CUAA President, Peter Cafiero welcomed everyone and announced that we have 5 new council members who were elected as alternates and are filling the balance of unfinished terms. They are: Evan Bray AR'01, Dennis Kong IDE'08, Lauren Myers IE'08, Pavel Nikulin CE'06 and Marco Shmerykowsky CE'92/MCE'93.  They each introduced themselves.

Peter Cafiero then introduced Mary Lynch ChE’82, chair of the nominating committee who announced the nominating committee’s selections for officer positions on the March ballot.  They are:

Peter Cafiero announced that by the rules of the CUAA charter, the Alumni Trustee must be approved by the CUAA council.  He asked Mary to say a few words about the candidate, Kathryn Berry.  Mary explained that Kathryn Berry has a record of service to the CUAA as a past co-chair of the Alumni Fund and of the Founder’s Day Dinner. She is someone with good communication skills who is willing to report back to the CUAA Council on Board of Trustee activities.  A motion was made and seconded.  Members voted by a raising of hands.  More than the required 19 council members voted affirmative.

Peter Cafiero asked Rocco Cetera CE’99 and Karina Tipton CE’99 to provide updates on Alumni Events.

Chart prepared with RSVP data as of January 22, 2012 

Karina Tipton announced that there was a successful meet up for the CU@Law group on December 6^th hosted by Mary Alestra CE'99, Scott Lyne, ChE '92, and Paul Garrin, A' 82.  She then mentioned the Casual Pop-up events that are being discussed for this year.  They include: Windham Mountain Ski Trip – February 23; Times Square – Cooper alumni have heart – possibly week of February 28; Kickball Game – Spring; Distillery Tour – Early Spring; Plein Air Sketching on Roosevelt Island – Spring; St Gaudens Day Trip to New Lebanon NH – Early Summer/Fall

Peter Cafiero asked Mary Lynch to present for the communications committee.  Mary stated that the communications committee collaborated with Katie Moore, Manager of Alumni Communications and Recognition on the production of the December and January CUAA newsletters and on updates to the CUalumni.com website.  She thanked those who had written alumni profile articles and contributed other content.  She announced that 25 art alumni had exhibits added to the website list of exhibits during the past 2 months and 6 alumni have been featured in various media articles during the past two months.  Links to these articles were added to the website. The alumni exhibits and articles have also been promoted on the CUAA FaceBook page. The committee is currently working on the February newsletter which will have a feature story on Cooper Couples.

Peter Cafiero asked Darrel Low EE’89 to present for the Annual Fund committee.

Darrel Low said that the Annual Fund Committee met on Jan. 15 and the next meeting is scheduled for Mar. 5

Annual Fund Status

• Annual Fund is currently 1% above 2012 at $1.64MM
• Alumni giving at even pace to 2012 at $1.10MM as of Feb. 11.  Participation rate at this time is 12% which is 1% below 2012.
• Trustees, Students and “Other Individuals” who could be friends of alumni, faculty and community residents are noticeably higher than 2012.  Parent giving is 31% below last year’s pace due to a decrease in the average gift size.

Peter Cafiero announced that Larry Hausman was not present to give the faculty-student liaison report but he did submit a few sentences which were projected for everyone.  One of those statements was, “The Faculty and Student Liaison Committee is actively seeking volunteers to represent the Alumni as representatives serving on the various faculty, admission, etc. committees of The Cooper Union.  Please volunteer to myself or the Alumni Office.”  Peter Cafiero then asked if any other Council members have anything to report on faculty or student matters.  Marco Shmerykowsky CE'92/MCE'93 reported that he has been attending the Engineering Faculty meetings and one item of interest for alumni is that there is discussion about setting up a new materials testing course within the civil engineering program that they may need alumni sponsors for.  The point of contact for that class is Dr. Jameel Ahmad, chair of the civil engineering department.  Sean Cusack BSE ’98 said the student petition discussed briefly at the December Council meeting is still working its way through the committee process.  The students have just recently returned from their holiday break.

Peter Cafiero and Robert Tan AR’81 provided an update on the constitution committee’s progress updating the constitution.  John Clarke, Larry Hausman and others on the constitution committee have been rewriting the constitution to include the changes that have occurred in some of the officer positions such as the upgrading the CUAA  President’s presence on the Board of Trustees to a voting member.  It will also be a streamlined document that focuses on policies.  Administrative details will be removed from the constitution and placed in the bylaws.  Peter Cafiero and Robert Tan indicated that they believe the rewrite process was nearly completed and hope that there will be a draft version of the document circulated to all Council members very soon.  The goal is to have the constitution finished in time to be distributed with the March ballot so that CUAA members can vote on it at the same time as they do other voting.

