The Inauguration of Laura Sparks in Pictures

  • Willard Warren EE’50 and his daughters Josianne Pennington and Rachel Warren, chair of the board of trustees

  • Getting ready for the ceremony

  • Professor Atina Grossman prepares for her role as a marshall

  • Richard Lincer, former chair of the board of trustees

  • Dean Mike Essl dons his academic robe

  • Ravi Rajan, president of the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts)

  • Rabbi Andrew Klein came from Rhode Island to participate in the ceremony

  • Faculty enter the Great Hall

  • Cooper Union undergraduates sing the national anthem

  • Laura Sparks' husband and daughter watching from the audience

  • Rabbi Andrew Klein gives the invocation

  • Laura Sparks and Rachel Warren enjoying the speakers

  • Rachel Warren, chair of the board of trustees

  • Andrew Shennan, provost of Wellesley College, sends greetings from his school and Laura Sparks' alma mater

  • Michael Fitts, president of Tulane University

  • Paul Nikulin, president of the Cooper Union Alumni Association

  • Mike Essl and Kevin Slavin join forces to introduce John Oleske

  • John Oleske, assistant attorney general of New York state

  • Associate Dean Elizabeth O'Donnell and Dean Nadar Tehrani introduce Jean Brownhill AR'00

  • Inauguration speaker Jean Brownhill AR'00, the founder of Sweeten

  • Inauguration speaker Photographer Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe A'75

  • Inauguration speaker Stephen Welby, executive director of the IEEE

  • Mary Dwyer ME'19 and Gabriela Godlewski CE'19 present gifts to President Sparks

  • The Cooper Square Singers close out the program

  • President Sparks

  • Post-inauguration celebrations with other college presidents--Ravi Rajan of CalArts and ***

  • Laura Sparks with Damian Woetzel, director of the Aspin Institute Arts Program

  • Laura Sparks with other college presidents

The inauguration of The Cooper Union's thirteenth president, Laura Sparks, took place on Tuesday, February 6 in the Great Hall. Guests traveled from schools across the country to offer their institutions' greetings, and three alumni spoke, before President Sparks addressed the audience. The gallery below shows some of the highlights of the event, a morning filled with reflections on the accomplishments of students and alumni and the community's hopes for the future of the school.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.