Cooper Union has announced a plan to keep undergraduate tuition free, amid its financial troubles (and it's a plan that, uh, doesn't involve selling its fancy building): Charge graduate students tuition. more ›

Now that the beleaguered St. Mark's Bookshop has officially gotten their rent reduced by Cooper Union, it's time to party! And if you've never seen a bunch of literary types and old-school East Village stalwarts let their hair down, you're in for a real treat. more ›

In the wake of Cooper Union's announcement that they may have to start charging tuition for the first time in 102 years, many people are calling BS on the school, disbelieving that it's actually as broke as it claims it is. more ›

After a whirlwind month of back-and-forthing with Cooper Union, the St. Mark's Bookshop in the East Village has been granted a rent reduction from the university, after all! more ›

Cooper Union, the school that asks questions like "A clock or device which redefines the concept of time" on its application and has been entirely tuition-free since 1902, may be forced to start charging students to combat the harsh economy. more ›

Yesterday, the disheartening news came down that Cooper Union has decided NOT to grant St. Mark's Bookshop's request for a rent reduction. Friends of the Bookshop, like the Cooper Square Committee, said they would find other ways to support the store should it be forced out of business, and today, the first of those efforts arises: another petition, albeit a slightly preemptive one. more ›

The long, sad saga of the St. Mark's Bookshop vs. Cooper Union has come to an end today, as Cooper Union hands down its final word: there shall be no rent reduction. more ›

Supporters of the St. Mark's Bookshop in the East Village have tried everything from petitioning to sing-a-longs to save the beloved indie bookstore, but the final word has always rested with owner Cooper Union, who is mulling the decision to reduce the store's rent from $20,000 to $15,000. Today, Bookshop champions The Cooper Square Committee is urging residents and readers for one final push, since Cooper Union is apparently set to vote on a decision very, very soon. more ›

The latest step in the ongoing battle to save the St. Mark's Bookshop comes in musical form, as the Cooper Square Community Development Committee and Businessman’s Association vows to inaugurate incoming Cooper Union president Jamshed Bharucha with a lovely little ditty this afternoon. more ›

Ever since word got out earlier this summer that much-loved neighborhood store St. Mark's Bookshop was struggling to stay afloat in the world of Kindles and iPads, lit-lovers have been rallying to save the independent bookstore...and it might actually be working. more ›

Earlier this week, a baby grand piano left on a sandbar in Florida's Biscayne Bay puzzled people... until 16-year-old high school student Nicholas Harrington revealed it was part of his application to super competitive Cooper Union. Harrington said, "I wanted to create a whimsical, surreal experience. I don't like it be considered as a prank. It's more of a movement." But what did Cooper Union think of the stunt? more ›

The Bowery in its latest, absurdly hip, incarnation is no stranger to ugly architecture. Just look at the Cooper Square Hotel, the Sculpture for Living (technically not on the Bowery), or the finger coming out of the middle of Fourth Street. And yet each time a new piece of hideous design is introduced we're dismayed once again. Which is to say, remember how the old Salvation Army on Third Street is going to become a boutique hotel? Well, Curbed got its paws on the rendering you see above. more ›

On the morning of October 9th, a 21-year-old Cooper Union student was nearly killed on her bicycle when she was hit by a tractor trailer truck making a turn onto Varick Avenue in Bushwick. The cyclist, Emilie Louise Gossiau, suffered a broken femur, pelvic fractures, facial fractures, and stroke, according to one person familiar with the accident. Our source, who asked to remain anonymous, also told us "There was a direct impact on her abdomen and the intestines were pushed into her lungs, so in order to relieve the pressure and her ability to breathe, an incision was made." Today we received an update on her condition. more ›

President Obama spoke about financial reform at Cooper Union yesterday, telling an audience that included lawmakers and critics—like Mayor Bloomberg, who is wary of hurting NYC's cash cow—and titans of finances—like Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein—telling them, "I believe in a strong financial sector that helps people to raise capital and get loans and invest their savings. That’s part of what has made America what it is. But a free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it. That’s what happened too often in the years leading up to this crisis." (Transcript) more ›

