Beginning in the fall of 2014, Cooper Union an art architecture, and engineering college open since 1859, will begin charging tuition for the first time since 1902.
“After eighteen months of intense analysis and vigorous debate about the future of Cooper Union, the time has come for us to set our institution on a path that will enable it to survive and thrive well into the future,” the Board of Trustees said in a statement.
Cooper Union, , will begin charging 50 percent of the total tuition cost for all undergrads admitted in the fall of 2014. Last year, the school started charging tuition for graduate classes. It also asked the college’s three schools—architecture, engineering and art—to help tackle a $12 million annual deficit.
Peter Cooper founded the university with the mission of providing quality education to those who could not afford it. The Board said it will continue to try and meet that goal by offering additional scholarships to those in need, including Pell Grant-eligible students.
The Board said in its statement downsizing the institution to maintain the current scholarship policy was considered, but it was found the $12 million annual deficit was too much to overcome.
“We reject the notion that a full tuition scholarship, of and by itself, is the defining character of Cooper Union,” The Cooper Union Alumni Association Trustees said in a letter to alumni. “It is a unique cradle of education that is defined by a distinctive culture, size, collaborative learning approach and many other factors which extend well beyond the historical full scholarship policy, and which continue to attract those talented students.”
Annual tuition at Cooper Union is $38,550 per year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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