Cooper Union Will Charge Tuition for Graduate Students Cooper Union will maintain - at least for now - its century-old tradition of free undergraduate education, but the school will begin charging graduate students next year, and will expand graduate and other programs to generate more income, its president said Tuesday. The announcement follows months of agonized debate, as the Greenwich Village college searches for a way out of a deepening financial hole. Jamshed Bharucha, who arrived last July as the new president, said in October that the school had no choice but to consider making students pay, prompting a storm of protest from students and alumni who saw the idea as a violation of its founding principles. The plan announced Tuesday stops far short of broad-based tuition, which might have been the simplest and surest route to financial stability. It also falls short of meeting the fiscal target the school set last fall, and in an interview, Dr. Bharucha made clear that the school may yet have to be more aggressive about raising revenue. "This hybrid model is exciting because it gives us a chance to do new things, and not just hunker down," he said. But, he added, "There are risks for this strategy, and there are those who worry if it will work." Undergraduate students who begin college in September 2013, will not pay tuition during their four years, he said, but so far, the school is making no commitments for who follow them. At least some students who begin graduate school that year will pay tuition, but how much remains to be decided. Cooper Union will also start new programs as soon as 2013, like a master's program combining the school's strengths in technology and design, or online programs, to boost both enrollment and revenue. Dr. Bharucha acknowledged that the plan called for "a very accelerated time scale," adding that the school is already in discussions with the state Board of Regents, which would have to authorize any new programs. Cooper Union has about 1,000 undergraduate students in schools of engineering, art and architecture, and fewer than 100 in master's degree programs in engineering and architecture. It is routinely rated among the elite colleges in those fields, making its policy of giving every student a free education all the more remarkable. Technically, the school does charge tuition, but it gives each student a scholarship covering whatever portion is not covered by other sources like government aid grants. The school was founded in 1859 by Peter Cooper, a wealthy industrialist, primarily to provide a free education to working-class students, and school officials say it has not charged any students in degree programs since 1902, a policy made possible by large gifts left by Cooper and others. It is often said that his founding principle was that education should be "free as air and water," but historians say the phrase originated long after he died. Last fall, Dr. Bharucha said that the school had to reduce its annual operating deficits by more than $20 million by 2018. The new plan "gets us a good distance toward this target," but not all the way, he said. And at a school that has already endured multiple rounds of budget cuts and a hiring freeze, the plan relies on still more cutting, including a 7 percent reduction in its operating budget in the coming school year. The school uses its $600 million endowment to cover operating deficits. Those assets include the land under the Chrysler building, on which it collects $7 million a year in rent, which is set to rise to $32.5 million in 2018. This year, Cooper Union has stepped up its alumni fund-raising, an area where it had been relatively weak, and contributions are up by almost one-third. Current students have also organized a donation drive. Dr. Bharucha said the school also needed to be more aggressive about making money from its work in technology - starting businesses, licensing patents - but that the shift could take many years to pay off.