CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CLASS OF 2012
The Cooper Union Alumni Association welcomes the graduating Class of 2012 to the alumni community and congratulates them on completing their education at The Cooper Union.
The Class of 2012 experienced their first CUAA event on May 17 at On The Rooftop, an annual celebration where young alumni of the past ten years return to welcome the graduates to the alumni community. On the Rooftop was held on the Alumni Terrace at 41 Cooper Square and CUAA President Peter Cafiero (CE'83) and Alumni Council member Alexis Lenza (CE'05) made remarks to toast the success of the newest alumni. The hosting committee included Daphne Binder (AR'11), Jessica Friscia (CE'11), Caitlin Martusewicz (AR'11), Jacob Presky (CE'11), Andrew Ross (A'11), Noemi Charlotte Thieves (A'11), and Rushi Vaidya (ME'11).
Click here for event photos.
2012 CUAA BALLOT RESULTS
The results of the 2012 CUAA elections have been tabulated. Congratulations to the 2015 Alumni Council and Executive Committee and thanks to all alumni who voted.
Click here to see the results and meet your representatives.
ALUMNI PROFILES
Herbert Migdoll A'57
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As a student at The Cooper Union, Herbert Migdoll’s focus was graphics and painting, and he studied photography with the influential Joseph Breitenbach. For the past twenty years, Migdoll has concentrated on his painting. He has exhibited his large-scale paintings along the waterways of Venice and Chicago, and has worked extensively in photography with the Joffrey Ballet.
Click here to read more and see images of this alumnus' work. |
Gary Kazin ChE'69
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Gary Kazin is retired from a long civil service career at the US Army Picatinny Arsenal, including ordnance system production and testing, and facilities construction project management. He earned a master’s in Chemical Engineering in 1972 from NYU and is a licensed Professional Engineer in New Jersey. His current interests include photography, cycling, and railroads, and he drives a senior citizens’ bus part-time. He actively participates in CUAA events and initiatives, including Phonathon. He was recently elected to the 2015 Alumni Council. Click here to read an interview with Kazin. |
RECENT EVENTS
Barclay's Center Arena Tour | May 29
Linda Chiarelli (CE'84), Deputy Director of Construction at Forest City Rather Companies, led alumni on a private tour of the Barclay's Center Arena in Brooklyn. Alumni learned how the unique façade was weathered, how security and transit needs were worked into the arena design, and other fascinating details.
Read more.
TEDx Cooper | April 24
Cooper Union hosted a TEDx conference and attendees enjoyed an exciting and compelling evening of conversations around the theme of "Found in Translation."
Click here for an interview with two of the organizers: Nina Tandon (EE'01) and Noemi Charlotte Thieves (A'11).
Founder's Day | February 6
The 2012 Founder's Day celebration at Guastavino's honored alumni awardees Carin Goldberg (A'75) for the Augustus Saint-Gaudens Award for Art, Lee Skolnick (AR'79) and Ralph Lerner (AR'74) (posthumous) for the John Q. Hejduk Award for Architecture, Morton Lippmann (ChE'54) for the Gano Dunn Award for Engineering, and John Leeper (AR'85) for Alumnus of the Year.
Click here for photos.
Wreath Laying February | February 7
The annual Wreath Laying ceremony in honor of Peter Cooper, which joins together alumni, faculty, staff, and students to celebrate his legacy, was held on February 7.
Click here for photos.
Engineering Career Night | February 2
The Annual Engineering Career night was held on Thursday, February 2. The event was jointly organized by the Center for Career Development, Office of Alumni Affairs, and the Engineering School, and allowed students to practice communication and networking skills and develop confidence, as well as learn about potential career paths. The event featured dinner and casual discussions between alumni and students. The disciplines represented by alumni included engineering, computer science, and finance, and their employment sectors included aerospace, construction, environmental, financial, legal, utilities, regulatory, research, and transportation. Students represented all of the engineering disciplines and were curious about what engineers do and how their studies are preparing them. -
written by Mary Lynch (ChE'82)
Reunions
Class of 2007 | June 2
The class of 2007 celebrated its five-year reunion on the roof of the Foundation Building.
Click here for a recap.
Class of 1962 | May 4
The Class of 1962 celebrated their entrance into the Golden Legion with their 50th reunion on May 4.
Click here for photos.
Class of 1962 SKT Fraternity | May 3
Prior to celebrating their Golden Legion 50th reunion, the Class of 1962 SKT Fraternity gathered for their 50th reunion on May 3.
Click here for photos.
Class of 1982 | April 27-28
The Class of 1982 had their 30 year reunion on April 27 and 28.
Click here for photos and a recap.
