MIT Reports to the President 1999–2000
For the Dean’s Office, the past year saw the culmination of a four-year process that clarified its organization and mission. In October 1999, Margaret Bates, Dean for Student Life, announced that she would retire at the end of the academic year after four and one-half years of service. In January 2000, Rosalind Williams, Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education, announced that she would return to the faculty at the end of the academic year after five years of service.
The timing was not coincidental. Both deans were motivated in part by their desire to complete the organizational redefinition that has been in play since the creation of the "greater Dean’s Office" in October 1996. For in the fall of 1999 the structure of the Dean’s Office still required modification to address the tendency of student affairs crises and concerns to divert the dean’s attention from academic leadership. However, this problem, which was first identified in the Hobbs Search Committee report in the spring 1995, also needed to be balanced against creating the opposite but equally serious problem of a too-sharp division between student life and student learning.
With the opportunity to replace both deans at the same time, MIT was able to re-structure the leadership and develop two well-defined positions—the Dean for Undergraduate Education and the Dean for Student Life. Both deans will report to the Chancellor; both will sit on Academic Council; both will work closely with the Dean of Graduate Students; and both will be dedicated to implementing the institutional commitment to the integration of student life and learning.
The searches have been eminently successful in attracting top-quality candidates. Robert Redwine, member of the physics faculty and most recently Director of the Laboratory for Nuclear Science, becomes Dean for Undergraduate Education on July 1, 2000. Larry Benedict, currently Dean for Student Affairs at the Homewood Campus of Johns Hopkins University, has been named Dean for Student Life effective August 21, 2000. With two first-rate people in these key positions, the long-term prospects for the Dean’s Office, as it has now been redefined, are excellent indeed.
This transition in leadership and organization affords us the opportunity to reflect on the past five years. Although these years were often difficult, in the end we successfully achieved our goal of building a bridge from the Dean’s Office of postwar MIT to the Dean’s Office of the 21st century. There are three foundations to this bridge:
In each case, the construction of the foundation was shaped by contingency as much as by premeditated design. The first organizational pillar was begun in the energetic but somewhat chaotic process of student services reengineering and then became much more intentional and focused after President Vest’s key decision to create the "greater Dean’s Office." The second pillar–the institutional commitment to student life–began to emerge from the discussions in the Task Force on Student Life and Learning, which began in earnest during academic year 1996—97. The pace and intensity of these discussions were greatly increased following the alcohol- and fraternity-related death of freshman Scott Krueger in the fall of 1997. This catastrophe provided the impetus for President Vest’s decision (August 1998) to house all freshmen in MIT-operated residences.
Somewhat less dramatic, but just as important, has been the emergence of higher standards of expectation regarding student conduct, both individual and collective, outside the classroom. The community has gradually been reminded that actions have consequences and that all members of a community are obliged to pay attention to the safety and well being of others.
The third pillar of leadership in education through academics and research has been built, in part, through an intentional collaboration between the Dean’s Office and the Committee on the Undergraduate Program. In addition, the decisions of other senior administrators have, at least by implication, highlighted the dean’s role. For example, the partnership with Cambridge University, spearheaded by Chancellor Larry Bacow, will include an undergraduate exchange program, and the recently announced creation of a presidential Task Force on Minority Student Success, chaired by chemistry faculty member and housemaster John Essigmann, will focus attention on the factors that aid or impede the academic success of our minority undergraduate students.
Much of the energy for educational innovation, however, has come from the proliferation of educational technologies and the accompanying influx of resources for their introduction and development at MIT. The next Dean for Undergraduate Education will have the extraordinary opportunity to channel these resources in the most productive directions: to construct physical space in tandem with virtual space; to continue development of student information technologies (especially web-based ones) that complement educational technologies; and to devise modes of evaluation and assessment that will enable MIT to make wise decisions about its overall investment in educational resources. More importantly, the new dean will face the challenge of ensuring that these resources will be committed to the educational ends defined by the collective will and wisdom of the MIT faculty.
During the past academic year, as examples of these larger trends, the following events were especially noteworthy.
Major gifts were announced. Dick and Dottie Simmons’s made a $20 million pledge toward the new undergraduate student residence. In addition, gifts of $4 million from Alex and Brit d’Arbeloff and $2 million from Tom and Anna Gerrity supplemented Al and Barrie Zesiger’s increased gift (total of $12 million) in support of the new Sports and Fitness Center.
Continuing efforts to instill and enforce new expectations of student conduct were exemplified by a series of interactions with fraternities (which, in one case, SAE, led to the closing of the house); by the decision of the Committee on Discipline that the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity would never be allowed to return to the MIT campus; by major intervention in East Campus following a student death from drug-related behavior just before the beginning of fall semester; and by protracted, complex, but ultimately successful on negotiations regarding safety issues related to the spring Steer Roast event in Senior House.
NW30 will be renovated to provide a new 120-bed graduate residence. Steven Lerman, Faculty Chair, and his wife, Lori, will be the housemasters.
Less happily, the construction of the new undergraduate residence on Vassar Street has been delayed due to a lawsuit filed by an abutter. As a consequence, the policy of housing all freshmen in MIT-operated residences has been delayed by one year.
Bob and Jan Randolph were appointed as interim housemasters in Bexley Hall following the resignation of Michael and Helen Ouellette for personal reasons.
A banner year for athletics was highlighted by a substantial increase in the department’s operating budget coupled with decisions to resurface the outdoor track and begin construction of the Sports and Fitness Center. In addition, athletics began a focused process of strategic planning with the consulting help of David Ellis, MIT alumnus, past president of Lafayette College, and current president of the Boston Museum of Science.
The Dean’s Office articulated a strategic plan after an intensive office-wide effort.
Various Dean’s Office areas made considerable contributions to MIT’s successful reaccredidation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.
The Dean’s Office and the Department of Athletics hosted well-received presentations to their individual visiting committees (chaired respectively by DuWayne Peterson and Mary Frances Wagley).
Searches for the DUE and DSL, as described above, were completed. In addition, Elizabeth M. Hicks, most recently of Harvard’s Kennedy School and before that Deputy Assistant Secretary for Student Financial Assistance Programs in the U.S. Department of Education, was hired as the new Director of Student Financial Services effective June 19, 2000.
Bob Kaynor, formerly of the Planning Office, joined the Dean’s Office as Associate Director of Planning.
The Dean’s Office participated intensively in the kick-off for MIT’s Campaign 2000 in the fall. Later in the year, Kate Eastment, development officer, transferred to the Office of Campaign Giving to facilitiate the opportunities to support the fundraising goals for Student Life & Learning.
The first round of funding from the $10 million d’Arbeloff fund for educational excellence was awarded. The process was carried out through close collaboration between the Dean’s Office and CUP, with an emphasis on developing proposals that would transform first year education. Six proposals that will substantially enhance first-year advising and science core subjects and broaden the range of academic experiences available to first-year students were funded.
The faculty voted to approve a new communications requirement, which was designed through a two-year process of pilot experiments supervised by a CUP subcommittee chaired by Professors Langley Keyes and Gene Brown. Funding for the coming academic year was secured through President Vest’s decision to allot a Hewlett Foundation grant to this purpose. Additional fundraising is being pursued actively.
The Office of Career Services and Preprofessional Advising established a new Premedical Advisory Council that brings together the departments and programs most involved with undergraduates interested in medical careers. This council promises to improve substantially the quality of advising for premeds and other undergraduates who want to go into medically-related professions.
The Enrollment Management Group worked more cohesively than ever before, and in a more timely way, to bring forward its recommendations regarding undergraduate class size, tuition, and financial aid to Academic Council. A follow-on process is expected to produce an even more detailed set of recommendations regarding student financial aid in the coming year.
A process for reviewing MIT’s student information systems has begun under the leadership of Registrar Mary Callahan. This will result in a recommendation to the Institute by the end of 2001 on the future of student information processing and management.
MIT celebrated the 30th anniversary of UROP in conjunction with the annual celebration of the MacVicar Day. New MacVicar Fellows named this year include Steve Pinker, Dava Newman, Ernie Cravalho, and Rohan Abeyaratne. The MacVicar Day followed a new format of "teaching demos" that was highly successful.
