Surprise $6m gift means tuition is once again free at this New York college

Students returning for the first day of class at New York City’s historic Cooper Union college were greeted with a surprise announcement: tuition would be free for graduating seniors.

And that will hold true for the next three years worth of graduating seniors.

“It’s like $23,000, so this is an insane amount of money for me,” Shannagh Crowe, a fourth-year architecture student at the Manhattan-based institution, told The New York Times. “It’s life changing.”

The school announced the change on Tuesday and said the step was made possible thanks in part to a $6m donation from a group of three alumni this summer.

“We are so encouraged that Cooper is moving steadily toward tuition-free undergraduate education for all, and we are thrilled by this amazing opportunity to contribute to achieving this goal now for current students in their senior year,” donors George Reeves, a 1964 alum, and his wife and business partner Ross Wisnewski, wrote in a statement. “It is an honor to be a part of this investment in the future and a joy to witness the impact of doing so.”

The tuition gift does not cover room, board, and supplies, estimated at about $25,000 per year.

For much of the time since its 1859 founding as a school for working-class students, Cooper Union has offered free tuition to students.

However, the college instituted a $19,500 tuition fee that took effect in the 2014 school year as it struggled with mounting debts, in part from borrowing $175m on efforts like building a flagship engineering facility.

Over time, tuition costs more than doubled, and the change in course outraged numerous students and alumni, prompting New York state officials to help create a 2018 plan to lead the school back to financial solvency, with free tuition for all a top goal.

Thanks to rounds of fund-raising and cost-cutting, Cooper Union students already pay less than 15 percent of the college’s tuition on average and are reportedly on track to face zero tuition costs by 2028.

The school was in the headlines for other reasons last year, one of the numerous campuses across New York and the rest of the country home to tense protests surrounding the Israel-Hamas conflict.

In October, a clip went viral of a group of Jewish and pro-Israel students inside the campus library, as pro-Palestine student activists chanted outside, separated by a series of doors.

Police were present for the series of dueling demonstrations that preceded the encounter, as well as inside the library, and said they did not see any direct safety threat, though some students said they felt threatened based on their identities.