Hello Cooper Union! 

I hope your first day of the 2025-26 academic year is off to a wonderful start. Mine sure is—I’ve anticipated this day since my arrival here in July, excited to see The Cooper Union humming and bustling with students, faculty, and staff, and today has not disappointed! Our buildings and Cooper Triangle are already filled with your energy, and it was wonderful to see so many of you at Convocation earlier today. My thanks to all who attended. Moments like that are important opportunities to forge connections as a community, and I look forward to more of them throughout the year. 

A Little About Me 

I’ve been an educator for more than 30 years, with most of that time spent at Georgia Tech. Moving from a school with 50,000 students and 4,000 faculty and staff to a school the size of Cooper is a big change. But the size and scale of Cooper is one of the things that most excited me about coming here.  Knowing one another and making those community connections is possible in a different way here, and that’s an advantage for all of us. 

I am an electrical engineer. I have done research in information theory and been involved in four start-ups related to wireless communication technology, data storage, and security. I felt right at home here when I learned Peter Cooper participated in the laying of the first trans-Atlantic cable. About that, he said, the project “offered the possibility of a mighty power for the good of the world.” He never disappoints, does he?!

Students, Students, Students 

As president, my top three priorities are these: Students. Students. Students. 

That is the very foundation of what we’ll all do together. Students, I want you to know that you are the heart of The Cooper Union. You are the reason we exist. I believe that, and so do the faculty and staff who are with you on your Cooper journey. Since I arrived, I’ve been on a mission to meet with as many people as possible to learn everything I can about this amazing community. I’ve spent time with our staff, faculty, and deans whose dedication to our college is an absolute inspiration. 

I’ve met with alumni, trustees, donors, and city and state officials, all of whom believe in our mission, and with whom I’m eager to build partnerships to advance our work. 

And, of course, students! I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know some of you already, and look forward to many more conversations and interactions with all of you. For starters, I hope to see you at our community breakfasts on Thursday mornings; they will alternate weekly between our two buildings. I also have Office Hours. Click on this link to sign up and come see me. 

I have much to learn and so many more people to meet and that will be accelerated now that we’re all back together, but today, I wanted to share a few of my near-term goals: 

Restoring Full Tuition Scholarships 

First, underpinning everything I’ll do here at Cooper is honoring the commitment to return to tuition-free education for all students. We’re not there yet, and we have a lot more work to do, but Cooper has made meaningful progress toward this goal: 

• There has been no tuition increase here for seven years.
• All students receive a half-tuition scholarship.
• Last year, nearly 60% of students attended tuition-free. 

Last year, President Sparks announced that three alumni donors had made it possible for the entire Class of 2025 to attend tuition-free and that the same would be true for each senior class through the graduating Class of 2028. That just doesn’t happen in many other places. It’s cause for celebration. And it’s why I’m happy to share that with the continued support of our donor community, we’ve been able to extend the tuition-free senior year to the entire Class of 2029, too.

Constructive Dialogue 

Second, here at The Cooper Union, we are, quite literally, a Union of individuals. We are people from different walks of life, with different perspectives, skills, and dreams, with different challenges and concerns. We are a microcosm of the world around us and ambassadors of the worlds we come from. 

Bridging those worlds and sharing those perspectives with each other, productively, requires language and know-how that some refer to as constructive dialogue. I’ll have more to share about the idea of constructive dialogue and about resources and programming related to that this semester. 

Academic Freedom 

Third, many in higher education, broadly, are concerned that the value and integrity of academic freedom are diminishing. Here at Cooper Union, I assure you, academic freedom is prized and protected, alive and well. Higher education only thrives when ideas—sometimes controversial, sometimes uncomfortable—can be expressed and debated freely. 

I’ve already started to work with the deans on this, and we’ll be working through the faculty to take a fresh look at how we support and articulate academic freedom here at Cooper Union. We want to ensure that our teaching and scholarly work is protected, and that we have the tools to understand the rights and responsibilities of academic freedom. 

“Use This Building Wisely and Well” 

In reading everything I can about our beloved founder Peter Cooper, I came across his address that marked the formal opening of The Cooper Union in 1859. In his remarks, he urged students to, “use this Building wisely and well.” 

I love everything about this sentiment and how it informs our time and our work together now. 

This Building—The Cooper Union—is grounded in hard work, philanthropy, inclusion, civic engagement, kindness, innovation, and bettering the world around us. We owe it to Peter Cooper and to each other to use this Building wisely and well. 

Students, in this Building you will have the opportunity to work with world-class faculty members who are eager to share their time and talents with you. They are here to teach you, support you, push you, and also learn from you. Engage with our great faculty wisely and well, and often.  In this Building, you will also spend your days surrounded by incredibly talented classmates. You have so much to learn from one another and to share with each other. Invest wisely and well in building meaningful relationships that will sustain you now and 40 years from now. 

These words from Peter Cooper also reinforce for me my responsibility to prepare this place wisely and well for you: to help ensure that each and every one of you feel like you belong here, that you can do your best work here, and that this is a place where you find meaning, growth, satisfaction, and connection. 

I commit to all of you my intention to do this and all that I can to chart the course for the next 165 years of success for The Cooper Union. 

Through the Lens of Kindness 

In closing, I do have one request. I am a fervent believer in free expression, and I am equally firm in my belief that just because you can say something, doesn’t mean you should. 

Please take the time to consider your words through a lens of kindness, and think about how your words might affect someone else. Will they be hurtful, could they be received in an unintended way? Better yet, can they make someone’s day or advance our understanding of each other? 

I know that kindness is among the most powerful forces in the universe. I ask that, first and foremost, we lead with it in the year ahead. 

Let’s use this Building and the whole of The Cooper Union wisely and well. I look forward to the great things we’ll do together this year. 

Sincerely, 

Steve McLaughlin 
President