2013 Commencement Speaker: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg

The Board of Trustees and the administration are proud and delighted that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has agreed to deliver the commencement address at The Cooper Union's 154th Commencement in The Great Hall on May 29, 2013. 

Mayor Bloomberg's administration has been distinguished by his transformational leadership to improve education, public health, the cityscape, and the built  environment while also encouraging smart and sustainable economic growth.   His persuasive advocacy for gun control and immigration reform resonates across the country, and especially at The Cooper Union, where many of our students are first generation Americans.  His determination for New York to thrive as a world-class center of applied science will draw the best and the brightest for decades to come.  His record and vision provide an example for our graduates, who will contribute their talents to New York
City and beyond.  We are honored to have Mayor Bloomberg deliver the keynote address to the Class of 2013.

Michael R. Bloomberg is the 108th Mayor of the City of New York. He was first elected in November 2001, two months after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, a time when many believed that crime would return, businesses would flee, and New York might never recover. Instead, through hundreds of innovative new policies and initiatives, Mayor Bloomberg has made New York City safer, stronger, and greener than ever.

 

  • 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.