How New York Institute of Technology became a 'force' in the Northeast

As a student at New York Institute of Technology in the early 1990s, Joseph Ambrosio got the chance to design an electric vehicle from scratch, a project that helped launch his career in the alternative fuel industry.

He said he was happy with his experience at the school, even some 30 years ago when it was not well known outside the New York metropolitan region.

But in recent years, he said, NYIT has increasingly become “a force here in the Northeast,” providing not only a technical education but also a solid foundation in business, entrepreneurship and research.

“The school is really starting to become very well-known and recognized,” said Ambrosio, 55, chief executive of Holbrook-based Unique Electric Solutions, which converts trucks and buses into electric vehicles, and a member of NYIT's executive advisory board. “Its ranking is going up…. It’s just fantastic to see.” 

In the past eight years, the college has experienced a dramatic transformation, adding four new PhD programs, opening a $31 million scientific facility and garnering national recognition as a research institution.

The college has also seen its place in the closely watched U.S. News & World Report rankings jump from 47th among regional universities in the North eight years ago to 15th last year, tied with Ithaca College, Monmouth University in New Jersey and Towson University in Maryland.

Much of the credit for this change, say school officials and alumni, can be attributed to NYIT's president, Henry "Hank" Foley. The school’s fourth president since 1955, Foley retired this week. 

Foley “really fundamentally changed the school…and his changes will be really far-reaching into the future," said Jerry Balentine, who has succeeded him as president.

Ambitious vision

In a recent interview with Newsday, Foley, 69, of Manhasset, said that when he arrived at NYIT in 2017, he decided to make improving students’ experience at the school a top priority. 

One of his first moves was to discourage certain professors’ “weed them out” approach to instruction, aimed at eliminating lower-performing students rather than supporting them, he said.

“The point I tried to make here over and over again my first few years is, this is much more of a partnership, and if you want this partnership to work and thrive, then everybody's got to feel a part of what we're trying to achieve, which is the best student experience we can make across the board,” he said.

For decades, the school has served students determined to work their way into the American dream. About one third of NYIT’s students are the first in their family to attend college, and more than 40% qualify for federal Pell Grants due to their low income, according to the school, where undergraduate tuition is $46,000 annually. The student body of about 3,350 undergraduates and 4,500 graduate students is about 23% Asian, 21% white, 20% Hispanic and 10% Black, and more than 18% come from abroad, school figures show.

When Foley arrived at NYIT, he “outlined a vision” of the school as a research and innovation powerhouse, recalled Peter Romano, who owns a real estate consulting firm and chairs NYIT’s board of trustees. “The trustees then began to focus fundraising efforts in that direction so that we would have the resources available to do that,” Romano said. “And we've implemented, I would say, a good majority of the things that Hank laid out.”

Now, he said, students “have a better feeling for the institution…. They're proud of it. They understand that they are getting an incredible education. We talk to them about their return on investment, how much they invest in their education, what they can expect to earn when they graduate.” 

In his time at the school, which has campuses in Old Westbury, Manhattan, Arkansas and Canada, NYIT’s endowment has climbed to $125.1 million in June, up from $79.4 million in 2017, the school reported.

This spring, the school opened its new Biomedical Research, Innovation and Imaging Center, where researchers can use advanced microscopes, MRI machines and other devices to study potential treatments for cancer, heart disease and Parkinson’s disease, among other conditions. Nearly half the center’s $31 million cost was funded by donations, and the rest by borrowing, Romano said.

He noted that NYIT expects its federal funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and other agencies could face significant cuts under new Trump administration policies, though it’s not yet clear what the full impact will be. NYIT's federal funding has included a $1.8 million NIH grant awarded in 2021 for research on heart disease and a $750,000 NSF grant awarded in 2019 to study sustainable urban development. 

The school has also launched an honors college and debuted new academic programs, including a minor in artificial intelligence and doctoral degrees in medical and biological sciences — offered in combination with its osteopathic medicine program, which prepares students to be physicians — as well as engineering, computer science and chemistry.

NYIT is encouraging its students to become entrepreneurs, starting a new $5 million fund that provides students with seed funding and other resources to launch new companies as part of a “Shark Tank” style competition.

It also has started a “co-op” track that provides STEM students with work experience at companies in the region. Ambrosio, the electric vehicles company chief executive, said he has brought on co-op students as well as interns from NYIT.

“It's so valuable for the students to experience that. I mean, they can't get that in a class anywhere,” he said. In the case of one electrical engineering co-op student who graduated from NYIT, he said, “We hired the individual full time because it worked out so well.”

The school also earned recognition this year from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, which included NYIT on its list of Research Colleges and Universities that invest at least $2.5 million a year in research.

Looking to the future

Among NYIT's feeder schools on Long Island are public high schools in New Hyde Park, Deer Park, Hicksville and Elmont, as well as Queens, Brooklyn and other areas, according to the school.

NYIT “has always been a very popular choice,” especially for its health care programs, said Veronica Velez, a guidance counselor at Hicksville High School for 19 years. “If anything, they've become more popular…. The students who go there seem to be very happy.”

Kelly Borges, 32, who is earning her doctor of osteopathic medicine degree along with a PhD at NYIT, said she has been able to do high-level research in a NIH-funded lab at the school. Borges, who said she is likely to go into internal or family medicine, completed her dissertation on Alzheimer's disease.

“I can't even think of one [professor] who is not passionate about teaching and getting students involved,” she said. “There's a lot of camaraderie, too, with other students.”

Looking forward, Foley — now president emeritus — said he hopes the school will eventually earn a “Research 2,” or R2, designation in the Carnegie classification. R2 is the organization's second-highest level and is given to colleges that invest at least $5 million in research and award at least 20 doctoral degrees each year.

On Long Island, Hofstra University and Long Island University are designated as R2, while Stony Brook University is considered an R1 institution, the highest level. The next list will be released in three years.

“I'll never see [all] the benefits of those things, but future presidents will,” Foley said. “Over time, looking at the next 50 years of the school, it'll change it entirely.”