Commencement

The Cooper Union’s 162nd Commencement will take place on Wednesday, May 25, 2022, honoring our 2022 graduates. The ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. in our historic Great Hall, located in the Foundation Building, 7 East 7th Street, New York, NY 10003. The program will also be livestreamed for public viewing at youtube.com/cooperunion.

Jelani Cobb, Ph.D., a New Yorker staff writer and the Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism at Columbia University’s Journalism School, will give the 2022 commencement address. Read more

Families and guests should plan on COVID-19 precautions being in place. All guests and attendees will be required to show proof of vaccination in order to enter the Great Hall to watch the ceremony. Those who are not vaccinated should plan to watch the ceremony via the link above. For the health and safety of our community, there are no exceptions to this requirement. 

For additional details, please click on the Frequently Asked Questions link on the sidebar. 

  • 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.