EAST VILLAGE (PIX11) – The Cooper Union Board of Trustees has decided, despite student protests, to move ahead with the plan to charge tuition, according to the Village Voice.

The school, which has never charged tuition since it was founded in 1859, would implement the new fees in fall of 2014. The vote comes after school officials worked to diffuse a student occupation of the president’s office in spring of last year, following the first vote approving a tuition.

RELATED: Students occupy Cooper Union room in tuition protest

Students held out the occupation for 65 days, until administrators convinced them they would work to avoid having to charge undergraduates. Protestors argue that charging tuition for undergraduate students goes against the founding principles of the school’s founder Peter Cooper.

Graduates from the prestigious school have been an integral part of New York from the architect of the current World Trade Center, to the inventors of Jello and the I-beam.