The event of the year that best expresses the renewed vigor and sense of purpose in the Dean’s Office was the Millennium Ball, a special IAP event celebrated in the Stratton Student Center on January 21. Strong support for this event–including funding–came the President’s Office; however, the idea for the event came from initiative of the Dean’s Office (specifically, from Prof. David Mindell, chair of the Millennial IAP Committee) as did much of the creativity and energy behind its planning. The student center, for that evening, was transformed by a host of glamorously dressed students, faculty, and staff into a grand salon, vibrant with music, art, joy, and sociability, in which could be glimpsed a vision of our educational community at its best. This is a vision that the Dean’s Office has sought to realize in all its endeavors for the past five years, and one that it will continue to seek for years to come.
Rosalind H. William
The goal of the Admissions Office is to identify, recruit, select and enroll the best students of our type in the world. We continue to have great success despite increasing competition and a wildly fluctuating marketplace. For example, this year Harvard, Brown and Georgetown changed their rules governing Early Action (EA) and as a result, we saw a 44% increase in EA applications, making it impossible to predict EA yield. Though our overall yield has dropped slightly because of this, we still hold the #5 position among our competitors. Here are the main themes this year in Admissions:
We were able to document a direct correlation between our admissions numeric index and future MIT GPA. As a result, we made a change to the methodology by which we admit undergraduates. Last year 8% of the enrolling freshman class had numeric indexes in the lower half of the pool; this year, that number was just 2%. This means that this entering freshman class has the highest overall numeric index on record, and therefore, should be most likely to do well at MIT.
It was an extraordinary year for minority freshman admissions. We had a 20% increase in minority freshman applications, the highest on record at 739. This includes record high applications from African American and Mexican American students. We also have the highest minority yield ever at 62%, 3 percentage points higher than our overall yield. It is important to note that these students are well within the top half of the numeric index of our admit group, the strongest class in MIT’s history. Among our peer institutions, we have the 2nd highest yield for African Americans after Harvard, and the highest yield for Mexican Americans.
We had the greatest faculty involvement in admissions in the 22 years that I have been in the Admissions Office.
We doubled the number of faculty readers and their attendance at selection.
This year the Admissions Office expanded its web presence by:
Once again all admitted prefrosh were invited to attend the Campus Preview Weekend. In addition to being one of our top yield events, Campus Preview Weekend is one of the few events that unites the undergraduate communities. Forty-two percent (42%) of the admitted class chose to attend the weekend and 73% of them have chosen to enroll this fall. Last year 43% of the prefrosh attended Campus Preview Weekend and 73% chose to attend MIT.
Nearly all of the graduate departments now use the graduate admissions database. We have worked with the Graduate Students Office and several departments in the School of Science to help them understand yields within certain graduate applicant populations.
More information about this department can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.mit.edu/admissions/.
Marilee Jones
The Department is dedicated to providing adaptable, high-quality, student-oriented physical education, athletics, recreation and intramural programs that encourage opportunities for participation, competition, confidence, and leadership while enhancing the MIT athletics and health fitness environment for the entire MIT community.
For the past five years the department has reported to Rosalind Williams, Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education. The department’s association with other units in ODSUE has enhanced the quality of the educational experiences for student-life and learning and community services at MIT. Beginning in August, the department will report to Larry Benedict, the newly appointed Dean for Student Life.
The Institute gave final approval for the construction of the long awaited Sports Fitness Center. Ground breaking is scheduled for late Fall 2000, and completion is slated for Summer 2002. In preparation for the construction of the new facility, duPont Athletic Center is currently undergoing extensive renovation. Special thanks go to Chairman of the Corporation Alex D’Arbelof ’49 and his wife Brit ’61, Dr. Tom Gerrity ’63 , and Al Zesiger ’51 and his wife Barrie for their financial contributions that will allow construction to proceed.
The Steinbrenner track is being renovated and reconstructed. Improvements include the addition of two creating a total of eight lanes, construction of a new event runways. In addition, event venues will be moved and the current scoreboard will be replaced. Completion is scheduled for Fall 2000.
The indoor track at the Johnson Athletic Center is also being resurfaced. Completion is expected before the start of indoor track and field season in late Fall of 2000.
In the Fall of 1999, a new synthetic turf was installed on Barry Field. New movable bleachers and a new scoreboard were replaced at the same time.
During the Summer of 1999 the Baseball and Softball fields were brought to grade, and in the Spring a bullpen, a new scoreboard and new bleachers were added for Softball.
Several personnel changes have occurred. Physical Education administrative assistant Lisa Wilson and Day Camp/Intramural Administrative Assistant Sandy Tenorio accepted other positions at the Institute. Bernice Ward replaced Tenorio and a full-time replacement for Wilson is currently being sought. Service Assistant Charles Hancock left in June to return to his home state of Texas. Dave Henry was hired as an assistant in the Sports Information Office replacing Peter Charbonneau who resigned to take a position at Boston University. Athletic Training Coordinator Cristina Monterroso resigned to take a teaching position at La Sell College. A search is underway to fill her position.
Among the coaching staff, Director of Crew/Lightweight men’s coach Stu Schmill ’86 resigned to take a position with the MIT Alumni Association. Doug Vincent ’89 replaced Schmill as coach on an interim basis. A search for a one-year interim appointment to replace Vincent is underway. Kyle Welch ’90 left his position as Assistant Sailing Master and Coach of Women’s Sailing at the conclusion of the academic year to pursue a career in computers. John Holland resigned as coach of pistol at the conclusion of the academic year, and Jim Malo resigned as rifle coach (part-time). Searches for these three positions are on going. Assistant Professor Paul Slovenski picked up women’s
track & field coaching duties in addition to his responsibilities for women’s varsity cross country which he assumed in September ’99. Susan Lindholm will continue in the position of interim head coach of women’s varsity crew through the 2000—2001 academic year. In addition, Lindholm will be the Coordinator of Alumni Activities for Crew and Assistant Coordinator of Boathouse Operations. Gordon Hamilton will assume the duties of Coordinator of Boathouse Operations and will assist Lindholm with Alumni Activities. Bruce Chalas replaced Ken Bellerose in the part-time position of coach of Golf. Following 18 years of service, Fran Molesso resigned from the part-time position of coach of Men’s Gymnastics.
During the Summer of 1999 all sub-varsity teams were eliminated and practice squad and travel party sizes were restricted by the department for budgetary and facility use purposes.
MIT hosted approximately 40 events sponsored by non-MIT affiliated groups in Athletics Department spaces during the year. These events underscore the strength of town and gown relationships. In addition, the department hosted over 90 non-intercollegiate varsity special events. Overall more than 13,500 reservations were placed for Department of Athletics facility usage throughout the year.
Sales of Athletic Cards remained consistent with recent years. A total of 7,556 cards were sold. The Department Business Office fully implemented the SAP Institute accounting package. The MIT VISA credit card was distributed to staff members, increasing staff flexibility and reducing costs and payment bottlenecks. In addition, the department developed localized databases for event scheduling, deposits and other special transactions. The department standardized the voucher payroll process and distributed responsibility and accountability for student payroll.
Physical Education (PE) registrations for 1999—2000 were 7,924, up nine percent from 1998—99. This number represents a consistent trend when viewed in the context of the previous five years.
No undergraduate student was denied graduation solely because he or she failed to complete the PE requirement. A study of peer academic institutions conducted for the Department Visiting Committee revealed that approximately 40% of our peers have a PE requirement that is more rigorous than that of MIT and roughly 55% have no PE requirement at all. Most peer institutions no longer have a swim test requirement.
During 1999—2000 a Scuba Instructional outsourcing agreement was struck with United Divers, Inc. This agreement relieved the department of the burden of maintaining a scuba rental business.
Intramural sports continue to attract strong student interest. During 1999—2000, 8,500 students (multiple registrations) participated in 22 intramural sports programs.
