This Newsletter was copied from the Legacy Site www.cualumni.com
Alumni Council Meeting July 24, 2013
The meeting was held at 41 Cooper Square in room LL101 from 6:35 to 9:30 PM. The meeting was opened by CUAA President John Leeper, AR ’85 who welcomed the 12 new Council members and acknowledged the presence of several CUAA past-presidents at the meeting. He stated that this is the first time the Council has ever met in July and there is pending work that is of an urgent nature.
Some of the meeting’s highlights include: establishment of a Working Group that will look for cost savings that are of an order of magnitude sufficient to preserve full tuition scholarships and allow the school to continue beyond the next four years; end-of-year updates from the Annual Fund Committee, Communications Committee, Events Committee, Nominating Committee, and a presentation on the proposed society called Associates of the Cooper Union by Sangamithra Iyer, CE ’99.
In addition, the following motions were voted upon and approved by the Alumni Council:
- to form a committee headed by Sangamithra Iyer that includes representation from Alumni Trustees to study The Associates of the Cooper Union and make a recommendation to the Council by December 2013 to support or not support the formation of this group.
- to form a new alumni award for alumni who have performed outstanding public service.
- to request that the Constitution Committee prepare and submit a timeline to achieve a rewrite of CUAA constitution and bylaws that will be sent for full alumni vote within the current academic year and which includes any motions presented to the Council on 7/24/13
- to amend the constitution to grant voting rights in the Alumni Association to final year students by such means as the Alumni Council determines to be appropriate, such amendment to be submitted to the relevant approval process for formal amendment of the constitution no later than February 2014
- in regards to the formation of the Working Group, Kelly Smolar, ME ’07 made a motion that the CUAA hold a special on-line election to elect the 3 alumni representatives, 1 from each school; and that requirements for the representatives be available by 8/1/2013, that the Candidate Slate be published by 8/7/2013 and that the election be completed by 8/15/2013.
The meeting was live-streamed and can be viewed here. Please click on the link below for a full summary of the meeting.
Alumna Wins Major Award from Asian American Business Development Center
Congratulations to Christina Ho, ChE ’02, Steam Operations Planning Manager at Con Edison. She has been named one of the 50 Outstanding Asian Americans in Business by The Asian American Business Development Center. She has held a number of positions with Con Ed since starting there in 2002. Christina received the award for her leadership and dedication to the communities Con Edison serves.
Alumni Interview Appears in Bomb Magazine
One alumnus interviewed another and it was published in a major art publication. The interview, Hope Gangloff, A ’97 by Yuri Masnyj, A ’98 was commissioned by and first published in BOMB Magazine, from BOMB 124/Summer 2013, pp. 24-33. © Bomb Magazine, New Art Publications, and its Contributors. All rights reserved. The BOMB Digital Archive can be viewed at www.bombsite.com. Read Article
A Message from Past President Peter Cafiero CE’83
All — I wanted to send out one last “Thank You” to all on the Council and Executive Committee for all of your help and support during these past two years. While we have together faced unprecedented challenges during this time, as I look back on this period I realize that collectively we have made some significant accomplishments. While much work remains to be done, I look back with some satisfaction at the things we have accomplished in two years, including:
- We pressed for, and hosted several Board of Trustee forums and one-on-one meetings with Board members, to begin the process of re-connecting the Board with alumni.
- Working with Alumni Relations staff, our Communications Committee has significantly improved our electronic outreach to alumni
- We began to engage the Council in reaching out to recent alumni through our “Project Connect”
- We worked with Alumni Relations, to refocus the Annual Founder’s Day dinner back towards our alumni award winners while still having a fun event
- Our Events Committee, in addition to the huge task of rethinking Founder’s Day, continues to expand our successful informal pop-up events
- Our Annual Fund has seen significant increases, affinity groups and regional groups are growing, and more alumni are engaged than ever. I know that all of you have given more of your time and energy these past two years than you ever anticipated. We’ve had a number of extra meetings, spent a lot of time carefully deliberating the wording of resolutions, reaching out to alumni, planning, participating and hosting events, and contributing ideas.
