Thank You

Thanks to you

This Giving Tuesday, our community demonstrated what Cooper&U: Unwavering Gratitude. Urgent Support. Forever a Union. truly means.

Through Early Give and Giving Tuesday, alumni, parents, faculty, staff, students, and friends stepped forward with generosity and purpose. Together, we unlocked the full $1.5 million in impact from our first challenge—an extraordinary achievement made possible only because of you. 

And on Giving Tuesday itself, you rose again. 

Thanks to supporters across the country and around the world, 500 gifts were made by December 2, unlocking an additional $500,000 from Marshall Rafal ChE’63 and Jane Rafal. Their challenge, rooted in Marshall’s lifelong commitment to Cooper, became a powerful testament to what this community can accomplish when we act together.

Your gift—whether early, on the day, or both—directly supports:

  • Scholarships
  • Studios, labs, tools, and spaces where ideas take shape
  • The next generation of Cooper architects, artists, and engineers

Every donor strengthened the future of Cooper. Every act of generosity mattered.

On behalf of The Cooper Union and the students who benefit directly from your support: thank you for standing with us, today and always.

Forever a Union.
 

  • 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.