Physics Class of 1967 | February 10
In 1967, 18 students received Cooper Union’s first Bachelor’s of Science degrees with a major in Physics. After graduating, they remained close, staying in touch as they pursued careers in physics research, medicine, technology, and education administration. In February, they returned to Cooper for a reunion.
Read more.
Regional Events
AIA Convention Alumni Reception | May 18
Conamore Alexander, AIA (AR'04) and Basil Alexander, P.E., Esq. (CE'03) hosted an alumni reception for architects attending the AIA 2012 National Convention and Design Exposition in Washington, DC. Also in attendance were Carmi Bee, FAIA (AR'67), and Amado Fernandez, AIA (AR'74).
Phoenix Alumni Meet-Up | March 4
L-R: Corinna Fritsch (AR ’86), Janet Hochuli Reed (AR’80), Robert Tieni (AR ’80), Michael Cullum (AR’88)
Phoenix area alumni and guests enjoyed lunch and sharing college photos and stories about their experiences studying architecture in the 1980s.
Click here to find out more about the Arizona Alumni Group.
Florida Founder's Day | February 12
The 2012 Florida Founder's Day was held at the Coral Yacht Club in Fort Lauderdale, featuring Cooper Union President Jamshed Bharucha as guest speaker.
Click here for photos.
ANNUAL FUND UPDATE
From the Annual Fund Committee and Office of Development and Alumni Affairs:
A heartfelt THANK YOU to all alumni and other friends who have so generously contributed to the Annual Fund this year. We are two weeks away from the fiscal year close and we have already surpassed our fiscal year goal of $2.5 million for 2012 with an amazing $2.8 million donated so far!
If you haven't given this year, there is still time! Click here to give. The fiscal year closes on June 30.
Alumni giving is up from last year by 45% with a total of 22.9% of all alumni participating. This is a higher level of alumni giving than that seen in the last three fiscal years, and it continues to grow. Similarly, parent giving is up 77%, student giving is up an astounding 357%, and friend giving is up 88%.
A very special thanks to the senior class, who raised $40,000 through their Senior Gift campaign and the accompanying Senior Gift Challenge with 95% of the class participating. What a tremendous show of effort and unity. You are exemplars in the alumni community.
If you're in the area, there will be a series of mini-phonathons held on Tuesday nights at 30 Cooper Square: June 19 and June 26 from 6-9 PM. For more information and to sign up, please check here.
The Cooper Union Alumni Association is grateful to all who have given or increased their donations to the Annual Fund this year, and looks forward to seeing some of you at the Tuesday night Phonathons through the month of June!
ALUMNI NEWS
Affinity Group Activities
Financial Services Affinity Group gathering
CU@LAW met up on April 17 at Cardozo to attend a presentation given by Shahar Harel (EE'95), titled "The Brave New World of Patent Aggregators, Patent Licensing, and Patent Litigation." On May 31, the Cooper Union Financial Services Affinity Group hosted a spring happy hour.
Click here for more information on Affinity Groups.
Professional Organization Activities
Alumni joined the student chapter of ASME on March 21 for Alumni Night, and on April 18 the 6th Annual Society of Women Engineers Alumnae-Student Panel Discussion and Dinner was held, where a panel of engineering alumnae shared experiences and offered advice and guidance on how to succeed as professional women. Organizers were student officers of SWE and panelists were Carol Stanis (ME’86), Sheila Tandon (EE’99), Linda Mosch (CE’77), Mary Lynch (ChE’82), and Diana Rea (ChE’00).
On March 22, the AICHE Student Chapter hosted alumni and students on the rooftop of 41 Cooper. About 10 alumni and 30 students attended, including Morton Lippmann (ChE'54), the 2012 Gano Dunn awardee. The student leader for AICHE is Jenn Guia and the faculty adviser is professor and alum Dan Lepek (ChE'04).
App Camp
From Sean Cusack (BSE'98): On the first day of the End of Year Show, at the Startup Pitch Competition, the Cooper Union Entrepreneurship Society announced that it would be holding a free summer workshop and networking lecture series called "Cooper App Camp."
Any alumni who would like to pitch an idea that they would like to involve students in (especially as interns), or help volunteer to organize or lecture, can sign up on
http://cooperappcamp.com or contact Sean Cusack (BSE'98) at
cusack@cooper.edu.