And if you are anything like me, you’ve at times been frustrated, saddened, and angry at what has been happening at Cooper. It’s certainly easy to get depressed. But as I noted earlier, when you think about it, we’ve accomplished a lot and laid out a foundation to build up the role of the CUAA in the future.
So once again I thank you all for your help and your support. I wish the best for our new CUAA president John Leeper, and know that we will all do what we can to support The Cooper Union, its amazing students and alumni in the future.
Regards, Peter Cafiero
Past President, CUAA
Kim Holleman A’95
Kim is an interdisciplinary artist who also attended The Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, Holland. She has developed a practice to relate her work to several fields of studies, focusing on global environmental issues. Her award-winning work, Trailer Park: A Mobile Public Park, debuted at The Storefront for Art and Architecture in 2006. It has been on display at multiple galleries, events, and conferences across New York. As recently as May this year, Trailer Park was exhibited at The New Museum for Ideas City. She was a finalist in the international ONE Prize interdisciplinary architectural competition, and was honored to present her talk at the TEDx conference at The Cooper Union. Read Full Interview
June and July Events
CU @ Situ, July 23, 2013
On July 22, 2013 Situ Fabrication hosted an Open Shop event at their new fabrication facility located at Building 132 in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Founding partner Bradley Samuels AR ’05 presented both a brief history of Building 132 as well as several completed and current Situ projects. Basar Girit, AR ’05, Aleksey Lukyanov AR, ’05 and Wes Rozen, AR ’05, the other three partners, hosted the event with Brad. The event attracted over 200 people, 21 of which were Cooper Union Alumni and pictured in the photo. The night featured beer and tacos courtesy of Big D’s Taco Truck. Thanks to Amir Shahrokhi, AR ’05 for hosting the Pop-Up event for the CUAA.
Seattle Happy Hour July 18, 2013
On Thursday, July 18, 2013 Cooper alumni and friends in Seattle gathered for a happy hour at Brouwer’s Café. They mingled and enjoyed beers and ciders from around the world along with falafel fries and Belgian pomme frites.
Alumni represented all three schools as well as all decades ranging from 1958 to 2013. Cooper senior, Masami Kubo ART’13 attended with her mom, Nancy Kubo, while she was home visiting. The group was excited about connecting with fellow alums and friends of Cooper. There was a general enthusiasm about arranging future Seattle get-togethers. Stay tuned!
CU @ Phebe’s June 20, 2013
Vincent Yuen, CE’ 94 coordinated an alumni Pop-Up at Phebe’s on June 20, 2013. Over twenty alumni and friends were in attendance. A special thanks to Phebe’s for being so accommodating and letting us have the space in the back that allowed alumni from multiple disciplines and years to mingle and network in a very fun environment.
SKT Fraternity Reunion
On May 30, 2013, the brothers and sisters of Cooper Union’s Sigma Kappa Tau (SKT) fraternity held their largest reunion ever. This year, the reunion cast a much broader net, and attracted 130 participants, including 85 SKT alumni and 45 spouses and guests. The alumni spanned the full four decades of SKT’s existence, ranging from the classes of 1948 through 1988. A special treat was the participation by Ed Durbin, EE ’48, who was SKT’s first president. The event was held in the delightful venue of Battery Gardens Restaurant inside Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan. See More Photos
School News and Updates
Student Occupation Ends
The administration, Board of Trustees of The Cooper Union and those members of the Cooper Union community who have been occupying the Office of the President since early May have reached an agreement that ended the occupation on Friday, July 12. A Working Group will be established promptly to undertake a good faith effort to seek an alternative to tuition that will sustain the institution’s long-term financial viability and strengthen its academic excellence. Read More
Cooper Union Welcomes New Engineering Dean
Effective August 5, 2013, Dr. Teresa A. Dahlberg will serve as the new Dean of the Albert Nerken School of Engineering at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Previously the Associate Dean, College of Computing and Informatics at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Charlotte, Dr. Dahlberg brings to her new position a rare combination of scientific, academic, business and research experience. She is also well known for forming strategic partnerships having created a national organization, the STARS Computing Corps, to engage upcoming students for entry and success in college computing programs.
