In Our Own Voice
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
IN OUR OWN VOICE AN ORAL HISTORY of NEW YORK UNIVERSITY’S DRAMATIC TRANSFORMATION 1970-2010 IN OUR OWN VOICE AN ORAL HISTORY of NEW YORK UNIVERSITY’S DRAMATIC TRANSFORMATION 1970-2010 to MARTIN LIPTON —who as student, professor, trustee, donor, chair, and wise counselor has led us every step of the way on the NYU journey chronicled in these pages. Copyright ©2015 by New York University. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording or in any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. CONTENTS 1 A NOTE TO THE READER 3 PRELUDE: \MZMV\NZWU\PM;\IZٺQ, 4 JAMES HESTER the Protector 1962-1975 42 JOHN SAWHILL \PM*Z]\IT;I^QWZ 1975-1980 62 JOHN BRADEMAS the Ambassador 1981-1991 106 L. JAY OLIVA the Street-Smart Scholar 1991-2002 138 9/11 158 JOHN SEXTON \PM>Q[QWVIZa 2002- 227 CODA 233 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A NOTE TO THE READER viii The voices in this oral history are edited 1 excerpts from the transcripts of filmed interviews conducted by the NYU Depart- Memory is imperfect. The editors made ment of Media Production. This narra- the greatest effort to assure the accura- tive also draws on the resources of NYU cy of these reminiscences, fact-checking Archives, on research in the NYU Librar- whenever possible while taking into ac- ies, and on other sources, such as mem- count that each participant has a distinct oirs of participants. At the first quotation point of view. Then and now, dissonance by each voice, we list titles held at NYU and debate characterize the NYU story. through 2010, the close of this work. For ease of reference for a contemporary The historical record also includes scores audience, we have used the most recent of issues, reports, and controversies that school names. a single work cannot encompass. Inevitably, some voices are missing. Sev- Although NYU’s tale of do-it-yourself re- eral key contributors to this story were invention continues today, every story unable—because of geography or timing— needs a beginning and an end. This ac- to participate. Others, no longer alive, count presents selected voices of the are represented by citations from their many people who shaped NYU, from the speeches or writing. nadir of the 1970s, when the University was days away from being unable to make payroll, until 2010, when NYU was becom- ing the pioneering global university. PRELUDE: DIFFERENT FROM THE START 2 3 In contrast, he wanted to establish “in this immense and fast-growing city … an education fitted for all and graciously opened to all,” a university that would be in and of the city. JOHN JOHN SEXTON: In 1831, New York University off- Above 14th Street, the Manhattan we know SEXTON ered a new kind of higher education. Like its was farmland. Yet Gallatin anticipated a President since 2002; Dean of model, the University of London, NYU accepted university for the urban future, an institution the School of Law the charge of educating not only a small elite of higher learning designed to capture the from 1988–2002; but the emerging middle class, drawing on the fullness of human experience. Professor of Law since 1981 environment of a great city rather than retreat- In keeping with our founder’s vision, NYU ing to a secluded pastoral setting. For that era, draws its life force from New York, a city open the choice was revolutionary. to immigrants and visitors from around the Albert Gallatin, who with eight others found- world, enriched by many cultures, embracing ed NYU, could have fashioned this new univer- complexity, always striving. The same openness sity after any of the great universities of his day. and striving spirit have animated our global As secretary of the treasury to Thomas Jefferson ambitions in this century. and James Madison, Gallatin knew Oxford and The story of New York University is among the Cambridge, as well as the Ivy League colleges— most extraordinary in higher education, but all models of withdrawal, contemplation, NYU’s ascent to the top ranks was neither assured and privilege. nor serene, as you will see in these pages. 