A lawyer for students, alumni and professors suing to keep Cooper Union free told a Manhattan judge Friday that the trustees who are charging tuition for the first time in 157 years have “run amok.”
Attorney Richard Emery said the 25-member board appeared to give a “sweetheart deal” to lease the college-owned Chrysler building because a trustee named William Sandholm was involved in the deal.
Emery also said the board lost tens of millions of dollars on a investments in hedge funds and built an unnecessary, $166 million engineering building for “prestige.”
The trustees are trying to turn Cooper Union, a college originally created for the city’s working class, into “a little Swarthmore on Astor Place and charge accordingly,” Emery huffed.
Swarthmore is an elite private college outside Philadelphia that charges some of the highest tuition in the nation at $59,610 a year.
Currently, Cooper Union costs up to $19,500 a year for new students only.
The Committee to Save Cooper Union sued in May, claiming the trustees also squandered school funds by approving extravagant expenses for President Jamshed Bharucha such as $10,000 blinds, an $8,000 custom buffet and even personal bodyguards.
Emery is asking Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Nancy Bannon to block the payments that are due for incoming freshmen starting today.
Student Claire Kleinman, 18, of the East Village owes $8,425 after receiving some scholarship money for her first year.
“I don’t think it’s too late to change the trustees’ actions and return to an education free of economic position,” said Kleinman outside court.
“I think it’s our responsibility to fight it,” the young sculptor said, adding that her mom works two jobs and paying the fees will be a financial strain on her family.
Industrialist Peter Cooper, who created the institution in 1859, funded the school by brokering a deal with the state where he would not have to pay taxes on his real estate, including the Chrysler Building, if revenue from the holdings went toward funding free classes.
“The trustees now are engaged in what I would characterize as risky business,” said Emery.
“They are now jeopardizing the tax exemption,” Emery added.
But Barbara Mather, attorney for the trustees, said the charter does not require a free education. Instead, the founding document gives the board “very broad discretion,” she said.
Mather said tuition is necessary because the school is at least $12 million in debt.
“The long term survival of The Cooper Union was dependent on making this difficult change,” added school spokesman Justin Harmon.
The judge is not expected to rule in the coming weeks.