The Cooper Union Board and President released yesterday a plan to return to full-tuition scholarships for all undergraduate students. This decision is the result of an ongoing strategic planning effort of re-examining the schools structure and values after the 150-year tradition of free scholarships was broken in 2014 causing protests and public outcry. 

The plan is a modified version of the recommendation published on January 15, 2018 by the Board’s Free Education Committee (FEC). 

Consistent with the FEC's recommendation are: 

• Increases scholarships beginning in two years, provided we meet critical fundraising, operating expense, and operating cash surplus goals.
• Returns The Cooper Union to full-tuition scholarships for all undergraduate students in 10 years.
• Seeks to generate $250 million over the 10-year timeline to bolster the institution's financial resilience and invest in its world-renowned academic programs.

Some of the Board's modifications include:

• Cooper Union will not raise the current residence hall cost to students, other than the usual, annual inflationary increases (approximately 3%).

• Cooper Union will defer all proposed graduate scholarship reductions until FY2020 and then phase in the proposed reductions over the next five years with close attention paid to improving the quality of the academic programs.

The school has made efforts to return to a free tuition model that is sustainable and does not infringe on academic quality. In this endeavor the school has gained momentum with 206 new donors and 418 increased gifts. With respect to cash contributions, the school is nearly $1 million ahead of where they were this time last year.