The Cooper Union financial crisis and tuition protests constitute the events surrounding Cooper Union's announcement that they would begin charging tuition after being a tuition-free school for most of its history. The possible mismanagement of the school's finances and the subsequent reactions of students, faculty, alumni and organized protest groups attracted widespread media attention. Activist groups staged a series of occupations and protests demanding the resignation of the school president, Jamshed Bharucha, promoting a vote of no confidence in Bharucha and the chair of the Board of Trustees, Mark Epstein, both of whom resigned in 2015, and insisting that the administration address the concerns of students, faculty, alumni, and the public, and alternate plans to avoid having the school charging tuition.
It has been reported that the Cooper Union financial crisis was due to a combination of problems caused by poor fiscal decisions, lack of accountability, the economic recession of the late 2000s, the selling off of the institution's assets, and taking on significant debt due to the 2009 building of 41 Cooper Square, which cost the school . In fiscal year 2009 ending in June, Cooper Union's managed assets (including investments in hedge funds) lost 14%, and the value of its endowment in 2013 was lower than it was at the end of fiscal year 2008, even as the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index hit new highs.
Cooper Union assessed tuition for the freshman class of 2014, with plans for tuition for future students.
The New York State Attorney General reached an agreement in September 2015 to settle a lawsuit filed by the Committee to Save Cooper Union against the board of trustees. A consent decree, signed by the attorney general and both parties in the lawsuit and pending court approval, outlined additional fiscal and administrative oversight of the school by the attorney general and made provisions for students, alumni, and faculty, who would work with the board of trustees to determine how Cooper Union could return to a tuition-free school.
Timeline
2011
October: The Cooper Union administration deletes mention of the full-scholarship and history of free education from the school's website. October 18: The inauguration of president Jamshed Bharucha takes place, and the literature provided during the main ceremony lacked any mention of "free" or "full-scholarship" in its full history and descriptions of the school. The various speeches also omitted these words, while focusing on other words, such as "global" and "growth". October 29: News circulates that the school is in serious financial trouble and the administration indicated that depletion of the school's endowment required additional sources of funding. October 31: The Cooper Union administration announces to the public, to The New York Times, and at a student forum that its available funds were vastly depleted. Bharucha announced that the school's annual deficit was around . October 31: A series of open forums are held with students, faculty, and alumni to address the crisis. In these forums, the administration proposed a possible tuition levy, more focused solicitation of alumni donations, and research grants were all being considered to offset recent financial practices, such as liquidating assets and spending heavily on a controversial new academic building. November 2: Bharucha announces a "Reinvention" plan. Walkouts and various protests begin.
2012 March: Facing the threat of closure, the Cooper Union Art Faculty submits a Reinvention proposal. April: The college announces that it would start charging tuition for graduate students in the fall of 2014. April 16: Cooper Union students satirize college administration in the press. April 26: Two Cooper Union students are arrested during a tuition protest outside the Foundation Building. December: As a protest against the possibility of undergraduate tuition being charged, 11 students occupy a suite in the Foundation Building for a week. During the occupation, a protest rally to Washington Square Park and outside the Cooper Union took place.
