Commencement

Cooper Union's 2018 Commencement will be held on Wednesday, May 23, 2018. Further details will be released during the Spring 2018 semester. In the meantime, please read through the information listed below.

Professor Martha Nussbaum has been announced as the 2018 Commencement Speaker.

An archived video of the 2017 Commencement can be viewed here.

A list of recent commencement speakers is available here.

For those attending commencement, please see our separate pages for directions, hotel accommodations (including discounted rates), dining reservations and parking. 

For the schedule of events, please see the schedule page.

Assisted Listening Devices (ALDs) are available at The Great Hall sound desk, located at the rear of The Great Hall. Should anyone in your party require an ALD for the Commencement ceremony, please report to the sound desk.

For general information, please read the frequently asked questions page.

For background information, please see the commencement traditions page.

Join the Friends of the Cooper Union Library program. Alumni who join this program have the ability, for a nominal annual fee, to borrow circulating items. The annual fee for graduates of the most-recent academic year is only $25.

Please continue to periodically check this page for updates and new information.

  • 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.