2015 March CUAA Newsletter

In this issue…

Letter from the CUAA President
Cooper Union Alumni Association News
Note from the Communications Chair – About this Newsletter
CUAA ELECTIONS: VOTING ENDS April 30, 2015
FOUNDER’S DAY 2015 is April 26th
Events Report
Upcoming Events
Alumni News
Alumni Profiles
- Arlene Slavin A’64
- Donald Forst AR’58
- Bernard Bayuk ME’40
Cooper Union News

Letter from the CUAA President: Welcome to the CUAA Newsletter.

Fellow Alumni:

Welcome to the first CUAA Newsletter written and produced entirely by alumni volunteers. This is the first produced without the assistance of The Cooper Union Alumni Office Staff. It contains links to articles on the new CUAA website, created and managed solely by CUAA Alumni volunteers. During the summer of 2014 the school and the CUAA separated their communications with Alumni. The separation was initiated by the school. The Alumni Affairs staff gradually reduced their support of CUAA activities, and then in July of 2014 ceased sharing of computer website resources. For several months now, the CUAA has been building our computer and website resources. This effort is not finished. We have substantially progressed in this effort and this newsletter is evidence of that.

The CUAA resources include a website, Mail Chimp account and Survey Monkey account which are critical to running the CUAA. They enable us to hold a CUAA election beginning on March 15th. All alumni should go log in or register at the website, cooperalumni.org to ensure that they receive the election materials. In my opinion this is the most important CUAA election ever held. I say this based on what I have observed and participated in as an alumnus of Cooper, a member and officer of the CUAA and as an alumnus member of the Board of Trustees.

There have been and continue to be discussions on alternative methods for choosing candidates to become the Alumni Trustees. The CUAA alumni elections in the past have averaged approximately 500 – 600 alumni votes (out of 13,000 alumni) for the officers and the alumni trustees. A large increase in alumni participation in the upcoming election demonstrates that alumni are engaged and energized. If we do not dramatically increase the number of alumni voting in this election we will not retain the process to choose our alumni trustees and to participate in processes that shape the Cooper’s future. Demonstrate that you care by voting. Reach to other alumni to vote.

Last year’s Founder’s Day Celebration included a block party that was a huge success. So many alumni, students and members of the public come out for this celebration. It was the best Founder’s Day I have ever attended. We plan a similar celebration this year. Read more about our celebration plans in this newsletter. Help it be successful by contributing to it in some way. The Founder’s Day committee needs additional volunteers as well as financial contributions.

Finally, I offer Congratulations to this year’s CUAA Founder Day Award Winners. Each of them embodies Peter Cooper’s spirit.

John Leeper

B.Arch. ‘85

CUAA President

COOPER UNION ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS

All approved meeting minutes, council agendas and highlights, statements, resolutions, and motions are compiled here. Please note – this is a work in progress! We will update it as quickly as we can.

Recent news: Council votes to pursue 501(c)3 status

CUAA ELECTIONS: VOTING ENDS April 30, 2015

A letter from CUAA President John Leeper regarding the importance of this year’s election for Alumni representatives was published via our mailing list on March 4, 2015.

The CUAA belongs to all alumni. This letter is about the need for more Cooper alumni to have a voice in the CUAA. It’s about the need for more Cooper alumni to vote in the upcoming CUAA election. Please vote in the 2015 election. Rock the vote. There is no voice without your vote. They’re watching our vote.

Candidates Announced: In accordance with our constitution and bylaws, candidates for election to Cooper Union Alumni Association positions were presented at the CUAA Council meeting on Thursday February 5.Please review Candidate Biographies here. Voting will launch March 15 via email to all registered alumni. If you are not registered, please sign up here!

A Note from the Communications Chair

I am excited to share the first 100% volunteer-produced CUAA Newsletter. We will send these to you regularly to highlight alumni accomplishments and share the activities of your elected alumni council. General topics will include events information, alumni profiles and interviews, and updates on the council and committee activities. We also have included some Cooper Union news, and especially hope you will take some time reviewing the student newspaper The Pioneer, linked herein.

You may also be receiving information directly from The Cooper Union administration. They have developed a separate website, which your elected alumni council has not been invited to participate in. They also are maintaining a separate mailing list, and the CUAA Council no longer receives functional support from the administration to contact the alumni body. As John notes above, we are creating and maintaining our own database, website, and mailing list — so we can continue to communicate directly with you, our constituency.

We understand it can be confusing (and at times duplicative) to receive information from two groups with “Cooper Union” in the title, but as always, we remain your Alumni Association and your elected CUAA Council. We look forward to communicating directly with you! Please reach out to us and share your achievements and thoughts, and help us communicate by spreading the news about Founder’s Day and the Election to your Cooper Union classmates. As a 100% volunteer-run organization, we can use your help in a number of ways.

Yours,

Karina Tipton, CE’99

Chair Communications Committee

FOUNDER’S DAY 2015 is April 26th

Congratulations to our Alumni Awardees!

For the awardee announcement and biographies, please read more.