Scott Lyne ChE’92 asked if the old and new versions of the constitution would be circulated together and if there would be a summary of differences between the two documents distributed as well.  There wasn’t anyone available from the Constitution committee to answer that question, but Peter Cafiero said he would pass along those suggestions.

Peter Cafiero announced the following items: 

• The Board of Trustees has formed committees that are evaluating the proposals for savings and revenue developed by the engineering and architecture faculty that were submitted to the Board in December. 

• The Board of Trustees is going to have a forum in the Great Hall on March 1st where it will discuss its findings with the students, faculty and alumni.  This forum is in response to the CUAA Council resolution made in December. 

• A Trustee, Council member, and school administration task force is going to be formed in the near future to examine the working relationships that the CUAA has with the school administration to see how work flow processes and communications might be improved. 

Peter Cafiero announced that today is the 222^nd anniversary of Peter Cooper’s Birth.  All said “Happy Birthday to Peter Cooper."

CUAA President, Peter Cafiero welcomed everyone and thanked Secretary/Treasurer Robert Tan, VP Rocco Cetera, and Council Member Sean Cusack for making the food arrangements for the meeting.  Peter announced the evening’s two main guest speakers: TC Westcott and President Jamshed Barucha. Peter then reminded all that one of the primary functions of the Council is to communicate out to the rest of the alumni as well as focus on outreach and engagement. He then invited Andrew LaVenia to provide an update on Project Connect.

Andrew LaVenia, Alumni Coordinator, announced that Council members have been successful in reaching and connecting with 25% of the alumni belonging to the class of 2012.  The project will next be expanded to include members of the class of 2011. Andrew will soon be sending each council member a list of alumni from that class so they can reach out to them.

T.C. Westcott, Vice President of Finance and Administration, introduced herself and said that she has been with The Cooper Union for 3 years now.  She announced that her presentation this evening will show us what the school’s financial health is if we do nothing.  She is available to meet with alumni and go over the figures with them in sessions that are held twice a month. T.C. Westcott projected a table of revenue and expenses for several future fiscal years.  The table shows that if the school operates with similar budgets in each of the coming years, it will run out of unrestricted funds in the year 2015.  Included in this financial analysis is the annual $4 million in operating cost cuts that were instituted this year and anticipated income from a capital campaign drive that will be starting soon.

T. C. Westcott emphasized that there is a real need for unrestricted donations to help tide the school over until new revenue streams are developed (2015) and rent payments rise on the land beneath the Chrysler building (2018).  Last year, the Annual Fund brought in approximately $3.1 million and this year’s projection is $2.8 million.  The rent payments on the Chrysler land are defined up until 2047.  This revenue stream is well defined and fairly static, but expenses like health care are not well defined and could rise higher than what was included in this financial analysis.

John Leeper, past CUAA Secretary/Treasurer, summarized T.C. Westcott’s statements by saying that CU income is basically static while costs are going up, due to inflation and rising health care costs.  John exclaimed,  “We're in a dismal place, financially.”

President Jamshed Bharucha thanked everyone for their passion and for their contributions.  He next congratulated the winners of CUAA awards to be handed out at the 2013 Founder’s Day event.  He mentioned that he was pleased to hear that Steven Baker was being honored and mentioned that “Dean Baker is more than a sports coach.  He is a life coach for our students.”

President Bharucha mentioned that three new trustees are joining the Board of Trustees. They are: Jeremy Wertheimer, EE ’82, VP Engineering at Google; Rachel Warren, Chief Administrative Officer at HNB Associates; Edgar Mokuvos, EE ’78, CEO at Kasaken Capital.  Edgar Mokuvos recently began his 3-year term as one of the 3 alumni-elected trustees.President Bharucha praised the dedication of many CU staff members during super storm Sandy.  Many staff members spent 2 or 3 nights sleeping in the school buildings.  One member of the building cleaning staff, who lives in the Bronx, left his home at 5 AM the morning after the storm and walked all the way to Cooper since the trains were not running.

