For all of the criticism he has taken in recent months, John E. Sexton can hardly be accused of thinking too small.
The New York University president sees the entire globe as ripe for campus expansion, establishing branch operations in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai in recent years.
But it is Mr. Sexton’s domestic agenda, the centerpiece of which is a six-million-square-foot expansion across New York City, that may finally test the limits of the president’s ambitions.
The faculty of the university’s College of Arts & Science will meet on Thursday to decide whether to take a vote of no confidence in Mr. Sexton. At issue is what some faculty members describe as the president’s top-down management style, which they say has been on full display as he pushes through the largest construction project in the university’s history. The most contentious element of the proposal, known as NYU 2031, would redevelop a 1.9-million-square-foot area in Greenwich Village, where 2,000 housing units are primarily dedicated to faculty.
Critics say the costly project threatens the quirky architectural character of Greenwich Village and condemns professors living in affordable housing near the campus to decades of jackhammering noise.
“We made a big stink about it, but it doesn’t seem to have registered with the administration,” said Jeff Goodwin, a professor of sociology. “They are moving forward with the project and have never really addressed our questions or concerns. For many of us that was the final straw.”
Opposition to the plan has been cast as a fight over the soul of the Village, becoming something of a cause célèbre. The actor Matthew Broderick testified at a June meeting of the New York City Council that the university’s plan was “so massive that it’s in danger of wiping out those very things that make being here unique.” Musicians, including Gordon Gano, lead singer of the Violent Femmes, have also taken swipes at the proposal.
Mr. Sexton declined an interview request made through his communications office, but the university provided a statement from Martin Lipton, chairman of the Board of Trustees. Mr. Lipton said that the president’s “stewardship has been superb” and that he “enjoys the support of the board.”
“We have noted the significant efforts John and his leadership team have made in the past few months to improve faculty consultation and voice,” Mr. Lipton said. “This seems a very positive development, which should be accorded a fair chance to bear fruit.”
“While an expression of faculty voice is always welcome,” he continued, “we hope that faculty will pose a question to themselves in the coming days: ‘How will this vote help the university?’”
That is a question some faculty are already beginning to ask. Jess Benhabib, a professor of economics, said a no-confidence vote was a “very blunt kind of instrument” that would be far less effective than opening dialogue, which has been lacking at times.
“This seems too extreme to me,” Mr. Benhabib said of the vote. “This doesn’t mean there may not be some merits to some complaints.”
Cost Unknown
Facing mounting criticism from faculty members, the university has formed a committee of professors to provide input on the expansion project. But some faculty view the formation of the Space Priorities Working Group as an empty gesture, since the committee did not hold its first meeting until after the New York City Council gave the expansion plan a green light, in July.
“This space committee seems, to say the least, a little tardy,” said Mark Crispin Miller, a professor of media, culture, and communication. “Its only purpose is to allocate the space to be used in the Sexton plan. What it really is, is a tacit bribe: If you want the space, you’d better get on the committee.”
Mr. Miller is an organizer of a group called NYU Faculty Against the Sexton Plan. The group has joined a lawsuit against the city, which the plaintiffs argue approved a plan that violates land-use regulations.
The space-needs committee may be relatively new, but NYU officials cite numerous presentations on the plan that date to 2007 as evidence that participation was sought well in advance of the city’s approval.
In recent months, 38 departments have passed resolutions questioning the wisdom of the plan and criticizing the lack of a clear business proposal for financing it. Faculty in the business school and elsewhere have estimated the project will run several billion dollars, and there has been little specific talk about how the university will come up with the money.
A spokesman for the university said he could not provide an overall cost estimate for the plan because it is a “road map” and each project’s scale and budget will be evaluated individually.
“If we weren’t able to afford it, we wouldn’t build it,” John H. Beckman, vice president for public affairs, wrote in an e-mail. “It’s that simple.”
Mr. Sexton and his administrative colleagues have not done a very good job of building support for their plan, said J. Anthony Movshon, a professor of neuroscience and member of the Space Priorities Working Group. But a no-confidence vote is “neither appropriate nor productive,” he said.
“The blame can be spread fairly and evenly around on this one,” Mr. Movshon said. “It would have been possible to sell it better. It also would have been possible for the faculty to approach it in a reasonable way.”
No one seems to disagree that NYU needs more space. The university, which enrolls 41,000 students, has 160 academic square feet per student, compared with 326 square feet at nearby Columbia University, NYU officials said.
Global Concerns
To his harshest faculty critics, Mr. Sexton’s expansion plan is just the latest example of a president with little regard for what professors think.
One of Mr. Sexton’s key initiatives is the Global Network University, which includes the branch campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai. The university also has international centers in Berlin, Buenos Aires, Florence, London, Madrid, Paris, Prague, Tel Aviv, and Accra, Ghana. Others are in development as well.
For all of the energy behind the university’s international push, most faculty know very little about what is being taught overseas and who is doing the teaching, said Mr. Goodwin, the sociology professor, who plans to support a no-confidence vote.
The centers “seem to be run and operated more as a way to make money for the university,” Mr. Goodwin said. “The quality of the education is a mystery.”
Andrew Ross, president of NYU’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, called the controversy over NYU 2031 a “symptom of the problem” with Mr. Sexton.
“The fact is, President Sexton is not a good listener,” Mr. Ross said. “I don’t think anyone would disagree with that. This personality trait has become more of an institutional outlook, and that is unfortunate.”
Mr. Beckman, the university spokesman, said it was only natural that a time of great change for a university would provoke debate.
“It is no surprise that in a university that is making innovative moves, voices of disagreement will arise,” he wrote in an e-mail. “We know that we have to be sensitive to how these changes affect faculty and other constituencies and that faculty dialogue and engagement are necessary for the healthy functioning of the university.”