Financial support guidelines for Club Sports program needs (developed in 1997—98) continued to be implemented. Of the 46 programs registered this year, 20 competing Club Sports received financial assistance. Participation figures were up 4.7% from 1998—99 and 39% of participants were women (up 1%).
The outstanding performances by our student-athletes are too numerous to mention comprehensively in this document. Highlights of the 1999—2000 academic year, however, are as follows:
Caroline M. Purcell ’02 won the National Collegiate Athletic Association Women’s Sabre fencing individual championship.
Nikolas O. Kozy ’00 was named the winner of a Burger King College Football Scholar /Athlete Award. It is the third consecutive year that an MIT player has won the award that carries a $10,000.00 donation by Burger King to the MIT General Scholarship Fund. Kozy was also named recipient of an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
Eric L. Chen ’00 (tennis) was also selected for an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and was named the national Division III Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award winner by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
Alan A. Sun ’00 led a list of four MIT sailors to be named All-America. Sun, the first African-American to be so honored, was also named as winner of the Sportsmanship Award given by the Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Association.
The MIT men’s tennis team qualified for the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament. MIT hosted the first rounds of the tournament and subsequently traveled to Kalamazoo, MI to compete among the final eight teams in the country. Coach Jeff Hamilton was named the National Division III Coach of the Year.
The women’s nordic ski squad won the U.S. Collegiate Skiing Championship. The men’s indoor track & field team won the New England Division III championship, and the men’s fencing team won the New England Championship.
The women’s and men’s tennis teams, men’s cross country team, and men’s swim teams all won New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference championships. The men’s hockey team won the New England Collegiate Hockey Association championship.
Seven MIT student-athletes were named to GTE College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-America teams.
Fourteen student-athletes earned All-America honors.
The department will work with consultant David Ellis to develop a comprehensive management and business strategic plan that will shape operations for the foreseeable future.
In addition, the department will continue its efforts to diversify its staff through the identification, recruitment, and employment of more women and minorities in administrative, management, head-coaching and teaching positions.
The department will also continue to develop of a planned approach for funding the Sports Fitness Center, along with the renovation of existing facilities based on the Department of Facilities audit results. As part of this effort, the Department will explore marketing and promotional activities aimed at creating revenue streams to support facilities expenses.
The department will continue to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of daily operations through an on-going review of processes and utilization of computer technology.
The department will develop a planned approach to involve faculty/coaches and other staff in research and other scholarly professional endeavors.
The department will continue to participate actively in the planning and development of the Center for Sports Innovation.
In addition, the department will continue to improve existing communication pathways between students and the Department Administration.
Finally, we look forward to forging a positive and mutually beneficial working relationship with new Dean of Student Life Larry Benedict and the offices under his purview.
More information about the Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation Department can be found on the World Wide Web at http://web.mit.edu/athletics/www/.
Richard A. Hill
The mission and purpose of the Campus Activities Complex (CAC) is to be a center of campus life for students, faculty, staff, alumni/ae, retirees and guests. The Report by the Task Force on Student Life and Learning describes the Institute as a triad comprised of academics, research and community. In this vision of MIT's educational process, the concept of community is given critical new importance. Through its programs, services, and facilities, CAC supports community by providing opportunities for interaction as well as the exchange of ideas, concerns and interests. With the support of its affiliated volunteer organizations and the CAC Advisory Board, the department strives to foster individual growth, build community spirit and improve the quality of life for all members of the MIT community.
As a unit within the Office of the Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education (ODSUE), the Campus Activities Complex (CAC) has had new opportunities to further realize its mission. CAC has established vital links and affiliations that have enabled both the CAC and other student life departments, especially Residential Life and Student Life Programs (RLSLP) and Athletics, to serve the MIT community more effectively through improvement of services, programs and operations.
The CAC Advisory Board, composed of student, faculty and staff representatives, chaired by Seth M. Bisen-Hersh ’01, continued its critical role of providing community input and feedback on direction and issues facing the department. The board assisted with the planning for the renovation of the 24 Hour Coffeehouse and the replacement of furniture in Lobdell Dining Hall. Members of the board also represented the MIT community on the selection committees for several open CAC staff positions.
The CAC provides a comprehensive program of educational, cultural and social activities to build a sense of community among students, faculty, staff and retirees. The programs and services that contribute to this objective include the Institute Awards Convocation, the Student Art Association, MIT Hobby Shop, CAC Program Board, the Community Giving (United Way and Other Charities) Campaign, MIT Activities Committee (MITAC), Quarter Century Club and the Association of MIT Retirees.
The Student Art Association (SAA) again reached capacity enrollment of 1,100 students. The SAA is in the process of developing capability to support digital photography. The Wiesner Student Art Gallery exhibited a variety of student artwork, including photography, drawings, painting, ceramics and woodwork. Works of the winners of the List Fellowships and the Schnitzer Prizes in the Visual Arts highlighted the exhibition season. We are adding two new drawing courses and a photo-toning, hand-coloring and digital photo class to our fall offerings.
The MIT Hobby Shop had its largest membership ever during the Spring Term with over 200 members. Four new classes were added. During the Fall term, Director Ken Stone and Professor John Vander Sande taught a new Freshman Advisory Seminar entitled "New England Furniture before the Revolution" (3A.19). Students were introduced to early New England history, lifestyles and furniture through tours of Professor Vander Sande’s circa 1694 home. Students then made their own period-style document boxes, using only hand tools and following historic woodworking practices. The Hobby Shop also offered "Metalworking" and "Tuning a Handplane." Ken Stone also taught "Introduction to Green Woodworking" (SP.743), in which undergraduate students, using only hand tools, built post and rung stools. In addition to "Introduction to Furniture Making" and "Speaker Building," two IAP classes regularly offered by the Hobby Shop, the Hobby Shop collaborated with Professor James Makubuya's "Music of Africa" class (21M.293) for the second year. Students worked in the Hobby Shop to construct working African instruments. The shop also helped out the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department and the Mechanical Engineering Department during their shop renovations by accommodating students in 16.00 and 2.75 and increasing shop hours. For the first time, the Hobby Shop is offering summer classes to the entire MIT community.
Under the leadership of Rita Lin ’00 and Sonia Garg ’02, the CAC Program Board planned and produced a variety of programs and activities. The board sponsored the College Bowl, Take a Professor to Lunch Week, Halloween and Valentine events, study breaks in the Conor Moran Lounge of the Student Center, the IAP Games Tournament and entertainment in the 24-Hour Coffeehouse. The board co-sponsored several Swing Dances with the MIT Ballroom Dance Team and the President's Office. Additionally, the board sponsored two students competitors to the Association of College Unions International’s National Table Tennis Tournament.
During the Institute Awards Convocation 51 students, faculty, staff and organizations were honored by presentation of 30 different awards. The Laya Wiesner Award for Community Service was awarded for the first time to Bonnie Walters, Associate Dean for Freshman Advising.
This year, the Campus Activities Complex helped coordinate and produce two major Institute events. The Millennium Ball transformed the Stratton Student Center into three floors of entertainment featuring historical films and exhibits, magicians and music from the 1940's to the 1990's for over 2000 students, faculty, staff and guests. During the annual Spring Weekend festivities, the Johnson Games returned to MIT for the third time. Twelve hundred people participated on thirty teams and competed in games such as "Who Nose?" and "Is That Your Final Answer?"
The new MIT Beaver Mascot Costume, designed by Solar Olugebefola ’99 and Jessica Wu ’98, was debuted during the opening ceremonies of the Games. With the assistance of student staff, the new beaver mascot will be available to the community for rental use on a scheduled basis.
The Office of Special Community Services (OSCS) is responsible for augmenting the quality of life of MIT faculty and staff on campus, at Lincoln Lab and at other off-campus affiliate locations. During the year, OSCS continued to serve the MIT community by organizing and supporting a variety of important community activities, in addition to promoting community service and volunteer opportunities to all segments of the MIT community. This year, the office also focused on developing user-friendly web pages highlighting OSCS’ programs and services.
