Cooper Union Will Start Collecting Tuition From Graduate Students

Cooper Union, the New York City art and design college that has offered a free higher education since 1902, announced today that it would begin charging tuition to graduate and continuing-education students, among others, but would keep undergraduate education free, at least until the fall-2013 freshman class graduates. But the advent of tuition at the well-regarded 152-year-old college will not solve its deep-seated financial problems, according to a letter from its first-year president, Jamshed Bharucha. Budget cuts, a new fund-raising push, and other revenue-generating steps will be essential to assuring the college’s solvency, he said, and “we have a short runway to get these programs going.” The move is likely to be controversial at the college, whose financial problems had been masked, some faculty members charged last year, when Mr. Bharucha first raised the idea of imposing tuition.