The program is designed to leverage both computer programming and graphic arts abilities amongst students, across the schools. Participants will learn about Apple iOS, Google Android, and HTML5 web apps over the summer in an independent study atmosphere, and demonstrate their results at the end. Over the course of that time, guest lecturers in mobile and web art and technology, and crowd-funding, will be brought in to teach their expertise. Local small businesses, doctoral projects of grad students in other NYC schools, as well as alumni startups, will also pitch their app needs, to see if there is interest in the student body for internships on those projects. Relationships and products that form during the summer can continue in independent study classes in the fall, as part of entrepreneurship classes or crossover projects and theses with other schools, or possibly as their own virtual startups. Students who learn one technology over the summer well enough to teach it can actually do so in a Continuing Education class next semester.
NAME.SPACE
Paul Garrin's (A'82) NAME.SPACE wants your help to raise $1 Million for Cooper Union while growing a revolutionary enterprise that will continue to support CU into the future.
Register your name here.
COOPER SPOTLIGHT
End of Year Show Recap
The End of Year Show marks the culmination of students' studies at Cooper, and the 2012 exhibition included explorations of architecture in contemporary society; diverse artistic approaches through painting, graphic design, and video; as well as battling robots, an interactive display for deaf children, and augmented reality interactive posters. Below is a recap by Rachel Appel (A’12), one of the organizers.
The 2012 End of Year Show was unlike any I have ever seen. As one of the organizers for the Free As Air And Water Give-Away exhibition on the 5th and 6th floors, I can attest to the range of strong emotion that the student body, faculty, and administration had going into the EOYS from all three schools. We all wanted to represent Cooper Union in the best possible way and ultimately that was evident in every aspect of the show.
The School of Engineering presentations were highly interesting and fun to watch with videos of the students explaining their projects. The School of Architecture’s sheer amount of work seemed to blow people away yet again, let alone the care and quality of it. And as for the exhibitions from the School of Art, I found the visitors I spoke with to be highly intrigued by our various approaches and appreciative of all three. The dioramas explaining the atmosphere the school experienced this year seemed to bring people into the discussion around the financial crisis in a fun and enjoyable way. The works exhibited in the New Academic Building allowed viewers to experience an art show that was carefully curated and representative of the sincerity with which we make our work.
The Give-Away exhibition ended up being a real opportunity to express to the public what we hold most dear about our education, and I think we did so with great success. Jerry Saltz, an art critic and columnist for New York Magazine, wrote that the EOYS was “not just a great response to the tuition issue, but a way to address how art has gotten too expensive. Tomorrow they’ll all have to get jobs. But they could be heroes – just for one day.” At Inside New York, Andrea Garcia-Vargas wrote: “You can spend the day at MoMA or the Met, but if you spend it instead at Cooper Union’s End of Year Show, you won’t feel that your time has been wasted.” We gave away over 300 pieces and every person I talked with was both excited to receive a work, but also wanted to know why we were giving it away. The moments we had to talk with perfect strangers about Cooper and the impact a tuition-free education has had on us was invaluable. - Rachel Appel (A'12)
CUAA COUNCIL MEETING SUMMARIES
January 18, 2012
A special meeting of the Alumni Council was called on January 18, 2012. At this meeting, Caitlin Tramel was introduced as the new Director of Alumni Affairs and the ongoing courses of action related to the school's financial situation were discussed. CUAA President Peter Cafiero (CE'83) provided a brief update of the Revenue Task Force activities and processes and an update on the Founders Day Celebration was provided. Committee reports from the Constitution and Annual Fund Committees were presented. In addition, a draft resolution in support of the mission statement of The Cooper Union was circulated and discussed. Votes on the resolution were postponed pending incorporation of Council-proposed edits.
February 8, 2012
This meeting is required by the CUAA Constitution to include a presentation by the Nominating Committee Chairperson of a slate of candidates for officers and members of the Council to the Council for approval. This business, as well as council approval of Lee Skolnick (AR'79) for the vacant Alumni Trustee position (term ending 2014), was conducted. Additionally, the discussion of the Council Resolution in support of the mission statement was carried forth from the previous council meeting in January. After line-by-line edits and group deliberation,
the final resolution was read aloud and passed unanimously by all present council members.
May 15, 2012
The final meeting of the 2012 Alumni Council was held on May 15, 2012. Cindy Weiler, Trustee and co-chair of the Trustees Development Committee, was a guest at the meeting and spent an hour in discussion with council members. Major topics were how to work together collaboratively to attract sophisticated donors to Cooper Union, and how to build relationships between the alumni council and the Board of Trustees. Additionally, Al Brand (CE'67) presented the Teller's committee report with the results of the 2012 election. Additional speakers included Professor and Alumnus Fred Fontaine (EE'86), who spoke on the consequences of a paid tuition program on the existing integrated masters and undergraduate curriculum in the Engineering School, and Rachel Appel (A'12), who described the format of the 43rd Annual End of Year Show.