The MIT Activities Committee (MITAC), with assistance and leadership from the campus Co-Convener, Muriel Petranic, and the Lincoln Laboratory Co-Convener, Karen Shaw, organized more than 73 events for approximately 5,424 members of the community. This represented an increase of 900 participants. Event highlights included: Joey and Maria’s Comedy Wedding held at La Sala de Puerto Rico for nearly 200 people, WGBH (Channel 2) Membership Telethon Drive held in March, the second annual Mother’s Day Sunday Brunch held at the MIT Faculty Club for over 300 people and the second annual Father’s Day Barbecue at Six Flags New England. During the year, OSCS implemented procedures for accepting credit card sales for customer convenience at Lincoln Laboratory and produced the second annual MITAC "year-at-a glance" calendar.
MITAC members stepping down this year included Maria Raposo of the Graduate Students Office on-campus and Michael Clifford who served as MITAC’s first Lincoln Laboratory Co-Convener for three years prior to the appointment of Karen Shaw. Mary E. Collins of Lincoln Laboratory joined MITAC this year..
The annual Community Giving at MIT Campaign, formerly known as the United Way Campaign, ran from October to February and reached over 100% of its goal of $340,000. In the Fall, Professor John Deutch was appointed Campaign Chair, and the former Campaign Chair, Bill Wohlfarth, became the Campaign Cochair. Four new members joined the Steering Committee: Kathryn Willmore, Vice President and Secretary of the Corporation; Professor Henry Jacoby, Sloan School; Professor Kenneth A. Smith, Chemical Engineering; and Lease Plimpton, Lincoln Laboratory. A book sale, clothing drive, raffle drawings and solicitor thank you party were held during the Campaign to help raise community awareness. As a "pilot program" this year, the MIT Community Service Fund (CSF) was listed as an option for giving through our Community Giving Campaign. The campaign goal was exceeded, and there was also an increase in the number of Leadership Givers (those that give $1,000 or more). In addition, for the second consecutive year, MIT was awarded the "Spirit of Sharing Award" by the United Way of Massachusetts Bay.
The Quarter Century Club (QCC) Office inducted 100 new members in March, bringing the membership roster to over 2,800 active and retired members. Events held during the year included the annual Summer Picnic, the Silver Club High Tea for Ladies and the Holiday Gathering. The W. R. Dickson Retiree Education Fund, established to help QCC retirees pursue their educational goals, awarded two grants. In May, the President of the QCC, James J. Fandel, and the Recording Secretary, Mary Frances Daly, stepped down from their positions after many years of long and dedicated service. The Officers and Board of Directors elected Professor Anthony P. French as the QCC’s new President. The Recording Secretary position will be filled at a later date. In addition, five new members were elected to the Board of Directors: Frederick I. Crowley, Yvonne L. Gittens, Gerald D. Johnson, Travis R. Merritt and Muriel A. Petranic. The QCC President and Board of Directors and President and Mrs. Charles M. Vest co-hosted the annual President’s Retirement Dinner at the MIT Faculty Club for 108 retiring members.
During the past year, OSCS has assumed responsibility for managing Talbot House reservations. Talbot House, a Vermont retreat, is used nearly every weekend, particularly during the fall and winter months. January 2000 witnessed a near 100% occupancy rate. Ten different MIT groups booked the house for weekdays as well as weekends.
The Association of MIT Retirees, co-chaired by Dorothy Bowe and Walter Milne, completed its sixth year with the Institute. This past year, the group updated membership lists, which now includes 610 dues paying members, and released a supplemental directory. The fall program featured a seminar, taught by representatives from the Secretary of State’s Office, about sophisticated approaches used to relieve people of their assets. Sally Hansen continued to produce a monthly newsletter for those interested in volunteer opportunities. In addition to working with the Public Service Center, efforts were made this past year to seek out suburban volunteer opportunities. The Association continues to mail the "Senior Focus" newsletter that identifies activities and programs of interest to retirees. This year’s travel program included day trips to the Boston Public Library, Trinity Church, the Old State House, the New State House, Essex and Tanglewood. Volunteer staff assistance from Dotty Bowe, Jane Griffin, Sally Hansen, Joan Loria, Roberta Bruce and Joanne Miller facilitated the ongoing work of the Association.
CAC operations staff was available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to provide event planning, support and supervision to more than 12,500 events attended by over 700,000 people. In addition, CAC was responsible for coordinating the operational and logistical aspects of many of the Institute's major events, including Commencement, Tech Days, Freshman Orientation, Spring Weekend, Massachusetts State Science Fair and Alumni Reunions. CAC also coordinated and supported many conferences including the Special Olympics, Enterprise Forum and the dedication and ground breaking for the Ray and Maria Stata Center. The Operations Staff also collaborated with the Office of Government and Community Relations to bring more Cambridge and Boston based programming to campus.
CAC also continued to maintain and service the Stratton Student Center, Walker Memorial, the MIT Chapel, the Religious Activities Center, Kresge Auditorium and Tang Center. Lighting, carpeting and seating in many of our common areas and in some of our event rooms were upgraded. In Lobdell Dining Hall, tables and chairs were replaced and the hall was re-carpeted. Morss Hall patios and the main hall were outfitted with the furniture removed from Lobdell. In addition, facility use evaluation and planning continued its effort to schedule and use limited space more effectively. To that end, CAC collaborated with Residential Life and Student Life Programs (RLSLP), Athletics, Campus Police and the Registrar's Schedules Office to coordinate event logistics.
The first phase of the Kresge Renovation project was completed making the facility ADA compliant. The project included installing sophisticated sound and light equipment in both Main Kresge and Little Theater. Rehearsal rooms A and B were renovated with new floors, lighting and sound equipment. In addition, a green room was made available for presenters and performers. The Kresge auditorium restrooms were also refurbished. A new air handling system was installed in the MIT Chapel to provide air conditioning and better air quality flow. The first level of the chapel is now ADA compliant. This past year, CAC focused on improvements to Walker Memorial. The Morss Hall patios received new enclosures and railings. WMBR Radio Station renovations added a new control studio and acoustic improvements to the performance studio. CAC also upgraded the lighting, air conditioning, carpet, furniture and ceiling fans in the Graduate Student Council Lounge and is currently undertaking similar improvements in the Black Students’ Union Lounge. Renovations have begun on the 24-Hour Student Coffeehouse and the Networks Dining Facility. Both Facilities should be ready to welcome students back to campus in the fall.
The Event Management System (EMS) serves as the primary scheduling platform for both the Campus Activities Complex and the Department of Athletics. This unified system enables the two departments to maximize the schedulable facilities and provide improved customer support. In addition, EMS produces reports used by Campus Police, Conference Services and Residential Life and Student Life Programs to facilitate event planning and implementation. During the Fall of 1999, EMS basic and advanced training was offered to current system users, and web capability was demonstrated. In December 1999, the system was upgraded to version 6.12.1113.
The CAC financial operations group concentrated on improving management and client reporting, implementing new systems and developing strategic plans outlining our business and program initiatives. Specifically, we utilized SAP to improve reporting to our event clients, department staff and Institute senior management. Additionally, the group was involved in the upgrade of the declining balance system and the development of the Office of Campus Dining five-year business plan. A collaborative project was initiated with the Controller's Accounting Office to identify partnership opportunities with banks in an effort to improve banking services for students. Staff also participated in an interdepartmental project that investigated the viability of creating a "one-identification card" campus card system. This project integrated the efforts of CAC, the MIT Card Office, the Department of Facilities, Information Systems, and others seeking operational efficiencies and cost effectiveness solutions for the current disparate card providers. In an effort to fill the two vacancies in the Student Center's retail portfolio, specialty retail consultants were retained to perform a marketing study and leasing strategy to implement prior to the 2000—01 academic year.
The administrative and financial operations group supported both the programmatic and fiscal aspects of the department’s business services. The CAC met retail business needs through management of the MIT Activities Committee, the 24-Hour Coffeehouse, the Gameroom, the Source Box Office and the Student Center Lobby Vendor Program. Additionally we enabled CAC to fund other programs and services, including the CAC Program Board, and to provide growth and development opportunities to our student employee staff.