New York City, under the leadership of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, is evolving as a science eco-system and a world center for innovation. Dr. Dahlberg will ensure that The Cooper Union’s Albert Nerken School of Engineering secures a solid leadership position in engineering and science and continues to be a major resource for development of the highest level of education and invention in the 21st Century. Learn More
FY 13 Development Results
To: The Cooper Community
From: President Jamshed Bharucha
With enormous thanks to alumni, parents, and friends of Cooper, I am pleased to report the following results of our fundraising efforts for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2013 (FY13).
The Cooper Union received an overall cash total of $10 million in FY13 (alumni gifts accounted for 43%, or $4.3 million), a 3% increase over FY12’s $9.7 million cash total. Of that, $3.9 million was to the annual fund, exceeding the $2.6 million budgeted goal, and surpassing FY 12’s annual fund total of $3.1 million by 26%. By dollars, 77% of the annual fund giving was from alumni ($3 million), 8% from parents ($.3 million), and 15% from matching gifts, non-alumni trustees, friends, and students ($.6 million). Of the remaining $6.1 million (gifts, grants, and payments on outstanding pledges from the last capital campaign), $3.1 million was spendable, down from FY12’s $5.4 million; $2 million was restricted to the endowment, up from FY12’s $1 million; and $1 million was in deferred or in kind gifts (not spendable), up from FY12’s $.2 million.
These results are encouraging in view of the unsettling events which characterized this past year. However, overall participation (all giving, not just annual fund) did decline in FY13, with alumni participation at 23%, down from FY12’s 26%.
We are hopeful that as we, together, make progress in shaping a pathway for the future for Cooper, increasing numbers of alumni, parents and friends will support that effort. On behalf of the entire Cooper Union community, I want to thank Vice President Derek Wittner and his entire team for achieving these outstanding fundraising results.
Upcoming Events
9/12/2013
WELCOME BACK HAPPY HOUR
Kick off the fall semester with an informal get together on the Alumni Roof Terrace at 41 Cooper Square. Bring a friend to reconnect with Cooper, build your network and enjoy spectacular views of the NYC skyline. Students and alumni are welcome. Hosted by the Financial Services Affinity Group. LEARN MORE
9/19/2013
CU @ FENWAY PARK
Join President Jamshed Bharucha, Dean Baker, and fellow alumni for a Red Sox vs. Orioles game at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. Pre-game reception starts at 5:10 PM, followed by the first pitch at 7:10. MORE INFO SOON
9/22/2013
CU @ CITIZENS BANK PARK
Join President Jamshed Bharucha, Dean Baker, and fellow alumni for a Phillies vs. Mets game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, PA. Pre-game reception starts at 12:05 PM, followed by the first pitch at 1:35. MORE INFO SOON
9/28/2013
RESPONSIBLE FOR GREATNESS NIGHT
Join Dean Baker for the third annual Greatness Night to support Cooper athletics and to honor four alumni and two current students, including: Steve Verderese, EE ’84; Chi Chan, CE ’91; Jessica Galbo, CE ’10/MCE ’12, and Logan Yu, ChE ‘080. Location: The Great Hall at 5:30 PM. Dinner to follow.
10/3, 10/10, 10/17, 10/24
MASTER DRAWING CLASS WITH SUE FERGUSON GUSSOW
Professor Emerita Sue Ferguson Gussow, A ’56 has taught drawing at The Cooper Union for over 40 years. This special Master Drawing Class benefiting The Cooper Union will include four intense evenings of drawing instruction and critique. Enrollment is very limited! Register now with a minimum contribution of $1,500. Deadline to register: Friday, September 27. Contact Jennifer Durst for more information.