Can Cooper Union Survive Without Tuition?

Can Cooper Union Survive Without Tuition?
In this Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 photo, Cooper Union art professor Mike Essl, 38, stands in front of the institution's historic building, left, and it's modern facility, right, during an interview in New York. The Board of Trustees at the Cooper Union, which has been tuition free for 110 years, is expected to vote in March in favor of a proposal to charge its undergraduates something _ anything _ for their education. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
In this Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 photo, Cooper Union art professor Mike Essl, 38, stands in front of the institution's historic building, left, and it's modern facility, right, during an interview in New York. The Board of Trustees at the Cooper Union, which has been tuition free for 110 years, is expected to vote in March in favor of a proposal to charge its undergraduates something _ anything _ for their education. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Eight months after Cooper Union administrators said there was no way to avoid charging tuition, a panel says there is. But some disagree.

Officials at the free university, which receives much of its money by owning the deed to the Chrysler Building, agreed to create the panel and take part in a “good faith effort” to rethink the administration's highly controversial tuition plan. That helped end a two-month student occupation of the president’s office.

Now, an 18-member panel of alumni, administrators, faculty, students and trustees released a report that says the university can not only avoid financial ruin but actually end up better off without charging tuition.

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