Harry Donas ChE’83

Running for: Council

Campaign Statement

Graduating from The Cooper Union is one of the greatest academic achievements for a young person. I am always proud, yet modest, when someone learns of my accomplishment. Cooper Union students are especially talented. One of my proudest moments, believe it or not, was when I took a free NYU Financial Accounting course while a senior at Cooper. For the midterm, the excellent professor threw us a twist – a problem that he had not gone over in class. He stated, when discussing the midterm results – to the two or three students who got this right, I gave an extra five points to. Well, I got it right, and so did my two CU classmates who were also taking this NYU course. Since this was an evening class, we were “competing” with students who were already in the business world. This incident, although over 35 years ago, is etched into my mind as to how amazing and special my classmates and Cooper Union were!  And of course, the talented artists and architects of Cooper Union always made me a bit envious of how they saw the world in their own brilliant albeit different ways, As a long-time public employee for the City of New York, I am an active union official who tries to get my fellow union members appreciated, and that is what I will strive for if elected to the CUAA Council.

Biography

I am a long-time resident of the East Village area. I graduated Cooper Union in 1983 with a Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering and in 1986 with a Master’s, was active in most intramural sports, wrote several articles for the Cooper Pioneer (my favorites being for the April Fool’s edition under my alias, Donald Harris), and I grew 6 inches from freshman year to graduation. I have worked for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection for over 34 years and am a licensed Professional Engineer. I am also currently the Second Vice-President of Local 375, the union that represents most City non-managerial engineers, and other scientific/technical staff, and was previously the 3-term Civil Service Chair. Although I was a way-too-enthusiastic bowler at Cooper Union (as my freshman Humanities professor noted when reading my requisite diary), and on the varsity team for four years, my current favorite sporting activity is snowboarding mushy moguls in the spring!  Thanks to Dean Stephen Baker for creating my passion for winter sports thru his annual Canada ski trips.