The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union or The Cooper Union and informally referred to, especially during the 19th century, as 'the Cooper Institute', is a private college at Cooper Square on the border of the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Inspired in 1830 when Peter Cooper learned about the government-supported École Polytechnique in France, Cooper Union was established in 1859. The school was built on a radical new model of American higher education based on founder Peter Cooper's fundamental belief that an education "equal to the best technology schools [then] established" should be accessible to those who qualify, independent of their race, religion, sex, wealth or social status, and should be "open and free to all".The Cooper Union originally offered free courses to its admitted students, and when a 4-year undergraduate program was established in 1902, the school granted each admitted student a full-tuition scholarship. Following its own financial crisis, the school decided to abandon this policy starting in the Fall of 2014. Each incoming student receives at least a half-tuition merit scholarship, with additional school financial support, which is provided on a sliding scale up to full tuition scholarships (for which a significant number of students qualify), based on financial needs. A consent decree brokered by the New York Attorney General in New York Supreme Court, and finalized in 2015, required the establishment of a Free Education Committee with the responsibility to present a strategic plan to allow the school to return to a sustainable tuition-free model. In January 2018, the board released their recommended plan to reinstate full-tuition scholarships only for undergraduates by the 2028–2029 academic year.