Christopher Chamberlin

Dean of Students

Chris Chamberlin began working in higher education in 1998 and joined The Cooper Union in October 2010. He was appointed Acting Associate Dean of Student Affairs in August 2013. One year later, in August 2014, he became Dean of Students.

As the Dean of Students, Chris Chamberlin serves as the institution’s Chief Student Affairs Officer providing leadership and oversight for the Office of Student Affairs including Title IX Compliance and Investigations, Student Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives, Residential Education and Housing, the Center for Career Development, Student Activities and Campus Life, Student Government and Leadership, Student Code of Conduct, Student Disability Accommodations, Student Advocacy and Support, Mental and Physical Health, Immunization Records, and other areas related to Student Affairs.

Believing that our students need to be viewed holistically, Dean Chamberlin works to ensure that the students’ voices are heard and that their needs are addressed. He works to develop and foster student-centered programs and initiatives grounded in professional educative processes that allow our students to continue to succeed both inside and outside the classroom.

Dean Chamberlin has earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and a Master of Arts degree in Counseling both from The College of New Jersey. Dean Chamberlin also holds a Master of Education degree from Columbia University, Teachers College where he served as a member of the national research team focusing on College Educational Quality.

Connecting to the larger higher education community, he maintains memberships is various higher education professional and scholarly organizations including the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, College Student Educators International, Association for the Study of Higher Education, Association for Student Conduct Administration, and the American Educational Research Association. Dean Chamberlin has served on the Board of Directors for the New York City chapter of GLSEN, an organization focusing on ensuring safe and affirming educational environments where all students can learn and grow. Dean Chamberlin volunteers at The Trevor Project, an organization focused on suicide prevention efforts amount, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth.

Dean Chamberlin co-presented “Assessing college educational quality: An inside look at academic rigor, teaching quality and learning objectives” at the Association for Institutional Research’s Annual Forum. He was also part of a team that presented the scholarly paper entitled “The Power of Measures of Quality in Higher Education: Power for Whom and How?” at the Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education.

Related News

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.