A message from the President of the Cooper Union Alumni Association

Date: March 30, 2012
To: The Cooper Union Alumni Community

From: Peter Cafiero CE’83-President, The Cooper Union Alumni Association

Dear fellow Alumni,

Included is a resolution of the Alumni Council of The Cooper Union Alumni Association, drafted and passed unanimously at our February meeting. As most of you know, the issue of The Cooper Union’s finances and the potential for instituting tuition and other changes to the school has occupied a lot of the attention of the Cooper community these past six months. I am pleased to report that many alumni have been involved in the varied levels of discussions within the community during this period.

From your elected representatives on The Cooper Union Board of Trustees, to representation on the School’s Revenue and Expenditure Task Forces, to organizing and participating in a wide variety of forums and working groups, alumni from all schools and decades have come together as never before to make their voices heard on this issue that is so fundamental to the Cooper community. CUAA and Alumni Council members have tried as best we can to remain a bridge between the alumni and the administration, and to do our best to synthesize a collective alumni viewpoint. As such, the February resolution was an important first step in articulating a clear position to all alumni on the importance of the full tuition scholarship practice, as well as the alumni commitment to do whatever we can to sustain the school as a whole.

The Alumni Council continues to work with President Bharucha and the administration as we explore alternative means to ensuring the long term survival of The Cooper Union and its continued excellence. While the challenges are daunting, I remain optimistic. One thing we haven’t done as well as we could is communicate more quickly what the Alumni Council is doing.  By posting our minutes quickly to the alumni website and keeping information there more up to date, we are working on improving this.  We are also working with Caitlin Tramel, the new Director of Alumni Affairs, as well as the entire Alumni Affairs and Development team, and my fellow Council members to make sure this and other important information gets out in a timely manner for all to see, so please check the CUAlumni.com site regularly to keep in touch.

Thank you,
Peter G. Cafiero, President, CUAA

Resolution