Series VII: Government Relations
Scope and Contents
This series of 2.91 linear feet represents university administration's relationships and transactions with federal, state, and local government entities. As noted above in another context, aspects of these relationships can be found as well in Box 5, folders 6-9, Box 6, folders 8-12, Box 7, folders 11-14, and Box 8, folders 1-3.
Many of the interactions at the federal level are routine. Included in these records though are materials covering planning for, requesting, negotiating, receiving, and administering a nationally competitive Science Development Grant from the National Science Foundation for the improvement of the physics and psychology departments in the Faculty of Arts and Science, Box 41, folders 7-12, through Box 43, folder 4.
NYU received a total of $6,100,000 for this project, $4,560,000 in 6/69 and $1,600,000 in supplemental funds, 6/72. Among these documents are minutes of an internal Science Development Committee which indicate the struggle for an institutional strategy, Box 43, folder 1, correspondence from President Hester to NSF officials candidly describing the University's general situation, 4/9/74, 4/13/72 and 4/5/72, (the latter letter also discusses the grant's impact on the University, this project got underway at the time of great financial difficulties and was affected in a variety of ways by those difficulties), proposals (1967, 1972) following folder 2, annual reports, and the University's final report on this grant, Box 41, folder 7.
The local government material is extremely limited and routine. Within the modest collection concerned with the University's relations with the City University of New York, a Borowitz letter, 7/11/73, Box 43, folder 9, probably sums up the nature of the relationship. In contrast, the University's dealings with New York State, and most particularly the State Education Department, are extensive.
NYU's financial difficulties and the search for remedies brought it into close touch with the Department and its leadership during this period. Notable documents include university reports on use of Aid/Bundy funds, Box 44, folders 9-10, an address by Dr. Hester to the Regents' Seventh Annual Conference, 2/18/71, its submission for the CICU State Master Plan for Higher Education 1972, Box 45, folder 6, Professor Arnold Goren's commentary on a Regents Regional Coordinating Council Executive Committee meeting 7/18/75, an 11/71 NYSED report: "NYU: A Major Private Institution in Trouble A Report to the Board of Regents," Box 46, folder 3, NYU 5 Year Financial Plan(9/72-8/77), Box 46, folder 4, NYU 1976 Master Plan, Box 46, folder 11.