2013
April 23: The New York Times reports that the college has announced that it would end its free tuition policy for undergraduates effective Fall 2014, and charge an estimated each year. The administration maintains that they would continue to offer need-based tuition remission to incoming undergraduates on a "sliding scale". Cooper Union announces that its board of trustees would attempt to establish a new tuition-based cross-disciplinary graduate program, expand its fee-based continuing education programs, and charge tuition to some students in its existing graduate programs, effective September 2013. May: Students present a Vote of No Confidence document to President Bharucha's Office. May 8: A group of students and members of the public occupy Bharucha's office. June: Students organize a sit-in in the presidential office after presenting the Vote of No Confidence document. The sit-in turns into an occupation. July: The student occupation ends in an agreement negotiated with trustees Michael Borkowsky and Jeff Gural. A working group, composed of trustees, faculty, alumni and students was tasked with preparing an alternative to charging tuition. August: Teresa Dahlberg is appointed dean of the School of Engineering. The vice president of finance, T. C. Westcott, and the dean of students, Linda Lemiez, both resign. September: The Free Cooper Union group hosts a freshman "Disorientation" to inform incoming students about its views on the recent financial crisis. October 12: During his month-long Better Out Than In "residency on the streets of New York", British artist Banksy paints "Concrete Confessional" in a pre-cast concrete structure stored near the entrance of 41 Cooper Square. Overnight, the piece is "transformed by an anonymous, unauthorized collaborator into a visual statement of opposition to the administration" of Cooper Union, by the addition of a Peter Cooper-style beard to the priest, and a portrait of a penitent Jamshed Bharucha, the Cooper Union president, in the structure adjacent to the Banksy piece. "Free Cooper: The Musical" was added to a third structure, a homage to another work in Banksy's October series. November Administrators show members of the student government a draft of the school's new code of conduct, which, aside from addressing fire safety and drug use, would forbid "deliberate or knowing disruption of the free flow of pedestrian traffic on Cooper Union premises" and "behavior that disturbs the peace, academic study or sleep of others on or off campus". A section on bullying notes communication, in any medium, that "disrupts or interferes with the orderly operation of the Cooper Union". December During the trustees' meeting to review the working group proposal, newly elected chairman, Richard Lincer, said the board must "give the proposals contained in the report the serious and rigorous review and analysis that they warrant", and that they would meet again the following month for a final decision.
2014
January 7: With the tuition decision looming, former trustee Michael Borkowsky, who was one of the trustees who brokered the deal with the students to end occupation, urged the trustees to consider the risks of the tuition plan, which he holds are greater than the risks of the working group plan. January 11: After taking an additional month to review the working group plan, the trustees noted that "the Working Group plan puts forward a number of recommendations that are worth pursuing under any financial model. However, we believe that the contingencies and risks inherent in the proposals are too great to supplant the need for new revenue sources. Regrettably, tuition remains the only realistic source of new revenue in the near future". Trustee Jeff Gural also proposed a plan in which he would make a large donation to offset the revenue lost from not charging tuition for a year, keeping the school tuition free for another year. This plan was also rejected by the board. February Bharucha announces that Teresa Dahlberg will become chief academic officer in addition to her continued responsibilities as dean of the engineering school. May 27: The Committee to Save Cooper Union files a lawsuit In New York Supreme Court to block Cooper Union from charging tuition and petitions the court for formation of "The Associates of Cooper Union", as required by the Cooper Union charter. The Associates would serve as a check on the board of trustees since the Associates' elected Council could remove Trustees by majority vote. They petition the court for an audit to review the history of fiscal transactions, including any potential mismanagement, by the Cooper Union administration. The Committee also launches an IndieGogo campaign to raise for its legal battle against Cooper Union. May 28: At an outdoor press conference at Cooper Union, leaders of The Committee to Save Cooper Union and Richard Emery, its legal representative from Emery, Celli, Brinckerhoff, & Abady, outline grievances, including their claims of fiscal mismanagement, against the Cooper Union administration, and the May 27 lawsuit for an injunction to prevent Cooper Union from charging tuition. Also, Cooper Union alumni and student members of Free Cooper Union stage protests outside of Cooper Union. Students show their support at their graduation ceremony at Cooper Union by wearing "Save Cooper Union" signs on their caps. June: At its June meeting, the board of trustees approves the development of a B.S. program in computer science within the school of engineering, meant to be the first of several revenue-generating programs. The new program was to be developed primarily by Teresa Dahlberg, chief academic officer and dean of the school of engineering. November 12: After two drafts of the computer science program are not approved by the Engineering school's curriculum committee, the second draft is submitted to the New York State Education Department, bypassing the engineering faculty. The committee points to a lack of academic rigor in the proposed programs, as well as the inclusion of "material copied verbatim from the work of faculty at other schools."
2015 February: The New York State Education Department (NYSED) approves the school's application for a degree in computer science to be offered by the school of engineering. March 11: President Bharucha seeks the board's approval to set up an Institute for Design and Computation and invest it with degree-granting authority for a degree in computer science, without informing the board that NYSED had already approved the program within the school of engineering. Immediately following the meeting, students who had applied for admission to the school of Engineering were solicited to join this new program without telling them that the program would not be part of the Engineering school.