New York's Attorney General Investigating the Series of Events That Led to Cooper Union's Financial Woes

Vice recently published a fascinating article written by John Surico about the series of events which led to Cooper Union changing it's 150 year old policy of providing free tuition to it's students. This policy allowed the school to pull students from all walks of life, and ensure they had the best students regardless of economic status.

That policy was one of a kind, attracting faculty and employees who strongly believed in the meritocracy it stood for. When the school started charging $40k per student for the 2014 school year, it understandably created a massive uproar amongst both students and faculty, all requesting answers which were less than forthcoming.

Now, the New York Attorney General's Office is probing the series of events looking for criminal negligence, mismanagement or wrongful allocation of funding.

The accusations of foul play gained a sheen of legitimacy late last month when news broke that New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office had launched a probe into the financial decisions made by the Cooper Union board. The investigation could shed light on what went wrong—and whether there's a future for not-for-profit higher education in our modern gilded age.

Check out the full article for an interesting read on what we already know and what the Attorney General is hoping to accomplish with the investigation.