Dear Cooper Union,

One of my favorite acts as president has been welcoming all of you in the fall for the start of a new academic year. As this is my final opportunity to do that, and given the journey we have been on together since I arrived in 2017, I am thrilled to also share the extraordinary news that every senior class in each of the next four years will be tuition-free, beginning with this year’s seniors.

• To our current seniors, you will receive refunds for all fall semester tuition payments made. (See FAQs here.)
• To our first-, second-, and third-year undergraduates, your senior year will be 100% tuition free.

This accelerates our progress toward successfully completing the Plan to Return to Full-Tuition Scholarships and is the on-ramp to restoring free tuition for all undergraduates by the 2028-2029 academic year, the year our incoming architecture students will complete their fifth and final year.

Cooper is in this position because of the will and generosity of our full community of alumni and donors who have propelled this worthy effort forward, helping us to surpass the Plan’s financial goals, cumulatively, since it was adopted by the Board of Trustees in 2018. It is the generosity of three donors – all alumni – who stepped forward this spring and summer with significant gifts specifically to accelerate a return to tuition free for each of the next four senior classes, and we are deeply grateful to each of them.

An anonymous alumni donor, who has been a consistent and generous supporter of student scholarships, initiated this effort with a new pledge into the “Until All Are Free” fund that this donor established in 2016. George Reeves ME’64 and his wife Ross Wisnewski then stepped in with a new pledge, which comes after their $4 million matching grant in 2021 – all for scholarships – that raised an additional $4 million. Closing the gap to make this initiative for seniors possible was John Manuck ChE’69 and his wife Mary Manuck with a new commitment. For John and Mary, this, too, is a continuation of their generosity, following a $3 million grant in 2023 from the Manucks’ foundation to fund the John and Mary Manuck Distinguished Professor of Design. (Sam Keene, professor of electrical engineering, is the first awardee of the Manuck Distinguished Professorship.) In total, the three alumni donors are contributing an additional nearly $6 million on top of their prior gifts. Those gifts, along with the existing funding that Cooper provides, other grants and scholarships that students are eligible for, and the cumulative giving from our community over the years, made full-tuition scholarships for seniors possible.

The leadership of this trio of alumni donors cannot be overstated. Along with so many others, they earned the distinction of becoming Cooper Union graduates at a time when there was no financial barrier of tuition here. They are dedicated to the mission and promise of The Cooper Union and to restoring Peter Cooper’s legacy that this institution be a free center of learning. We have set up a way to gather messages of thanks here which will be shared with George and Ross, John and Mary, and our “Until All Are Free” donor. I hope you will join them to continue Cooper Union’s momentum toward restoring full-tuition scholarships for all undergraduates.

There are, of course, so many people to thank for helping us get to this moment and putting the full return to free tuition for all undergraduates within reach. They include trustees, board chairs, Free Education Committee members and chairs; donors and especially the dedicated network of alumni who continue to give financially; our amazing faculty and staff; Cooper’s incredible team of academic and administrative leaders; industry and New York City partners; city and state officials; parents and families; and at the center of it all, the students of The Cooper Union.

When I wrote this summer about bringing my time at Cooper to a close, I said that I was confident in the decision because of the important progress we have made together in many critical areas such as restoring financial stability and increasing scholarship levels, reinvesting in our academic programs, broadening student care supports, and diversifying our faculty and leadership team. I know that with Interim President Malcolm King EE’97, Interim Board Chair Jamie Levitt, the full academic and administrative leadership team, Cooper’s incredible network of alumni, our partners and donors, and all of you, this community is well positioned to continue the compelling momentum toward a new legacy that centers all that Peter Cooper desired for generations of bright, inquisitive, passionate, and compassionate students.

Each of us grounds our time at The Cooper Union in our own way. My commitment to this institution has always been inextricably linked to the founding ideals of Peter Cooper. In reflecting on the current moment, the importance of a shared future, and the work that binds us, I am reminded of this line from Peter Cooper’s letter to Trustees upon the founding of the institution in 1859:

My earnest desire is to make this building and institution contribute in every way possible to unite all in one common effort to improve each and every human being, seeing that we are bound up in one common destiny and by the laws of our being are made dependent for our happiness on the continued acts of kindness we receive from each other.

My hope for the coming year and beyond is that kindness and common destiny set the tone for The Cooper Union’s future, just as our founder intended.

It has been my great privilege to lead this institution, and I cannot wait to see what lies ahead. Welcome back, Cooper Union. Your future is bright!

Laura Sparks