WHERE THE OCEAN MEETS THE FOREST

saintvalens: Posters from the Paris Protests, 1968

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:30:02 -0400

saintvalens:

Posters from the Paris Protests, 1968

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Sat, 09 Mar 2013 17:40:21 -0500

slavin: If you’re just joining the Cooper Union story, the NYT...

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:17:48 -0500

slavin:

If you’re just joining the Cooper Union story, the NYT headline summarizes it quickly: “Free Tuition at Cooper Union May Be Near End”. To elaborate just a bit, let’s say that a great institution serving the public good has been jeopardized — possibly to extinction — by negligent and ill-informed financial management with a heavy smear of bullshit to cut the smell.

The latest chapter is the most significant one yet: incoming Early Decision applicants to the School of Art have had their admission considerations “deferred.”

Think about being a student, 17 years old, making your commitment to early decision to Cooper Union, instead of another school. Now imagine finding out that you have considered an institution that might or might not be considering any students at all.

The faces above will help you to authentically imagine the faces of the Deferred. And as Clay Shirky points out, these posts on the 99% tumblr can help you imagine the face of the alternatives.

It’s possible that Cooper Union has reached the end of the line, and can’t bring in students because it can no longer subsidize the education that Peter Cooper worked to provide. But if that’s the case: say so.

If it’s not the case, say yes or no. “Deferral” is a bureaucrat’s word. These are students, and at 17, they still speak English; they understand yes and no. None of this could possibly make any sense to them, as it certainly doesn’t make sense to a lot of other people.

I personally sympathize with Cooper’s administration, who have the very difficult role of having to determine whether the school can continue. But that consideration is not something to inflict on students.

It’s hard enough to be 17 and to set out on a difficult course towards a difficult (and important) career. But the role of education is to prepare you for difficulty, not to subject you to it. Sink the ship, or let them on, but don’t leave them adrift. It’s unfair, uncool, and it will always come back to bite you in the ass.

STUDENT RALLY FOR "DEFERRED" COOPER UNION APPLICANTS THIS WEDNESDAY

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:01:54 -0500

STUDENT RALLY FOR "DEFERRED" COOPER UNION APPLICANTS THIS WEDNESDAY:

See you Wednesday! We put the invitation on our blog, so you can share with non-Facebook friends

Things have been steadily heating up at Cooper Union since last December’s lock-in. The faculties of Art, Architecture and Engineering have publicly affirmed the vital importance of a tuition-free Cooper. In a recent letter, the School of Art faculty rejected President Bharucha’s tuition-based “reinvention” plan, instead offering their steadfast support in leveraging Cooper’s greatest asset: the culture of academic freedom and excellence engendered by its 150-year free tuition policy.

The Trustees’ response was punitive and irrational. As reported in the New York Times this week, they obstructed Admissions from sending acceptance letters to successful Early Decision School of Art applicants, ultimately directing Admissions to notify those applicants they had been deferred.

For months, faculty, alumni, students and staff have been offering pragmatic recommendations to close the budget deficit without tuition. One major problem is administrative bloat. For example, while the School of Engineering graduates around 55% of Cooper Union’s students, its academic budget is $6 million— less than 10% of the school’s total expenditures. Is our current Board unequipped to ensure administrative bloat is controlled?

Can we reimagine a Cooper Union living within its means? What is the true cost of educating a Cooper Union student? Faculty, alumni, students and staff are attending a March 1 forum with the Board of Trustees to pose that question. As the trustees prepare to vote on tuition in March, please join us in the Great Hall at 6PM to advocate for this historic and unique mission.

Headlines are announcing death is imminent for Peter Cooper’s vision of a free education. It has not yet come to pass.

STUDENT RALLY AND PRESS CONFERENCE FOR "DEFERRED" EARLY DECISION APPLICANTS: COOPER UNION!

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 20:12:16 -0500

STUDENT RALLY AND PRESS CONFERENCE FOR "DEFERRED" EARLY DECISION APPLICANTS: COOPER UNION!:

THIS WEDNESDAY STAND UP FOR STUDENT RIGHTS// NO ONE’S FUTURE SHOULD BE HELD AS ADMINISTRATIVE COLLATERAL!!

1 PM IN FRONT OF COOPER UNION//SPREAD THE WORD

pleasedontfront: Cooper Union in today’s New York Times

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 20:29:27 -0500

pleasedontfront:

Cooper Union in today’s New York Times

MYLIFE: TO ALL COOPER UNION APPLICANTS WHO GOT DEFERRED. Print out your...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 21:38:12 -0500

MYLIFE: TO ALL COOPER UNION APPLICANTS WHO GOT DEFERRED. Print out your...:

simpleanddark:

TO ALL COOPER UNION APPLICANTS WHO GOT DEFERRED. Print out your deference letter/email, take a picture with it and post it on the Facebook group “Cooper Union Early Decision Applicants.” All so if you want to include a statement to be read at the press conference THIS Wednesday. Let me know…

caseyagollan: Can’t not post the cake one more time. LOUDly...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:47:49 -0500

caseyagollan:

Can’t not post the cake one more time.

LOUDly mic-checked the faculty’s brave, eloquent letter, re-iterated our demands (ending in Jamshed Bharucha steps down), presented his cake, and then launched into song: “Happy resignationnnn dear Jamsheddd…”

At which point he fled the room and everything went dead silent.

“These are not merely antics, they are a shift in power.”

pleasedontfront: When I applied to the Cooper Union School of...

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 02:58:31 -0500

pleasedontfront:

When I applied to the Cooper Union School of Art, I submitted an early decision application. It was the only school I applied to as early decision. As most college applicants know, you can only apply to one school for early decision consideration. This is because if you’re accepted to that school, your early decision application is considered to be a binding agreement — you agree to attend the school and “withdraw your applications to other colleges” if they accept you as an early decision applicant.

I only applied to one school early decision: Cooper Union. I sent in applications to several other schools, but was fortunate enough to receive an acceptance letter from Cooper — on time, as promised — during the first week of February, 2009. Had my early decision application been deferred — as it has now been for all applicants to the school of art, I would have felt cheated, and likely outraged, because it would mean that my early decision application (the only one any college applicant gets) would have been wasted.

This years School of Art applicants have held up their side of the bargain.. but the Cooper Union administration has not. President Bharucha has wasted the opportunity, that all early decision applicants to the school chose to take. And all he’s got to say to them is “sorry, better luck in March”. The president has already marginalized the current body of students at Cooper… and now he’s doing it to future students.

caseyagollan: Today Cooper’s Board of Trustees and President...

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 02:51:29 -0500

caseyagollan:

Today Cooper’s Board of Trustees and President made a huge blunder, announcing — weeks after acceptance letters were ready to go out — that they are retracting early admission for the School of Art in response to a letter issued by School of Art Faculty opposing tuition-based programs:

The Faculty of the School of Art, while endorsing the excellence of the programs they developed over the Fall semester and presented orally to the Board on December 5 (these include pre-college, summer, certificate and master’s programs), has reversed its course and on January 25th issued a statement to me and Dean Bos, and later to the Board of Trustees, stating that they “can neither propose nor vote on a motion that moves these proposals forward,” stating that “any solution to The Cooper Union’s current financial crisis that depends, even in part on tuition compromises and irreversibly damages the ideals of art, education, freedom, and citizenship”. Pending the Board’s decisions in March about the future of the institution, and in the absence of a sustainable model for the School of Art, the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees has directed the administration to notify students seeking early admission to the School of Art that their applications will be considered as part of the art school’s general application pool. We apologize to our early admission applicants to the School of Art for the delay in the decision process.

This produced many confused and disappointed applicants, who were either rejected or deferred today by email. My little sister, an applicant, reminded me that you can only apply early to one school. Cooper’s administration has essentially thrown out this chance for a whole bunch of smart, hard-working kids.

Bharucha is blaming faculty simply for reaching the conclusion that his charge is actually unsustainable! I believe the term for this is: temper-tantrum. Faculty did, in fact, put in months of work writing plans for new revenue-generating academic programs, though they found the administration’s ask to be “subtly coercive”. After running the numbers they realized it wouldn’t work financially. But more importantly, they saw how a “Hybrid” model (where some students pay and others don’t, or scholarships are reduced to a percentage) compromises the college’s core asset: it’s mission — it’s promise! — of Free Education To All. The worst part of today’s announcement is how the Board is shamelessly using kids who took a chance on Cooper as collateral against Faculty who complied with a poorly designed charge and had the guts to then stand up and oppose it.

That’s why I was proud, yesterday, to confront the President, Chairman of the Board, and other administrators with our demands as Students for a Free Cooper Union, and sing, “Happy Resignation Dear Jamshed” in hopes that he’ll TAKE THE HINT. (He walked out of the room.) And that was a full day before they made this ridiculous announcement. Check out the video above and re-read our demands below:

The administration must publicly affirm the college’s commitment to free education. They will stop pursuing new tuition-based educational programs and eliminate other ways in which students are charged for education.

The Board of Trustees must immediately implement structural changes with the goal of creating open flows of information and democratic decision-making structures.The administration’s gross mismanagement of the school cannot be reversed within the same systems which allowed the crisis to occur. To this end, we have outlined actions that the board must take:
Record board meetings and make minutes publicly available.

Appoint a student and faculty member from each school as voting members of the board.

Implement a process by which board members may be removed through a vote from the Cooper Union community, comprised of students, faculty, alumni, and administrators.

President Bharucha steps down.

WHERE THE OCEAN MEETS THE FOREST

saintvalens: Posters from the Paris Protests, 1968

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slavin: If you’re just joining the Cooper Union story, the NYT...

STUDENT RALLY FOR "DEFERRED" COOPER UNION APPLICANTS THIS WEDNESDAY

STUDENT RALLY AND PRESS CONFERENCE FOR "DEFERRED" EARLY DECISION APPLICANTS: COOPER UNION!

THIS WEDNESDAY STAND UP FOR STUDENT RIGHTS// NO ONE’S FUTURE SHOULD BE HELD AS ADMINISTRATIVE COLLATERAL!!1 PM IN FRONT OF COOPER UNION//SPREAD THE WORD

pleasedontfront: Cooper Union in today’s New York Times

MYLIFE: TO ALL COOPER UNION APPLICANTS WHO GOT DEFERRED. Print out your...

caseyagollan: Can’t not post the cake one more time. LOUDly...

pleasedontfront: When I applied to the Cooper Union School of...

caseyagollan: Today Cooper’s Board of Trustees and President...

NYC KIDS PLEASE LIKE THIS FB PAGE FOR MORE INFO!

THIS WEDNESDAY STAND UP FOR STUDENT RIGHTS// NO ONE’S FUTURE SHOULD BE HELD AS ADMINISTRATIVE COLLATERAL!!

1 PM IN FRONT OF COOPER UNION//SPREAD THE WORD