1962-1975 JAMES 4 HESTER 5 \PM8ZW\MK\WZ Students protest outside Warren Weaver Hall, 1970. Among the most perilous and transforma- A Rhodes Scholar and dean of NYU’s tive periods for New York University were undergraduate and graduate schools of the decades of the 1960s and 1970s. arts and science, Jim Hester was, at 37, College campuses across the coun- the youngest of NYU’s presidents when try were turbulent with student unrest he was appointed in 1962. Eight years over civil rights and the war in Vietnam. later, it was his responsibility to steer the In the spring of 1968, massive student University through this era of turmoil. protests at Columbia University resulted in violent intervention by the NYPD. On May In 1970, the University still had two cam- 4, 1970, during protests at Kent State puses—University Heights in the Bronx University against President Richard and Washington Square. On May 4, Nixon’s escalation of the war, the Ohio several groups of strikers occupied the National Guard killed four unarmed Loeb Student Center at the Square. students and wounded nine others. The following day, strike groups also took 6 In response, students went on strike, over Kimball Hall and Warren Weaver 7 shutting down more than 450 university, Hall, home to the Courant Institute of college, and high school campuses across Mathematical Sciences. Warren Weav- the country. The sometimes-violent pro- er Hall housed a $3.5 million computer, tests involved more than four million owned by the Atomic Energy Commis- students. Outraged by their universities’ sion and leased by NYU—a symbol to the collaboration with the government on mil- protesters of University collusion with itary projects, students turned their anger the military. on what was often the nearest military facility—college and university Reserve A strike coordinating committee present- Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) offic- ed its conditions to the University admin- es. Thirty ROTC buildings were burned istration. Holding the computer hostage, or bombed. There were violent clashes the strikers demanded ransom money of between students and police at 26 $100,000 to be used as bail for impris- schools, and National Guard units were oned Black Panthers, members of the Af- mobilized on 21 campuses in 16 states. rican American revolutionary organization. JIM SIDNEY JIM HESTER: We refused to do it. We went up SIDNEY BOROWITZ: It was only the bravery of HESTER BOROWITZ to the computer. There was a hole in the floor Peter Lax that prevented a catastrophe. He went President from Chancellor and under the door with a burning fuse leading into the computer room while the electrical 1962–75; Profes- Executive Vice BACK sor of History from President from into the room. lead that would destroy it was sizzling. 1960–74; Dean 1972–76; Provost The building was occupied by hundreds of of the Graduate at the Heights students. The street was swarming. If the bomb JIM HESTER: Fortunately, we got there just in School of Arts from 1971–72; and Science and Dean of University had gone off in that building, which is largely time. It was very close to an enormous tragedy. Executive Dean of College of Arts FROM THE glass, it would have been catastrophic. the Faculty of Arts and Science at President Hester was determined to avoid and Science from the Heights from CATHLEEN MORAWETZ: 1960–62 1969–72; Profes- The computer was very the violence that had consumed other sor of Physics from big. It occupied the whole floor where the campuses. CATHLEEN 1950–76 (Chair physics department is. MORAWETZ from 1961–69); JIM HESTER: Director of the PhD, Graduate We’d had the experience of watch- BRINK Courant Institute School of Arts and RICHARD THORSEN: It was a CDC 6600. There ing what happened at Columbia in the spring from 1984–88; Science, 1948; were only two in the country. The IRS had one, of 1968, when the police came on campus and Associate Director MS, Graduate and then Deputy School of Arts and and the Atomic Energy Commission had the manhandled the students. Director of Courant Science, 1940 one at NYU. In the end, I don’t believe the police ever laid from 1978–84; 1970 Professor of their hands on an NYU student. Mathematics from PETER LAX: I was the director of the computing 1957–93 (Chair center. I could smell smoke, so I said, “Let’s run SIDNEY BOROWITZ: Hester was terrific. He was from 1981–84); Research Asso- up and see what’s going on.” among the students, out in Washington Square ciate at Courant What was going on was a homemade fuse Park, on the front lines. At times he was vilified, from 1952–57; that was lit. insulted, and harassed. PhD, Courant, 8 1951 The fuse was connected to flammable liquids 9 KATHLEEN on the computer. Two of my younger colleagues KATHLEEN WEIL-GARRIS BRANDT: I was a young WEIL-GARRIS jumped in and stomped on it. faculty member then. Hester came across as RICHARD BRANDT THORSEN Afterwards, my wife said, “Are you crazy?” having a steady hand at the tiller. Very confi- Professor of Fine Vice President for Arts at the Institute dence-inspiring. Academic Affairs of Fine Arts and at Polytechnic College of Arts and University from Science since 1965 2006–08 and at NYU-Poly since 2008; Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Heights from 1964–73, at Poly- technic University from 1973–2008, and at NYU-Poly since 2008; PhD, the Heights, 1967 The explosive device placed at Courant’s PETER CDC 6600 computer.