Lawsuit Asks Court to Keep Cooper Union Tuition Free

A group of professors, alumni, and students of Cooper Union is suing to block the prestigious New York City college’s plan to start charging undergraduate tuition in the fall, the New York Daily News reported.

In a lawsuit filed in a state court in Manhattan on Tuesday, an advocacy group called the Committee to Save Cooper Union accuses the college’s leaders of bad financial decisions, including spending too much on new buildings and overborrowing. The lawsuit asks the court to block any tuition—both this year and permanently—and to order a financial audit of the college.

Cooper Union announced the decision to begin charging undergraduate tuition last year, after more than a century of granting full-tuition scholarships to every student who was admitted.

In a written statement on Tuesday, Justin Harmon, a spokesman for the college, said that the decision to charge tuition had been “tremendously difficult” and that the neediest students would get more financial aid. “We are disappointed that the Committee to Save Cooper Union would choose costly litigation over constructive conversation,” he added.