(from an interview with Peter Buckley, Dean of Humanities, The Cooper Union)

"Most American education was expensive from the start and it was also dependent on you religious affiliation to a large extent. For example Columbia was still largely an Episcopalian enterprise it did not admit Jews until the time of the civil war indeed after that. And so Cooper's radicalism I think is basically based on his religious vision that anybody can be saved that is anybody is also deserving of a free education and there should be no artificial checks placed upon people's opportunities.

"Cooper's philanthropy served as a model for many other people, and so did his educational institution. Rice University in Texas, Tuskegee Institute and also Limestone College in South Carolina all had their initial program developed after seeing what Cooper Union was doing practical education."