New Vice President of Academic Affairs to Begin in July

March 7, 2023

Dear Cooper Union,

A year ago, an esteemed group of scholars and academic leaders concluded their work as members of the external Visiting Committee that we convened to help us assess and reimagine the future of the humanities and social sciences at Cooper. A central component of their thoughtful and actionable set of recommendations was that we establish a new academic leadership position here, Vice President of Academic Affairs (VPAA). The rationale of the Visiting Committee was that this senior leader would serve as the chief academic officer and, importantly, foster and coordinate academic collaboration across the programs. I, in concert with our Board of Trustees, embraced this recommendation.

Today, I am pleased to write with the wonderful news that, following a national search and community-wide interview process, Dr. Demetrius L. Eudell has accepted our offer to serve as The Cooper Union’s inaugural Vice President of Academic Affairs. Dr. Eudell is currently Dean of Social Sciences at Wesleyan University and has served as a member of the faculty at Wesleyan and, previously, at The Ohio State University. He will assume his new position here in July.

Dr. Eudell comes to us having received widespread support from across The Cooper Union following his visit during our evaluation of candidate finalists, when faculty, staff, and students all had an opportunity to meet with candidates, engage in substantive discussion with them, and provide critical feedback that informed our final decision. Dr. Eudell brings extensive, scholarly experience in the social sciences, with a focus in 19th-century U.S. history, intellectual history, and the history of Blacks in the Americas. A graduate of Dartmouth College (Bachelor of Arts, French major) and Stanford University (Master of Arts in History; Doctor of Philosophy in History), he was the director of the Center for African American Studies at Wesleyan; coordinated the prestigious Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) program there (part of the Mellon Foundation's initiatives to increase diversity in the faculty ranks of institutions of higher learning); and chaired the Department of History before becoming Dean of Social Sciences in 2019.

From the feedback shared from many of you about his visit and the remarks he gave during his presentation to our community, it seems that our community came away with a sense of how well aligned Dr. Eudell and Cooper are, particularly given his strong understanding of the roots of each of our disciplines; how collaboration and synergy at the intersection of those disciplines can open up new opportunities for our students, our faculty, our community, and the professions that we are shaping; and how the study of the humanities and social sciences can play a critical role throughout.

This new role of VPAA is an important and exciting evolution for Cooper. It marks an expanded structure and capacity for our academic programs that was identified as a critical component for our future by the Visiting Committee last year. That Dr. Eudell will be the first person to lead in this new capacity – a historian, himself, who will help guide and steward an institution like ours that has made its own mark on the history of New York City and the nation – feels like it was meant to be.  After meeting many in our community during his two-day visit, Dr. Eudell is honored and excited to join The Cooper Union.

To those of you who participated in the search, attended the presentations of our finalist candidates, or provided feedback in other ways, I am deeply appreciative. We couldn’t be more thrilled with the outcome of this community-wide process and are eager to welcome Dr. Eudell when he arrives this summer. We look forward to celebratory events to formally welcome him and introduce him to our community on campus when faculty and students return for the launch of the Fall semester.

I look forward to this next chapter at The Cooper Union and to our work together to shape it.

Laura

  • 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.