Sunday April 26 – Founder’s Day 2015, Save the Date! Calling all Volunteers! We need help designing the block party theme and layout, scheduling food trucks, organizing attendee tents and activities, and more. First planning meeting is on Thursday January 22 @ 7pm. Please volunteer and RSVP at cuaa-foundersday-planning@googlegroups.com

Support Founder’s Day | Newsletter Highlights from Founder’s Day 2014 | FD 2014 Website

Prior awardees: Alumni Hall of Fame | The Augustus Saint-Gaudens Award | The John Q. Hejduk Award | The Gano Dunn Award | The Peter Cooper Public Service Award

Events Report

Call for Alumni Events:

Any alumni wanting to announce their existing event or host a new event please email the Events Committee: CUAA.Popups@gmail.com

Holiday Party

On December 11th 2014, Cooper Alumni, students and faculty gathered together for the 2nd Annual Holiday Party which was held at Phebe’s Bar and Grill. This year the event was co-sponsored by the Financial Affinities Group. Special thanks to all of the coordinators and guests for making this a successful end of year event for the Cooper Community.

Alumni Participate in Art Basel and Art Miami

Cooper Faculty and Alumni participated in the art fairs December 3-7, 2014

Annual Phonathon – Monday, March 16–Thursday, March 19, 2015

6:00–9:00pm If you have any questions about Phonathon 2015, please contact the Office of The Annual Fund at (212) 353-4177 or annualfund@cooper.edu.

CUAA Council Meeting – March 18, 2015

Rock the Vote CUAA Election Committee Meeting – March 24, 6-9PM

Meet the Candidates – March 26, 2015 Location: 41 Cooper Square Details to come.

RSVP via cooperalumni.org | RSVP via Facebook

CUAA @ CIA — March 29, 2015

Regina Granne A’59 Memorial Show –April 2, 2015 Read More

CU@Greenwood Cemetery – April 19, 2015.

Founder’s Day 2015 – April 26, 2015

Alumni News
	Alumni accomplishments featured prominently on our website… Please take a look!	Share your accomplishments here!
	Enterprising Alumni are using their talents and skills to increase donations to The Cooper Union	Learn More
	The CU2AS was featured in an ENR New York article on Jan 12, 2015	Read Article

Alumni Profiles

Arlene Slavin	Arlene Slavin A’64 is a multi-talented artist who has worked in a number of genres during her long career. She is a sculptor, painter and printmaker who embraces both the representational and the abstract, her scale ranges from intimate to monumental. She is very much at ease with disparate modes of production and a variety of materials—metal, etched glass, concrete, terrazzo—whatever she thinks best suits her current enterprise. Two passions, color and light, have been present in all of Slavin’s undertakings and together they constitute the heart of her practice. This summer, she was interviewed by Susan Shaw A’72.	Read more
Donald Forst	Donald Forst AR’58 is a retired architect who lives in Lakewood, Colorado with his wife. He founded Forst-McCutchen an architectural firm located on Long Island and worked for eleven years with the Denver Housing Authority as the Administrator of Modernization. He has just authored his first novel, The Reincarnation of Van Gogh—A Novel.	Read More
Bernard Mayuk	Bernard Bayuk ME’40 attended The Cooper Union with his brother Robert Bayuk ME’43. He had a meritorious career with the US Army Air Corp followed by a career in the aerospace industry and a retirement filled with travel. In 2000, he and his wife, Lorrain hosted the class of 1940’s 60 year reunion. He is active in the Bay Area Regional Group and was recently interviewed with his wife Lorraine, by Hsu-Wei Shueh, EE’90.	Read More

SCHOOL NEWS

Cooper FSAE Team Prepares for 2015 Formula SAE® Competition at Michigan International Speedway

Contributed by Daniel Bach ME’15, March 9, 2015

Jackie Le Describes Research Abroad program

Jackie Le is from Abingdon, MD and is in her junior year in Mechanical Engineering at The Cooper Union. The Cooper Union has a program that encourages students to study abroad which Jackie took part in during the summer of 2014. She performed research at the Technische Univeritaet in Dresden (TUD), Germany. Mary Lynch, ChE’82, interviewed Jackie in August, 2014.

Chris Chamberlin now Dean of Students

Christopher Chamberlin was recently promoted to Dean of Students within the Department of Student Affairs and Community Relations. Dean Chamberlin has worked in higher education for over 16 years and he joined the Cooper Union in October, 2010 working in Residence Life until August, 2013 when Dean Chamberlin became the Acting Associate Dean of Student Affairs. Dean Chamberlin will continue to report to Dean Baker, Vice President for Student Affairs and Community Relations.

Cooper Lumen Prototype Brings WiFi to GOLES Summerfest

The Cooper Lumen team Jay Dalal, ME’13 and Elliott Curran (ME Student) produced a new solar array prototype on August 7th using the new semi-flexible monocrystalline photo voltaic panels purchased at the end of the semester. The array successfully powered a WiFi-NY hotspot providing free WiFi at East River Park on August 8, 2014 during the Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES) Summerfest event. The Cooper Lumen Team is advised by CU Professor Toby Cumberbatch and Paul Garrin, A’82.

Cooper Ranked #2 Most Rigorous College

The Daily Beast proclaimed on November 6th, 2014 that The Cooper Union is the second hardest college in the US, based on several quantitative measures.

Pioneer Stories

The Decem The Pioneer ber 6, 2014 issue of the Cooper Pioneer includes articles on the Glass Ceiling, on LinkNYC and on forum discussing a new Computer Science major at The Cooper Union. …. http://pioneer.cooper.edu