The search for a Director for the new Office of Campus Dining was successfully concluded. This represents the first step in establishing and developing the Office of Campus Dining as the central coordinating body for dining services on campus.
The Office of Campus Dining had a busy first year of operations as it worked to demonstrate immediate improvements in dining services and planned strategically for development and acceleration of Campus Dining as a tool for social interaction and community development. MIT subsidies to operate its dining services were reduced by over $200K when compared to last fiscal year.
A Request for Proposal process was conducted to select MIT’s prime food contractor. After considerable review, the entire contract was awarded to ARAMARK. Final contract negotiations are currently being completed. With the exception of leased spaces and student run businesses, all dining locations are now operated by ARAMARK. The new contract provides for shared fiscal responsibility of operating results and for greater oversight and direction from MIT in maintaining and enhancing food and service quality. This agreement saved MIT approximately $100,000 in contractor subvention costs this year.
In order to be Y2K compliant, the Office of Campus Dining upgraded its card reader point of sale system to the next generation Diebold system. A cross-functional committee that included representatives from MIT Information Systems, the Controller’s Accounting Office and the MIT Audit Division selected the Diebold system based on the strength of its data security encryption handling. The new hardware will also be compatible with the next system software currently in beta testing at other institutions.
The Dining Implementation Group identified three strategic capital renovation projects: residential dining in McCormick, the Refresher Course at Sloan, and the Lobby 7. A five-year business plan process that outlined potential strategies for development of residential dining and retail venues was developed. Specific attention has been paid to Dining’s role in residential community building and to the flexibility of services to accommodate MIT’s diverse academic lifestyles. Campus Dining and the Undergraduate Association leadership co-sponsored a Student Advisory Committee meeting this past year to discuss our student center renovation project. Our office plans to convene this group again this fall to ensure on-going student involvement in our initiatives.
Campus Dining has also been active in the design and development of numerous capital projects. Working with the Founders Group, a new dining operation for the 2002 residence was developed. An assessment and recommendation to include a foodservice operation in the Stata Center was endorsed by the Provost and will add a new 6000 sq. ft. dining operation. Design and planning to renovate a Stratton Student Center dining operation was also completed, and construction will be finished in August of 2000. This project is MIT’s first dining renovation in the last five years. A proposal for a coffee kiosk in Lobby 7 was developed with our food contractor. Construction is planned for this fall.
Campus Dining conducted several special meal programs pilots this year: a dinner program at McCormick on Monday nights, a two night/week dinner program at Walker Memorial for East Campus residents and a lunch program 4 days a week at the Faculty Club for the Sloan community. All have met with community approval, and will be developed further this coming year.
The food trucks, an MIT institution, were brought under license agreements to operate on campus after a Request for Proposal process. This has resulted in a greater diversity and quality of food offerings. Due to greater competition, three of the four trucks on campus have invested in new vehicles. Our new contracts also provide for improved oversight in the areas of sanitation, safety, operating hours, food quality and menu diversity and value. The trucks were moved to a new location due to Stata Center construction. New benches and landscaping near the Biology Building made the area more pleasant for food truck patrons.
This year, CAC underwent several staffing changes. Among administrative staff, Keith Lezama was hired as Operations Manager for evenings and weekends, and Susan Marcy joined CAC as Assistant Manager for Event Planning. Lucille O’Hehir transferred from Campus Dining to the School of Engineering. Both Daniel Conceison, Assistant Operations Manager, and Ricky Murphy, Operations Supervisor, left the Institute to pursue other career opportunities. At year end, four administrative positions—Dining Manager, Assistant Operations Manager, Operations Supervisor, and the newly created Systems Manager—were all in national search processes.
Within support staff, Diane Tavitian transferred from the School of Architecture and Planning to become an administrative assistant in the Office of Special Community Services. She replaced Julie Coiro, who transferred to the Sloan School. There were also numerous changes within the Department of Facilities service staff assigned to CAC.
CAC continued to provide employment opportunities for over 75 students. In addition, CAC offered a Graduate Assistantship to Lesley Nye, a graduate student in the Higher Education Administration programs at Harvard University. In her role, Lesley provided programming support for the Program Board and the Wiesner Student Art Gallery.
More information about Campus Activities Complex and Campus Dining can be found on the World Wide Web at http://web.mit.edu/campus-activities/www/.
Phillip Walsh
The Chaplaincy at MIT remained stable during the year past. Student involvement remained high and some new ground was broken. The Reverend Jane Gould, The Reverend John Wuestneck, Mr. Suheil Laher and Rabbi Joshua Plaut took part in a Freshman Seminar led by Dean Robert M. Randolph. The seminar called "The Abrahamic Faiths: Conversations between Christians, Jews and Muslims" was very successful and made real the types of conversation the Religious Life Center was created to foster. Dean Randolph and The Rev. Wuestneck served as advisors for the fifteen students enrolled in the seminar. In January representatives of the three faiths led a public discussion with students which for the first time attracted a large Muslim audience.
In December 1999 the MIT Religious Activities Center (RAC) was featured in an article appearing in The Chronicle of Higher Education. The article "Pluralism and Prayer Under One Roof" cited MIT for the leadership it has shown in creating multi-faith worship and study space. Creating Multi-faith Spaces, a handbook of case studies, was published in the spring and is available through Wellesley College.
At the end of June The Reverend Betsy Draper left the Southern Baptist Chaplaincy and Sister Kathleen Crowley left the Tech Catholic Community. Both will be replaced during the coming year. The Reverend Connie Parvey returned to the Lutheran Chaplaincy after recovery from heart surgery.
The Technology and Culture Forum concluded another successful year under the leadership of The Reverend Jane Gould. Along with Hillel, they continued to lay the foundation for a major fund drive to underwrite their work at MIT.
Hillel sponsored 112 individual events over the course of the year. They continued to offer kosher meals twice a day and nine Judaic classes per week. During IAP, they took 20 MIT students to Israel for a ten day tour.
The three worshiping communities sponsored a total of 16 services each week.
Eight graduate and undergraduate students died during the year. Four were not currently enrolled, but all were known to the community and each death impacted friends and faculty. Memorial services were held on campus for five of the students. This is not an unusual number of deaths but we are a small community and such losses have great impact. We mediate that impact by helping students attend memorial services off campus and by holding services on campus when it is desired and possible. In these efforts we are aided by the Chaplaincy and by the Medical Department.
Following is a list of the students and the circumstances of their deaths.
Amy Beth Segal — July 21, 1999
34 year old graduate student at The Sloan School of Management, died of cancer at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX.
Richard Guy — August 31, 1999
Class of 2001 at East Campus. A memorial service was held at MIT.
Benjamin Krinsky — September 3, 1999
Died of a brain tumor at home on Long Island, NY. A memorial service was held at MIT.
Irina Libove — December 28, 1999
23 year old graduate student in the Department of Biology; died in a fall on the slopes of Pico de Orizaba (also known as Citaltepetl), a Mexican mountain.
Seth L. Koran — February 9, 2000
Chemistry major and member of Tau Epsilon Pi on formal leave of absence from MIT since August 1999; suicide at
home after longstanding battle with depression. A memorial service was held at MIT.
Christopher James Millard — March 24, 2000
Not a registered student; suicide at PB; degree awarded posthumously at graduation ceremonies in June 2000. A memorial service was held at MIT.
Elizabeth A. Shin — April 14, 2000
Class of 2002; suicide at Random Hall. A memorial service was held at MIT.
Sara Mae Bush — June 22, 2000
Graduate student on medical leave; victim of truck accident.
Robert Randolph
The mission of Counseling and Support Services (CSS) is to provide personal counseling to all students in a highly competitive and stressful environment. This counseling seeks to dignify each student in his or her efforts to learn within both academic and personal contexts. Personal support includes counseling students on a range of issues, including academic, psychological, interpersonal, financial and even career matters.
