Minutes

Adopted Motions and Resolutions

None Passed.

Proceedings and Summary

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Annual Fund

CUAA President John Leeper, AR ’85, called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM. He welcomed all attendees and he made some introductory remarks.  Annual Fund Chair Darrell Low, EE ’89, gave an update on the Annual Fund.  This year’s donations are currently about $200,000. above the donation amount at the same point last year and the number of donors are up about 3%.  Darrell also announced that the Phonathon will be held March 17 through March 20, 2014.  alumni, parents and students are all encouraged to help with this event.

Founder’s Day Event

VP Rocco Cetera, CE ’99 and Founder’s Day Committee Chair Yinna Wang, A ’07, described the Founder’s Day event being planned for April 13, 2014.  It is being called the Peter Cooper Block Party.  It will include an awards presentation in the Great Hall followed by a block party.  The event will be open to all alumni, students, staff and members of the community.  It will also be free for the attendees.  It will also use no money from the school. This means donations are needed to fund the event.  Alumni are asked to go to FoundersDay2014.com to learn more about the event and make a cost deductible donation toward the event.

Call for volunteers: if you’re interested in running a table, or a workshop, or helping work with kids or help out that day in general, please email the Founder’s Day committee at cuaa-foundersday-planning@googlegroups.com.

Founder’s Day Awardees

CUAA President John Leeper, AR ’85, announced the winners of the various Alumni awards, and Co-chair of the Peter Cooper Service Award Committee, Karina Tipton, CE ’99 announced the first ever winner of the Peter Cooper Service Award. The awardees are:

  • Alumnus of the Year – Sean Cusack, BSE ’98
  • Augustus Saint-Gaudens:
    • Julian LaVerdiere, A ’93, and
    • Augusta Savage, A ’25 (posthumous)
  • Gano Dunn – Jay Moskowitz, PHY ’70
  • John Q Hejduk – Leslie Gill, AR ’82
  • Young Alumni of The Year:
    • Henry Chapman, A ’10,
    • Alexis Lenza, CE ’05, and
    • Victoria Sobel, A ’13
  • Special Recognition Extraordinary Service To The Cooper Union And Its Alumni:
    • Michael Borkowsky, ME ’61,
    • Barry Drogin, EE ’83/MEE ’86, and
    • Jeffrey Gural
  • Peter Cooper Service Award – Patricia Buckley Moss, A ’55.

Council Nominations

Nominating Committee Chair, Karina Tipton, CE ’99 presented a slate of candidates for multiple officer positions and for the Alumni Council. Next she presented the nominating committee’s recommendations for the 2015 nominating committee slate.  Council members accepted these recommendations and added 5 additional candidates:  Peter Ross, A ’78, Yash Risbud, EE ’92, Paul Garrin, A ’82, Rob Marano, EE ’93 and Joe Riley, A ’13.

Nomination slate:

For Council:

  • Alexis Lenza CE’05
  • Andy Okuneff EE’11
  • Ariel Cotton A’13
  • Ben Degen A’98
  • Brian Rose A’79
  • Bruce Nelligan AR’80
  • Carol Wolf A’84
  • Darryl Low EE’89
  • Dennis Kong IDE’08
  • Evan Bray AR’01
  • George DeFeis CE’82
  • Jenny Eagleton A’13
  • Joe Reiter ME’96
  • Joe Riley A’13
  • Jozef Krakora EE’97
  • Kay Nordstrom ME’77
  • Kelly Occhiuzzo Zack A’90
  • Laura Napier A’98
  • Laura Spinner A’90
  • Mary K. Lynch ChE’82
  • Michael Lebron A’76
  • M’Liz Keefe A’85
  • Paul Garrin A’82
  • Peter Ross A’78
  • Roy Smith BSE’81
  • Sara Foley IDE’09
  • Shankar Venkataraman BSE’03
  • Steven Lerner ME’75
  • Tiberiu (Ted) Weisz EE ’71
  • Wes Rosen AR’05
  • Yinna Wang A’07

For Executive Committee:

  • President: John Leeper AR’85
  • Secretary/Treasurer: Pending confirmation
  • VP/Alumni Affairs: Pending confirmation
  • VP/Faculty Student Liaison: Margaret Matz AR’83

For Alumni Trustee:

  • Robert Tan AR’81

For Nominating Committee:

  • Karina Tipton, CE’99
  • Nicholas Agneta, AR’80
  • Carmi Bee, AR’67
  • Don Blauweiss, A’61
  • Xenia Diente, A’99
  • Mina Greenstein, A’56
  • Mary Lynch, ChE’82
  • Margaret Matz, A’83
  • Kelly Smolar E’05
  • Sean Cusack E’98
  • Peter Ross, A ’78 (nominated from the floor)
  • Yash Risbud, EE ’92 (nominated from the floor)
  • Paul Garrin, A ’82 (nominated from the floor)
  • Rob Marano, EE ’93 (nominated from the floor)
  • Joe Riley, A ’13 (nominated from the floor)

Constitution Changes

Constitution Committee Chair, Larry Hausman, EE ’94, gave a description of the constitution committee’s work reorganizing and updating the CUAA’s Constitution and Bylaws.  The constitutional update includes consolidating all organizational structure items in the constitution and day-to-day administrative items in the By-laws. It also updates committee names and creates a VP of Communications position. It also allows for a Dispute Resolution committee to be convened if a dispute arises between alumni about council matters that can not be otherwise resolved. The revised Constitution also allows the annual elections to be held just after graduation which will allow new graduates to participate in the elections. The revised Constitution must be approved by the full alumni body, so a copy of both the Constitution and bylaws will be distributed with the spring ballot.

Alumni Association Independence

CUAA President John Leeper, AR ’85 announced that he would like to begin an exploration process to determine whether the CUAA should return to being a fully independent group that operates independently of The Cooper Union. This means it would fully control its own budget, establish a bank account, take on some administrative duties and collect dues. It was decided that the next CUAA Council meeting will be dedicated to planning how best to gather input from alumni on whether this is something to pursue. It is anticipated that there may be multiple summits where alumni and students can express their views and make suggestions.  The CUAA meeting dedicated to planning was to be held on Tuesday, March 18th (See update below).

Motions

Sean Cusack, BSE ’98, proposed a motion calling for some new council initiatives call “Grand Challenges.”  Some of the suggested challenges are similar to current goals and Sean hopes that presenting the goals is a new manner will assist the council members in recruiting volunteers. The motion as presented did not pass.

Sean Cusack presented a second motion regarding whether Alumni want funds spent on services dedicated to them, while students are being charged tuition. This motion was tabled because it can be better discussed after some information is gathered from the exploration process requested by Rocco Cetera and John Leeper.

Council

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