"This was the only four year degree school that offered free...

"This was the only four year degree school that offered free tuition, with no military service or any other catch involved. Peter Cooper started the school in 1859, saying that he believed education should be open and ‘free for all.’ Cooper Union’s mission statement explicitly stated that the school should always be free. But for the first time in its history, the school is charging tuition. The administration has spun it as reducing the scholarship from a ‘full scholarship’ to a ‘half scholarship,’ but in reality they’ve raised the cost from $0 to $20,000."
"What is the administration’s argument for enacting tuition?"
"The school has been running at a deficit since the 1990’s, and they say it’s the only way to maintain a quality education and avoid bankruptcy. But at a time when so many students in America are being drowned in student debt, we say that we’d rather make drastic budget cuts than throw out the dream of free education that the school was built on."