The 1999—2000 year proved to be a large challenge for a considerable segment of this community. From late summer through the spring, three students who were on leave or unregistered died. All had close ties to their living groups, the student body, or friends on campus. The death of a fourth student near the end of the spring academic term left others shaken by the incident and coping with their grief. Throughout the year, Counseling and Support Services (CSS) and MIT Medical's Mental Health Service, saw high numbers of counselees and patients in distress. CSS coordinated their efforts with the Medical Department and interacted closely with faculty, house masters, student family members, campus police, chaplains and hospital staff. Counseling deans also teamed with medical and other professionals to visit dormitories and fraternities that had been directly affected by the deaths of members of their living groups. In addition, the office collaborated with Student Financial Services to help students who were impacted by the financial hold policy and whose life circumstances caused them to be in need of further financial assistance. CSS continued to support the Committee on Academic Performance (CAP), supporting review of matters where academic and personal issues intersected. Nightline, the peer counseling hotline, continued to receive supervision from the CSS staff. The office also presented a range of workshops and training sessions to address student and staff needs.
Ms. Lynn Roberson, Coordinator of Programs and Support for Women Students, met with large numbers of women students, helping them to identify counseling and other relevant support resources. Additionally, she and Dean Blanche Staton of the Graduate Students Office co-led the Graduate Women’s Support Group. Lynn also joined Dr. Bina Patel of Mental Health and a concerned faculty member to initiate the first gathering for South Asian women students. It was exceptionally well attended. This year also marked the introduction of a new workshop series, "Honoring the Great Feminine." The program is inter-disciplinary, featuring aspects of anthropology, history and psychology. It explores the roots and dimensions of what is regarded as the feminine and examines critically important role models, enabling participants to develop self-esteem. Consultant Doris Roach also hosted a "Day of Renewal for Women of Color," a workshop for managing stress and honoring women of color.
Dean Ayida Mthembu worked with the Campus Committee on Race Relations (CCRR) where, in addition to contributing to several ongoing agenda items and projects, she oversaw the awarding of CCRR grants for improving the state of race relations in the MIT community. She also continued efforts devoted to Race 2000 and worked to help plan, organize and facilitate the annual Black Women's Retreat for graduate and undergraduate students. In addition, she served as an advisor to under-represented minority student groups from other backgrounds and assisted them with the planning and organization of cultural celebrations and other relevant events. Dean Arnold Henderson, Jr. maintained his long-standing involvement with the Martin Luther King Committee, especially the MLK Leadership Awards Subcommittee, and assisted the organization with its yearly celebratory breakfast. In addition, he attended the weekend LUCHA Symposium. Deans Mthembu and Henderson also participated in the Chocolate City Reception.
Dr. Jacqueline Simonis, Associate Dean for Counseling Supervision and Training, continued to develop timely and innovative staff in-service training. These sessions featured a discussion of the art and practice of psychotherapy by Dr. Suzanne Repetto of Harvard University’s Bureau of Study Counsel, a presentation on psychotropic medication by Dr. Amy Brager and Dr. David Henderson of MIT Mental Health and a workshop on legal issues for college staff working with student with disabilities conducted by Barbara Roberts, Coordinator of Disabilities Services and Attorney Salome Heyward. Dean Simonis also facilitated meeting between the staffs of CSS and Harvard's Bureau of Study. In addition, she attended a symposium for mental health professionals that addressed the significance and impact of word choice in psychotherapy sessions.
Dean Kimberly McGlothin supervised Nightline staffers. She also conducted training sessions for graduate resident tutors, placing special emphasis on helping tutors identify resources for students with serious personal or psychiatric issues.
Dean Arnold Henderson, Jr. participated in a panel discussion at the September Orientation for New MIT Faculty. He was also a guest speaker at the departmental administrators' luncheon where he discussed the various functions of Counseling and Support Services and how to get help when a student has a serious personal or psychiatric problem. Henderson also participated with Margaret Bates, Dean of Student Life, Dr. Peter Reich, Chief of MIT Mental Health and Dr. Margaret Ross, staff psychiatrist, in a training session for graduate tutors led by Dean Carol Orme-Johnson.
Deans Simonis and Henderson also participated in the search process for a new counseling dean for CSS. The first search process in the fall of 1999 was unsuccessful, necessitating a reopening of the search. The second attempt resulted in the hiring of Dean Kunya Des Jardins, who accepted the position in late June.
The staff worked very hard to make a sustained and committed effort to meet its established goals during a year characterized by many–both in and outside of the office–as exceptionally demanding and challenging. CSS is very grateful for the thoughtful attention and strong support that it received from Chancellor Larry Bacow, Dean Rosalind Williams and Dean Margaret Bates.
The addition of a new counseling dean to the CSS staff should help the office to explore new ways of distributing contact hours and developing its resources. In addition, CSS will continue to focus on staff development and in-service training. Of course, the office will continue its policy of reaching out to all segments of the MIT community and pooling efforts with colleagues, providers and educators.
More information on this department can be found on the World Wide Web at http://web.mit.edu/counsel/www/.
Arnold Henderson, Jr.
MIT Card use by students, faculty, employees and affiliates for identification, access, and transacting business campus-wide continued to grow in fiscal year 2000. Some 30,050 new MIT Cards were issued during the year. The total represents 2,150 employee identification cards, 11,790 student cards, 4,990 affiliate cards and 11,120 temporary identification cards. The Card Office staff worked on a daily basis with staff in ODSUE, IS, Facilities, H/R, Libraries, Parking, Campus Police, Medical, MIT labs and departments, Lincoln Lab, software and hardware vendors and other institutions in support of the MIT educational mission.
In June, the MIT Card application was deployed in the Department of Athletics for control of facility access. Daniel Michaud from the Card Office worked hand-in-hand with the Department of Athletics staff to design, develop and implement a new application to improve access security as well as customer service. The newly deployed process allows the Athletics Department to establish and track new Athletics accounts for MIT community members by simply swiping their MIT ID Cards through a custom developed card swipe system. Use of the latest touch-screen technology and seamless integration with the MIT Card Office database allows Athletics employees to determine a community member’s status at MIT, create and manage Athletics privileges and accounts and complete customer financial transactions at the touch of a button. A custom MIT Athletics ID badge, jointly designed by both departments, will allow qualified community members without MIT ID cards to make use of Athletics facilities. Planned security enhancements to the current system will tie in with the campus-wide network of card readers thereby ensuring a safer environment. The new system has the added benefit of allowing the Department of Athletics to analyze the demographics of their customer base by drawing upon the information stored within the MIT Card Office database.
Working with our software vendor Imaging Technology Corporation, we increased card production capability by refining the IDCS Database and eliminating unnecessary fields. In addition, indices have been added to the underlying tables to improve response time and reduce disk space requirements. The MIT Personal Data Detail Form we currently use to produce identification cards and underlying tables has been modified to expand the number of clearances possible for each individual and to simplify the presentation of information on the form. A successful migration of the Card Office database to our new SQL 7.0 server was completed. The new server platform makes card production about four times faster than the previous process.
The project to port the MIT Card Office ID Database to Oracle is behind schedule. Once done, we plan to use existing Oracle protocols to securely transmit MIT Card data over the MITNet. This new environment will also
support distribution of Card Office image data via the MITNet thus enabling departments and satellite locations to obtain student rosters and employee images on line. Under the successful project management of Shueh- Lin Lee, the Card Office printed and distributed 4,743 paper pages of student roster images in fiscal year 2000. We processed 75,888 individual images to create customer specific roster requests on time.
The Card Office staff successfully met theY2K challenge ensuring uninterrupted campus-wide card service.
Viviane Prodonoff joined the Card Office in August as Student Service Center card support person. Lucy Barrera, Systems Administrator, left MIT and the Card Office in March after 5 years of personal commitment to building the Card Office. The addition of Michael Collins in April has strengthened card operations campus-wide. Turnover creates above average staff replacement difficulty for the Card Office because of the learning curve involved in training new people to use the necessary card production systems and software. Fiscal year 2000 showed us a need to acquire more in house hardware and software integration and trouble-shooting capability and additional budget resources to outsource software support to software support contractors.
More information on this department can be found on the World Wide Web at http://web.mit.edu/mitcard/.
