The New York University Self-Study was proposed in 1952 by Dr. Henry T. Heald, then Chancellor of NYU, in a conversation with Mr. Charles Dollard, President of the Carnegie Corporation. A letter from Dr. Heald requesting a $250,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation to fund the study explains the impetus behind such an undertaking. He writes:

"New York University is the largest privately supported institution of higher education in the country. The way in which it solves its problems will have meaning for higher education throughout the country and perhaps in other parts of the world. How best to meet the higher educational needs of Americans of the second half of the twentieth century in the large cities where most of the people now live and in large universities, to which most of our college students now go, is of fundamental significance to the future of America."

The study was administered by the Office of Institutional Research and Educational Planning (OIREP), established June 14, 1953, and the Directing Committee of the Self-Study. Faculty and administrators were asked to evaluate their departments. The study also incorporated evaluation of University-community relations and solicited evaluations by alumni. On September 27, 1955, the Self-Study Committee issued an Interim Report, which outlined many of the subjects covered by the Final Report. The Self-Study is significant in that it was the first time a large university, like NYU, undertook such a comprehensive self-evaluation.

This collection contains the background material for the self-study, including individual departmental reports, a series of working files, documents relating to the organization of OIREP, as well as conference reports and proceedings.

Sources:

New York University Self-Study Final Report, New York: New York University Press, 1956.