After a horrible series of financial blunders and mismanagement on the part of Cooper Union's administration, last year Cooper Union (officially the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Scient and Art, located in New York City) announced that it had "no choice" but to institute a large yearly tuition; this at a school whose founder, Peter Cooper, explicitly stated that it was his intention to provide education free to all who could qualify.
Students Occupied the President's office for months last spring, ultimately relinquishing the space only after an agreement was reached to put together a working group of students, professors, administrators, alumni and trustees to come up with an alternative to imposed tuition. Which they did.
That proposal was presented a month or so ago. This evening, in a disgusting Friday night dump, the Trustees spat in the face of those who did the work and rejected it (praising, of course, their "hard work" and dedication). It appears that incoming freshmen of the class beginning this fall will be the first to pay tuition at Cooper Union in its 150+ year existence.
Yet another example of how the sins of financial wizards, the tools of the one percent, have drawn punishment down on those who had nothing to do with the problem.
10:37 PM PT: