Day 919: Bharucha Steps Down

Free Cooper Union
Wednesday, June 10th, 2015

On December 3rd, 2012, Free Cooper Union initiated a lock-in within the college’s clocktower, publicly issuing a set of demands and principles towards preserving the Cooper Union’s mission. Among the demands were a statement to the administration in support of free education, board reform, and President Jamshed Bharucha’s resignation. 919 days after the demands were first issued, Bharucha has finally stepped down, following the early termination of his contract and an ongoing Attorney General investigation.

Today, we celebrate the additional resignations of:

• Mark Epstein, Trustee and Former Chairman of the Board
• Francois DeMenil, Trustee and Vice Chairman of the Board
• Catharine Bond Hill, Trustee
• Daniel Libeskind, Trustee
• Monica Vachher, Trustee
• Teresa Dahlberg, Dean of Engineering and Chief Academic Officer

These departures mark a sea change, calling for the realization of a true Cooper Union: an institution worthy of the radical mission on which it was founded. This future will depend on the tenacity of the community and continued public engagement, through cooperative oversight, committed participation, and honest critique of our own shortcomings. We must rebuild Cooper, not towards a nostalgic notion of what it once was, but towards a fervent vision that shines in all directions.

Getting rid of key players will not be enough. Implementing rigid structures, best practices, and good leaders will not be enough. Adjusting the variables within an existing model of higher education will not be enough. Moving forward will require acknowledging years of bitter conflict, comprehensively assessing our present state, envisioning painfully distant ideals, and working cooperatively.

Direct action works. We know it to be true so deeply that no newspaper, no court, no president, no board, and no administrator could undo this conviction. Collectively, our community has scratched the surface of what it means to gleefully, painfully, patiently dismantle the societal conditioning which implores us to never step out of line. We stand to lose everything if we allow ourselves to regress to the type of thinking that allowed this crisis to ferment over a period of decades.

Envisioning the students who would occupy his school, Peter Cooper once said, “I trust that they will rally around and protect it, and make it like a city set on a hill, that cannot be hid.” As our administration disappears into hiding with petulant resignations, we affirm that now is always the time for principled action.

Demands

1. Board votes to affirm Cooper Union’s commitment to free education, stop pursuing new tuition-based educational programs, and work to eliminate all ways in which students are charged for education.
2. Reimbursement for all tuition payments collected to date.
3. Offer to reinstate former Dean of Students Linda Lemiesz and former Security Supervisor Owen Solomon, who served the Cooper community for over two decades before being arbitrarily fired by Jamshed Bharucha.
4. Re-establish official Working Group of elected constituents, who are provided unrestricted access to financial information, to continue investigating tuition-free financial models.
5. Authorize an independent forensic accounting of the college’s finances, starting with the past three decades, to be presented to the community.
6. Monthly community forums with interim president Bill Mea to review decisions, assess progress, and give feedback with an agreed upon stakeholder process.
7. Structural changes to board operations with the goal of creating open flows of information and democratic decision-making structures:
1. Record board meetings and make minutes publicly available.
2. Create additional voting seats on the board, elected directly by their constituencies, for: students from art, architecture, and engineering; faculty from art, architecture, engineering, and humanities; and staff
3. Implement a process by which board members may be removed through a vote of no confidence from the Cooper Union community, comprised of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and administrators.
8. Resignations tendered by the following administrators, who failed to publicly stand up for the college’s mission in a time of crisis:
1. Mitchell Lipton, Vice President of Enrollment Services
2. Stephen “Dean” Baker, Vice President of Student Affairs
3. Justin Harmon, Vice President of Communications
4. Lawrence Cacciatore, Board Secretary and Chief of Staff
5. Abby Davis, Assistant Director of Admissions
6. William Germano, Dean of Humanities
7. Bonnie John, Director of Computation and Innovation
8. Anita Raja, Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Programs