President Bharucha provided some insights on Mayor Bloomberg’s Applied Science Initiative programs. In addition to the support for a graduate engineering school on Roosevelt Island, the mayor and the city council are supporting other collaborations which include the NYU and NYU-Poly new Center for Urban Science and Progress which will be located in Brooklyn and assistance to Columbia University in the expansion of its campus in Morningside Heights.  President Bharucha mentioned that each of the three universities will need to invest a great deal to modify buildings and staff them.  The city is supplying little more than property.  The City Council would like to help New York City grow as a Design Center.  The Cooper Union is exploring what opportunities exist for collaboration in the design area with the city Economic Development Corporation.

President Bharucha gave an update on financial planning.  He mentioned that the Revenue Task Force (RTF) has recently released its report and during the fall, the planning focus shifted to the level of the school deans and faculty in each of the three schools.  The faculty have been asked to come up with educational programs that are economically sustainable.  They are not ready to report out yet.  They are still working on these programs and will report to the Board of Trustees on December 5.  The trustees will then need to digest the reports prepared by the faculty.  The trustees will be making decisions in January or February.

Victoria Bertotti Lief, A ’82, CUAA Council Member, asked if the school is exploring on-line programs.

President Bharucha responded that he has spoken with CEOs of two companies that host on-line educational offerings:  Minerva University and 2tor, which has 2tor software.  Minerva University made a presentation to the CU Senate and faculty and it was agreed that the Minerva model was not appropriate.  Minerva University is a startup company that is proposing an equity model; it will not produce income in the short term and it has risks.  President Bharucha personally met with the CEO of 2U2tor, John Katzman, who has a track record of launching graduate level on-line programs for other universities. John Katzman announced that 2tor is not interested in offering a Cooper Union degree. The reason given is that the Cooper Union name is not sufficiently recognized in the international market.

Sangu Iyer, CE ’99, asked whether adjuncts have been included on the faculty teams developing recommendations.

President Bharucha replied that this is happening as per the governance of each of the schools and the rules are different for each of the schools.  He mentioned that the Architecture school only has 2 full-time faculty members, so proportional faculty play a larger role in that school’s governance than they do in the Engineering school, which has approximately 30 full-time faculty.

Carmi Bee, AR ’67, Past CUAA President, asked how the search for a new Dean of Engineering is going.

President Bharucha replied that the search committee has started a new search, and a firm has been engaged to seek outstanding candidates who can do fundraising and lead the school through a period in which the educational environment is evolving rapidly

Rocco Cetera, CE ’99, asked the president how the CUAA fits into his vision for The Cooper Union.

President Bharucha said that he wants a productive and collaborative process.  He believes that all organizations go through a process of self-renewal and he recommends this for the CUAA.  He would like to see the relationship between the school administration and CUAA be healthier.  He said this is difficult to do without professional assistance (improving communication and governance and interaction).  He thanks the CUAA for inviting him to speak this evening and believes we need to meet more often.

Carmi Bee, AR ’67, Past CUAA President, stated that there has been recent improvement in communications, but the CUAA relationship with the School is not adequately defined. 

President Bharucha said that the model for volunteerism has changed during the last decade especially for nonprofits and there have also been huge changes in expectations for faculty as well.  President Bharucha suggested that maybe we revisit this discussion in a later meeting and also engage in some trust-building conversations. 

Victoria Bertotti Lief, A ’82, CUAA Council Member, asked if National Science Foundation (NSF) grants might be used to start up a new Masters Degree program. 

President Bharucha agreed that NSF grants are an item that needs to be pursued.  He suggested that we need a grant writing office.  At the present time Cooper Union’s annual grant income is less than a million dollars.

Peter Cafiero, CUAA President, made some announcements.

• We may have another CUAA meeting in January 2013
• The Founder’s Day Event will be on Tuesday, February 5, 2013, at Guastavino’s, 409 E 59th Street, 7pm-11pm. Discounted ”Early Bird”  ticket sales will begin in December and be available until January 11.

Asher Mones, A ’15, Student Council Representative from the School of Art, invited alumni to attend a Summit Meeting on Student Debt that will be held in the Great Hall this coming Monday, December 2, from 6 to 8 pm.  

Mary Lynch, ChE ’82, CUAA Nominating Committee Chair, reminded nominating committee members of a committee meeting next Wednesday on December 5, from 5:30 to 8:00 pm in AlumniSpace.


The meeting was adjourned around 8:30 pm.