It was a matter of hours from when the resignations of five Cooper Union trustees rolled in until their names were erased from the college’s website.
And it was a day later that the President Jamshed Bharucha announced he too would resign, more than a year before his employment contract expires.
Yet the upheaval that led to the acrimonious departures has been years in the making.
— Inside Higher Ed
Events are unfolding very quickly in Cooper Union's leadership right now: Just hours after five members of the 23-member Board of Trustees resigned yesterday, Jamshed Bharucha, the school's embattled President, publicly announced his resignation in an email to the Cooper Union community.
Following is the email in full length (h/t Ken Koense):
Subject: Presidential Transition
From: The Cooper Union <alumni@cooper.edu>
To: All community and alumni
Date: Wednesday, June 10, 2015 7:09 PM
Dear Members of the Cooper Union Community:
I am writing to let you know that I will be leaving my post as President of The Cooper Union at the end of June, 2015. Starting in the fall, I will serve as Visiting Scholar at Harvard University in the Graduate School of Education.
It has been an honor to serve as the 12th President of Cooper Union these past four years. The focus of my presidency has been to secure Cooper’s finances for generations of deserving students in the future, while preserving excellence and increasing socio-economic access.
The class completing its freshman year was the first to be admitted under the 2013 Financial Sustainability Plan, and the class just admitted will be the second. These two classes uphold Cooper’s unparalleled standard of excellence. With need-based financial aid, we have also been able to increase access to those who can least afford it, as shown by an increase in the proportion of students eligible for Federal Pell Grants.
Jessie and I want to thank all the students, faculty, alumni, donors, friends, and neighbors whom we have been privileged to meet during our stay at Cooper, and we wish you all the very best.
Jamshed Bharucha
President
Responding to Bharucha's resignation email, the 19 remaining Board of Trustees members released this statement:
The Board of Trustees is grateful to Jamshed Bharucha for his service as the 12th President of Cooper Union.
The financial exigencies with which he was confronted upon his arrival were not of his making and he deserves credit for sounding the alarm about the need to take urgent action to ensure Cooper Union’s long-term financial sustainability.
We wish President Bharucha all the best in his future endeavors, and have agreed to name him President Emeritus effective July 1, 2015.
The board has asked Cooper’s vice president for finance and administration, William Mea, to assume interim leadership responsibilities on July 1. In the fall, the board will form a presidential search committee that will include representation from the faculty, students and alumni.
Mea, who is currently responsible for financial planning and budgeting, the controller’s office, human resources, information technology, public safety, facilities and legal affairs, joined Cooper in September 2014.
Previously on Archinect: Five Cooper Union trustees just resigned
8 Comments
Sad.
@Alternative, why do you say that?
Because the University's financial woes are so serious that they aren't going to be cured by shuffling around a few figureheads.
Their building will make a great H&M once they get axed.
and one day cooper union too will be a luxury hotel of minimum existence, just another hotel sphinx. thanks oma.
CU is not going anywhere per se, but it's likely to get rolled up into another institution.
If their financial collapse was in fact caused by a dearth in donations from alumni it says a lot about people today. If I wasn't required to shell out 25% of my monthly earnings to pay off student loans, I would more than likely decide to donate, and I have some even with the intern pay I get today. But a group of very lucky students gets to go to a school, for free, and get an education that people tend to be envious of, which generally lead to fairly lucrative careers, and they can't spare a dime? Somehow I can't believe that...
(Financially illiterate architect) ^^
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