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At Cooper Union, a Vote on the Future

United Kingdom Architecture News - Jan 13, 2014 - 00:12   1537 views

The board will determine whether 2014 means the end of 155 years of tuition-free education.

At Cooper Union, a Vote on the Future

Credit: Jessica Rubenstein

Trustees for the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art will vote today to determine whether the next freshman class of undergraduates will be the first in the university's history to pay tuition.

The vote is the culmination of a nearly two-year debate over the future of the university, one kicked off in April 2012 when Cooper Union president Jamshed Bharucha and the school's board of trustees announced a plan to begin charging tuition. The resulting discussion over the university's finances—which has meant casting blame for the past as often as projecting a path forward for the future—has divided faculty, students, alumni, and administrators.

"The very simple bottom line of the story is that the increasing costs of delivering a first-rate college education has outpaced The Cooper Union’s ability to generate enough revenue," said chairman emeritus Mark L. Epstein in an email. "To paraphrase Mayor Bloomberg, it is not about being free, it is about who is going to pay for it. Running a ‘free’ school is very expensive."

In the two years since Cooper Union leaders adopted the measure to introduce tuition for graduate students, students have occupied a university building in an effort to force them to abandon the scheme. At least 13 trustees have resigned, among them architect Moshe Safdie. New York City's Independent Budget Office issued a warning that by charging tuition, the school could be risking the tax-equivalency payments that are the bedrock of the Cooper Union endowment.

Last month, however, a working group comprising faculty and alumni published a proposal of alternative strategies for securing the financial stability of the university. Today, the board meets to discuss those recommendations and determine its course of action.

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