Obama has no idea what he just got himself into. Someone sent this photo to the blog This Is FYF, which reports that "citing security concerns that bikes might be secret pipe bombs, NYPD officers clipped the locks of hundreds of bikes along Houston Street this morning in preparation for President Obama's speech at Cooper Union. The bikes were unceremoniously put in the back of the truck. Onlookers were not given information as to what would become of the bikes. Happy Earth Day!" more ›

WYNYC is streaming the live audio from President Obama's speech at Cooper Union, which just started. CNN and Fox News will have live steaming video, and MSNBC is streaming video here (video is also available after the jump). And if you want to turn this into a drinking game (the sun is practically over the yardarm), let's do a shot every time Obama says something "really sharp and really mean." more ›

"A free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it," President Obama will declare in a speech at Cooper Union today, according to excerpts released last night. "That is what happened too often in the years leading up to the crisis. Some on Wall Street forgot that behind every dollar traded or leveraged, there is family looking to buy a house, pay for an education, open a business, or save for retirement." And so at this very moment, Tea Party protesters are mobilizing in NYC to drown out Obama's Commie message. more ›

President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will be in NYC today. Obama will be making his financial reform speech at Cooper Union around noon today; according to WPIX, "The President will arrive in New York around 11am. He will take a helicopter to Lower Manhattan, then motorcade up the FDR Drive to the Houston Street exit then make his way to Cooper Union," which is on 7th between 3rd and 4th Avenues. Plus, the FDR will be frozen between 23rd Street and South Ferry, and expect delays on buses that go through the area between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Oh, and some subway entrances might be closed too! more ›

With President Obama visiting Wall Street and Cooper Union this Thursday in order to push for a new financial overhaul package, you'd imagine that someone would have let Mayor Bloomberg know. "I just saw on the blogs this morning he was coming so I haven't talked to anyone in the White House," Bloomberg told reporters this morning. Wait...the Mayor reads blogs plural—as in other blogs besides Gothamist? more ›

The Rent Guidelines Board's annual carnival of cacophony—wherein hundreds of rent-stabilized tenants shout themselves hoarse as the board votes to raise their rents again—goes down tonight at Cooper Union. Speaking to the Daily News, board chairman Marvin Markus describes the always raucous affair as "one of the rites of spring," and quips, "Maybe we'll give out Valium." Ha ha, making a mockery of "rent stabilization" is always good for a laugh. more ›

Yes, even the extra terrestrials can't try to make something of themselves in the East Village without being told to GTFO. Cooper Union is closing in on completion of the new building for its School of Engineering, located on Third Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets and designed by Thom Mayne of Morphosis. But one tagger had other ideas for the future plans of the spot Curbed recently called CU's "new mindfuck of a building." more ›

Early-decision applications to Cooper Union, which does not charge tuition, have skyrocketed this year, the Times reports, surprising no one. The school is experiencing a 70 percent surge in applications so far this year, compared to annual increases of 5 percent to 10 percent over the last decade. Emphasizing the obvious, the dean of admissions tells the Times, "I’m pretty confident that the economy played a big role. You probably had a lot of parents who said: ‘Look, I know you’re looking at Cooper Union. You ought to make it your first choice.' " Overall, the school expects to receive 3,300 applications for 265 spots in the Class of 2013, making the already competitive process even more cutthroat. more ›

The fight over the Stalin banner that was hung and then subsequently removed from a Cooper Union building overlooking the East Village is continuing on and sure seems convoluted. A week after the banner was taken down, a tug-of-war over why it happened is going on between the university, the Buildings Department and the NY Civil Liberties Union with input coming from the nearby Ukrainian community as well as the artist whose installation it was a part of. more ›

Cooper Union has taken down the giant Stalin banner that went up this week following pressure from the Dept. of Buildings, which had received complaints. The banner was part of Lene Berg's installation, “Stalin by Picasso, or Portrait of Woman with Mustache.” The school recognized that it may be particularly sensitive circumstances to have it up--with a large nearby Ukranin community keenly aware that it is the 75th anniversary of a famine imposed by Stalin that killed millions of Ukrainians. Jaroslaw Leshko, the president of the board of trustees at the Ukrainian Museum, did not want to kibosh the installation and suggested it be put up somewhere indoors. But Berg was more than unhappy with the move, saying, “In a sense, I think it’s self-censorship...They ruined my show, my work.” more ›