Lawrence E. Maguire
The mission of ODSUE IT is to provide high quality information services support to a wide ranging set of users within ODSUE and MIT. This support focuses on the automation of business processes and information systems to provide students, faculty and administrators with timely and accurate information and support.
Major events in fiscal year 2000 included the successful transition of systems into the Year 2000 and more detailed planning related to the evolution of MIT’s Student Information System (SIS) and the organizational realignment of ODSUE.
The first half of fiscal year 2000 was focused on Y2K preparation. Desktop Computing personnel and Analyst/Programmers actively participated in MIT's Y2K planning efforts. ODSUE IT facilitated the Y2K effort for all of ODSUE by educating desktop computer and systems users, implementing changes and extensive application testing to ensure proper Y2K operation. In addition, ODSUE IT actively supported the end of year monitoring and testing effort in anticipation of unforeseen problems. The effort resulted in a computing environment that was fully operational when staff arrived back on campus on January 4, 2000.
Supported by senior management and led by our functional area leaders, we began planning an 18-month effort to evaluate the future direction of the Student Information System. MIT Sloan School’s Center for Information Systems Research was engaged to provide planning guidance. The planning effort culminated in a more detailed proposal to undertake a multi-phased project that will include a comprehensive review of SIS system requirements, followed by an in-depth trade study of potential long-term solutions that will result in a decision on which direction to take.
Finally, effective July 1, 2000, the Office of the Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education (ODSUE) will be restructured into two new organizations, the Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education and the Office of the Dean for Student Life. As part of this restructuring, ODSUE IT has been renamed Student Services Information Technology to recognize the broad responsibility that this office has for supporting student-related technology throughout the entire MIT community.
In collaboration with our clients the following major projects were completed this year:
For the second year, ODSUE has fulfilled its plan to replace 1/3 of all desktop machines on an annual basis. This resulted in deployment of approximately 160 new machines during fiscal year 2000 and redeployment of approximately 50 other machines. This effort, supported by Theresa Regan, MIT Information Systems Director of Office Computing, has been extremely successful and has ensured a robust office-computing environment for ODSUE.
A sophisticated web based application, Who’s Teaching What (WTW), was developed and piloted with academic departments to collect instructor information associated with subjects being taught at MIT for a given term. The information collected by WTW feeds the Subject Evaluation project. Additionally, the MIT Provost Office will use the information collected by the WTW process for both internal studies and to respond to outside inquiries.
The Picture Class List pilot designed to make available picture class lists via the Internet to instructors and department administrators was completed this year. Student pictures were also added to the advisor and house master access on WebSIS.
A web site featuring improved advisor access was designed, developed and implemented. MIT student advisors can now access the academic records of their advisees. In addition, they can see their advisee’s picture, review pre-registration information, grade reports including completed audit, subjects taken in current term including the projected audit and review individual student schedules.
The WebSIS web site was redesigned to bring together student and academic information for students, faculty, advisors, and departmental administrators.
An analysis of MITSIS data to reside in the MIT data warehouse was completed. The transfer process to move data to theWarehouse was implemented. This analysis and data transfer will continue as new data is collected and needs arise.
Implemented system changes required to support the new graduate student summer tuition policy.
The new centralized academic Curricular Information System (CIS) will support curriculum development, Catalogue publishing and the course information maintenance used in student records. It will also provide the
infrastructure to support the eventual development of student portals, facilitating communications among students, teachers, advisors and administrators. Details are available under the project vision and scope: http://web.mit.edu/odsue/odsue-it/cis/CISVisionScope.html. The CIS project began in 2000 with user interviews and documentation of the old catalog proposal systems and manual processes. Requirements for the new system are currently under development.
Design enhancements were made to IAP based on feedback from its introductory year. Chief among the changes: statistics were added to each user's individual proposal home page, one click rollover of prior year subjects, easier-to-use scheduling, easier submission for group-sponsored activities and easier and more flexible downloading. The public IAP Home Page now includes a day-by-day calendar (previously on thesearch page) and a daily featured activity.
Minor programming enhancements were made to the Freshman Essay Evaluation system, now in its third year. One important change enables freshman advisors to access their advisee’s essays and grader comments through WebSIS.
Freshmen matriculating in the fall of 2000 entered the HASS-D lottery over the web using the secure web server also used for Freshman Essay Evaluation during the summer.
All undergraduate HASS-D General Institute Requirement's (GIR) have been changed in the audit to comply with the new HASS-D requirements. Upon rerunning all actual audits: 9 seniors, 5 juniors and 1 sophomore gained one subject toward their HASS-D GIR.
In addition, we enhanced an existing report to facilitate the Course 6 MEng audit, and we researched methods for implementing the new Communications Initiative.
Functionality was developed to produce student collection letters. The first mailing resulted in an influx of $10K to $20K in revenue. In addition to the revenue collected, a number of delinquent students established contact with their respective Account Representatives to discuss their account status.
The process for archiving student account transactional data was developed and implemented. Its implementation improved performance when closing Student Cashiering Sessions at the end of the day and when processing the Student Monthly Bill/Statement.
The federal government requires a notification to be sent every time a Title IV Fund is disbursed. MIT was one of the first schools to implement an electronic notification process.
ODSUE IT collaborated with Data Warehouse group to move Financial Aid data (including awards, loans, disbursement, need analysis, requirement tracking, budgeting, MIT grant, Student Payroll distribution and Student enrollment information) to Data Warehouse. This project provides SFS users with a flexible and easy-to-use reporting environment to meet their internal and external (departments, outside agencies, MIT management) regular or ad hoc reporting needs. Regularly requested reports were established for the convenience of SFS.
In collaboration with Impromptu, ODSUE IT implemented a system to enable MIT applicants to check the status of their financial aid applications via web. This process is integrated to MIT Admission Applications Tracking system to give MIT applicants a single online location to check all of their application components.
SIS changes were implemented to comply with changes in federal law, also adding audit functionality to Direct Loan creation and disbursement process.
After a loan note signing period, loan services users need to update the status for a large number of loan notes. A new form was designed, developed and implemented to allow users to update student loan status in more of a data-entry mode that allows fast input of data with fewer keystrokes.
The technology and support for MIT's Need Analysis process was reevaluated. The PowerFaids product from CollegeBoard is being considered. This project will continue into the coming year.
A project to integrate international student information into the Student Information System on a secure platform, thereby providing flexibility to meet future changes in federal law was begun. The discovery phase of this project was completed this year. Implementation will take place in fiscal year 2001.
Numerous database and process modeling tools were investigated to improve efficiency in documenting old and designing new ODSUE IT systems. The SilverRun Business Process Modeling and Relational Data Modeling Tools were chosen for best all round utility.
An effort was begun to upgrade our systems through the migration of the Student Information Systems to a more technologically advanced platform. This will result in a more easily maintainable system with a greater potential to support the anticipated growth in data, functionality and user community.
An effort to develop a Java based infrastructure has been underway during this past year. This technology will allow ODSUE IT to develop more robust, web based applications to meet the needs and demands of complex business processes and a sophisticated client base (including students, faculty and administrators).
The MITSIS Database was extended to provide secure, real-time connections with the MIT Data Warehouse, MIT Roles Database and EECS Student System Database. This will provide faculty and administrators with more accurate and timely access to student data.
With approval and funding from senior management, it is expected that we will complete the analysis of requirements (including determination of scope) for the evolving Student Information Systems. Next year we will begin the comparative analysis of potential long-term solutions.
Our current organizational model for application systems provides for teams to support different administrative areas. Each team has pre-assigned resources, adjusted as program priorities change. With the organizational structure of ODSUE changing, ODSUE IT will be revisiting the internal structure in place to support student services departments.
In fiscal year 2000 we completed the planning and received funding to implement our consultant migration plan. During fiscal year 2001, we will be migrating away from the use of contract analyst/programmers to support ongoing work and instead will supplement our staff by hiring regular MIT employees. This presents a significant challenge, as the market for information technology professionals remains limited.
In December of 1999, Tony Porter resigned to pursue a position outside of MIT. His appointment at the time was a temporary position. In May of 2000, the two technical assistant positions were changed from temporary to regular appointments. Also, at that time, Joseph Welch was hired as a Senior Technical Assistant.
