Seniors at The Cooper Union, a college in New York City, will graduate tuition-free thanks to multi-million dollar donations from a group of alumni, the school said on Sept. 3.
Current seniors who made payments for the fall semester will receive refunds from the school and will pay no tuition for the spring semester, the school said.
First-year, second-year, and third-year students will also receive full-tuition scholarships in their senior years, as the tuition-free initiative will run for the next four years.
The announcement was made possible this summer when an unnamed alumnus made a donation of an unspecified amount to the tuition-free fund, according to the statement.
Then, George Reeves, a 1964 alumnus of Cooper Union’s Albert Nerken School of Engineering, along with his wife and business partner, Ross Wisnewski, pledged a new commitment to the fund, on top of the $4 million grant they had previously made in 2021.
John Manuck, a 1969 graduate of the School of Engineering, and his wife, Mary, also pledged a “new gift” to the fund, in addition to a $3 million grant made in 2023, the school said.
In total, the three alumni donors contributed an additional sum of almost $6 million on top of their prior donations.
Those commitments, along with existing Cooper scholarships and other grants available to students, made it possible for the seniors to graduate tuition-free, according to the statement.
2014—Partial Tuition Begins
Beginning in 1905, students at the school did not have to pay tuition, but that changed in 2014 when partial tuition of $19,500 was instituted at the college for the first time in its history to help it tackle a $12 million annual deficit.Under the 2018 plan, the college set out a 10-year timeline to increase savings, slash expenses, and boost fundraising to provide full-tuition scholarships for every undergraduate student.
To date, more than $114 million in new funds have been raised, and more than half of the student body attends tuition-free, the school said.
“In 2018, we began an ambitious journey to provide full-tuition scholarships for all of our undergraduate students,” Sparks said. “The response to our plan and the dedication of Cooper Union alumni and New York City funders have been tremendous.”
She added, “Thanks to the generosity of three extraordinary alumni donors, we are removing a major financial burden for our graduating classes and reaffirming the ideals that have been foundational to this institution since Peter Cooper opened its doors in 1859.”
