education has played a pivotal role in driving success within the Indian American community. Even President Katepalli Sreenivasan states in an NYU 2015 News Release, “As a fellow native of India, I am deeply moved that the Tandons [...] hope that their gift will inspire other successful Indians wherever they have chosen to live, to engage in large-scale philanthropy,” (New York University, 2015). This indicates that, perhaps, if there had not been a president of South Asian descent, the school would not have undergone a name change. It also hints that having connections within academia could involve leveraging one's cultural background, not just relying on merits--deflating the the argument that one needs to detach one's self from their culture in their work. This cultural perspective of the NYU merger remains understudied and I hope this sparks interest for future inquiries.
NYU Poly Exterior (2014)
NYU Tandon Exterior (2022)
I decided to conduct a small ethnographic study consisting of self-identifying South Asian undergraduate students to understand how South Asian students perceive the South Asian name of their engineering school. Upon their requests, the identities of these students will not be disclosed. I asked the following questions: (1) How do you feel going to a college named after a South Asian couple [the Tandons], (2) Do you prefer the name NYU Poly or NYU Tandon? The students had the choice to answer one or both of the questions.
Student A: “To be honest I never knew it was an Indian name till one say at Union Square this guy wanted to take a picture of my bag that said NYU Tandon. So then I searched up the origin of the word and thats when I found out it was named after the Indian couple. It did feel nice knowing that it wasn’t named after a rich white man but rather two very established and successful South Asian people.”
Student B: “I mean there is Stern, Tisch, Meyers, Wagner. It makes sense to have a name. It makes the school feel more complete and recognized when there is a name and not just Polytechnic School or Engineering School."
Student C: “In a way, I found it very empowering because most of the people I find myself with already come from a different background but knowing someone with a similar background as me can do such amazing things keeps me going sometimes."
These insights from students reflect themes of identity, representation, and empowerment within the context of NYU Tandon. Student A's and Student C's responses underscore the importance of cultural recognition and having South Asian role models in STEM. There is an importance in seeing an example of South Asian success as a form of motivation. Meanwhile, Student B highlights the significance of a named school, suggesting that recognition through name contributes to its prestige and fame. Overall, these perspectives acknowledge the importance of going to a school named after a South Asian couple.