The Trustees
This page includes certain pages that were obtained from the board of trustees minutes in the years up to the merger. It was extremely rewarding to look at this document since it is amazing to think that these were not available to the public for some time. It is understandable that these are sensitive subjects, however, given the fact that they are deciding the outcome of thousands of engineering students, it can be considered as unethical that they aren't released at the time they took place. The first treasurer that covers this topic is a Mr Mclean, who stated in 1968 that the deficit would continue to increase if certain measures were not taken. There are also mentions of evaluating essential academic staff In many of these there are sections in which questions are raised by Mr Spruck, Poly's head of financials in the years leading up to the merger. Mr Spruck was also mentioned in the years in which Mr McLean was the director. In these minutes, Mr Spruck called for the possibility of mortgaging certain properties.
In the first item in which Mr Spruck is the head of finance, which covers the years 1972 to 1973, Spruck stated that Poly would be operating at a deficit of around $3,000,000 and stated not even cost reduction could reverse this. He also urges the Board to find new sources of income. He also lists various ways Poly has already reduced costs such as reduction in staff, no new additions to the staff, and also very few investments in plant and equipment. It is clear from this that the respective deficit of Poly had become unbearable for the institutions and that it was on a path that would highly decrease the standards and education quality that Poly had been known for throughout many years.
In a document dating to 1971, there is also a page that covers how the trustees would increase tuition by 50 dollars in both undergraduate and graduate programs. This was a substantial increase, since nowadays that increase would be about $350 in today's standards. On that same page, there is also talk of implementing new fees for late payments and add/drop fees. These would understandably upset students in the institution and they would generally be protested on.
In each of the files there are mentions of the merger which was already agreed upon by the trustees. The first of this was found in 1971. However, these show that the negotiations and changes were still very volatile. Board of Trustees minutes aren't exactly exciting to look at. However these few pages show important moments in the history of Poly which show how the trustees, the real power and leadership behind the institution, discussed the plans to improve the financial situation at Poly. They do have statements that the individual decisions of each institution should be respected. There is also mention of how Dr Grad, the president who resigned right before the merger took place, called for the necessity of the merger and how there were many advantages to it. One of these is the fact that Poly students could enroll in courses that were not offered at Poly. Dr Grad’s time as the president of Poly will be explored in a subsequent section that covers the leadership.
There is also a document which shows that the trustees discussed the substantial decreases in enrollment in the year 1972 which was the all time low for the years that were explored. The fact that the majority of these were PhD level candidates was also raised during this meeting.
Many documents from after the merger were also found. These included many topics that were talked about during this time such as the mention of losing 25% of incoming students to Columbia. There is also mention of how after the merger, the student to faculty ratios would also increase, even though the merger took place. This might indicate that Poly had a history of offering very small classes which tend to have a higher cost for the institution but larger classes can also be associated with less quality of education. After the merger, Mr Spruck continued to head the finances of the institution and had begun to formulate a plan with President Bugliarello. The minutes of the year 1974 which is the second year after the merger was also found. In these, Dr Bugliarello is president of Poly and he asks Mr Spruck to develop a plan "to reduce cost and increase income by $1 million" in order to decrease the current deficit of $2 million”.