The Student Financial Services Teams had a challenging year with staff losses within ODSUE IT (MIT Analyst/ Programmer Alice Cavallo and contract programmer Leo Larson) along with losses of key administrative staff in the Office of Student Financial Services. Support and development was successfully provided by the extra efforts of the current staff. Joining the SFS teams were Tom Wanderer (mid-year) and Joseph Greene (May). Both bring their several years of technical experience and human relationship skills to the support of current and future systems.
More information about this department can be found on the World Wide Web at http://web.mit.edu/odsue/odsue-it/.
Robert A. Rippcondi
This area of the office includes many of the principal non-departmental academic resources for students and their advisors. The ARC places particular emphasis on freshman-focused services and activities, having responsibility for new-student orientation, freshman advising recruitment, training and management and freshman-year programming in general. ARC staff are involved in the work with many colleagues and Institute committees and in the past year have participated in three parents’ panels during Orientation, Family Weekend and the Campus Preview Weekend. ARC also held a successful Orientation Parents’ Open House attended by approximately 100 parents. ARC staff served as members of the Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid (CUAFA) and appeared before the Committee on Undergraduate Program (CUP) Subcommittee on Pass/No Record grading. The office that supports the Writing Requirement was moved from Academic Services to the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.
The Class of 2003 was advised primarily through the Freshman Advising Seminar (FAS) system. The number of FASes declined again this year from 130 to 101. The 197 freshman advisors for 1999—2000 included 116 Freshman Advising Seminar leaders and 81 "traditional" advisors. The advising cadre included 84 faculty, 14 lecturers, four teaching staff, one adjunct professor, one visiting professor, one medical doctor, ten research scientists, five graduate students, 74 administrators and three other staff members. One or more Associate Advisors assisted most advisors.
Recruitment of both FAS and "traditional" advisors from faculty ranks remains a serious issue. Demands on faculty time seem to be increasing. It is frustrating for this staff to hear young faculty express not only the wish to participate in freshman advising but also the impossibility of being able to take on the task.
Plans are underway to pilot a residence-based advising program in the coming Fall Term. The new McCormick advising program–organized by staff in Academic Services and joined by staff in Residential Life and Student Life Programs–will assign all freshmen in that residence hall to either seminar-based or regular advising groups.
There were 220 active Associate Advisors for the academic year. The Associate Advising Steering Committee offered new programming including new Orientation training, a suicide discussion, 10 study skill programs, 2 FSILG presentations on academic survival and 8 IAP related programs. The Associates also created a new series called "How To" that incorporated suggestions for approaching professors, navigating academic forms and when and how to find help. The ever-popular Choice of Majors Fair was held during IAP and again in late March.
Approximately 60 advisors attended two advisor workshops sponsored by the ARC during the Fall Term. Four dinners held during the Spring Term, to recognize advisors and launch the recruitment program for the forthcoming year, continue to provide a useful and sociable forum for advisors, faculty and staff.
Of the 264 freshmen eligible for sophomore status at the end of the Fall Term, only 25 students accepted it.
Orientation ’99 was an opportunity to improve on the new programs of the previous year. The schedule continued to highlight the following programs: the faculty Welcome Dinner (moved to the second night after students arrived); involvement of upperclass students as Orientation Leaders; three existing pre-orientation programs involving academics, community service and leadership; and the Residence Midway that allowed students to investigate housing options without leaving campus.
New programs included a presentation by Jay Friedman regarding alcohol and relationships; a health and wellness fair involving athletics; a presentation on the history of hacks and the tradition of the Brass Rat; programs focusing on women’s and LBGT issues; and two new pre-orientation programs that involved arts and an outdoor experience. The Orientation Committee was comprised of four full-time student interns and 25 volunteers.
All publications prepared by the ARC are now available on the Web, and we are continuing to increase our visibility and use of the Web to provide information to students and their advisors. Given the academic focus of the Academic Resource Center, our outreach efforts tend primarily to programming such as study skills and choice of major workshops. This year we introduced a number of activities designed to promote interactions between faculty, staff and students. Recent activities include the following:
Thirty-five transfer students, including 10 international students, enrolled in the Fall of 1999. This is the largest number of transfers in recent years (up 75% from last year). In addition, for the first time in many years, transfer students were not guaranteed on-campus housing (only nine students received on-campus housing). Transfers chose majors in 12 different departments, with approximately one-third of these students selecting Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Two transfer students enrolled in the Spring Term.
During IAP 2000, the MIT community had a choice of nearly 600 different activities. There was a slight rise in the number of for-credit offerings this year (up to 102 from 92) that may be explained by the ease with which departmental administrators are now able to post their subject offerings. The user-friendly on-line submission form and the IAP on-line Guide at http://web.mit.edu/iap/ are in their second year. Because the Web site is so easily accessible to MIT students, faculty and staff wanting to submit activities, as well those wanting to peruse them on-line, the IAP office intends to print and distribute fewer hard copies of the IAP Guide.
In a continuing effort to encourage active faculty/student interactions, Academic Services sponsored the "IAP Spark Forum," a series of ten lectures designed to showcase the exciting interdisciplinary research of young MIT faculty. These talks were organized by Professor David Mindell, faculty chair of the IAP ’00 and Dibner Assistant Professor of the History of Manufacturing and Technology, and Ms. Van Chu, Academic Services staff member. An average of 50 undergraduate and graduate students attended these talks. A small pre-selected group went to dinner after each lecture with the faculty member and her/his graduate students to continue the conversation.
The IAP Millennium Ball–also initiated by Professor Mindell– on January 29 marked the turn of the new century and was attended by more than 2,500 students, faculty and administrators.
We are pleased to note that more students are making use of the CAP web page for information and petitions. There was also a noticeable increase in the number of email messages sent to "cap-help@mit."
Table 1. The following is a recap of CAP and ARC Actions for freshmen over the past five years:
|
Academic Year |
Required Withdrawals |
CAP Warnings |
ARC Letters |
Total Academic Actions |
|
1999-2000 |
5 |
133 |
113 |
251 |
|
1998-1999 |
6 |
158 |
89 |
253 |
|
1997-1998 |
5 |
175 |
146 |
326 |
|
1996-1997 |
16 |
196 |
99 |
311 |
|
1995-1996 |
10 |
202 |
110 |
322 |
This past year UROP marked its thirtieth anniversary with a celebration in Lobby 7 on February 3, 2000, the day before the Institute’s MacVicar Day honoring Margaret MacVicar’s commitment to education. Faculty, students and staff attended the celebration, which featured speeches by Professor Paul Gray and Dean Rosalind Williams as well as music by Professor Samuel Keyser and his band. UROP also hosted a special web retrospective of UROP’s thirty years at MIT, and articles recognizing this milestone appeared in Tech Talk and the Tech Review.
During summer 1999 and academic year 1999—2000, a total of 1,758 students conducted 2,819 UROP projects. This total represents a decrease in UROP participation from academic year 1998—1999 and summer 1998, when a total of 1,833 students participated in 2,982 projects. One reason for this drop in participation may be that students facing self-help demands are choosing to accept non-Institute employment (particularly with software and web-based technologies) that pays significantly more than MIT-based positions. Another reason might be that students wishing to avoid UROP paperwork are opting to set up their paid research positions directly through the student employment office, which does not require a research proposal or project evaluation.
Student financial obligations may also explain the increasing preference for earning pay rather than credit for UROP work. In AY 1999—2000, 68% chose UROP for pay and 31% chose UROP for credit, while in AY 1998—1999, 64% chose pay and 35% chose credit. During the summer, almost all UROP students conduct their projects for pay. With one or two exceptions, students will not choose credit as an option. Aside from the need for summer income, students cannot or do not wish to pay the tuition fees normally charged for taking UROP for credit over the summer.
Over the past academic year, UROP strengthened ties with key staff members in Resource Development. At the end of the year, UROP’s endowment totals over $7 Million (excluding funds managed by academic departments). The goal of the MIT capital campaign is to increase UROP endowment to $15 Million. Increased income from endowment combined with gifts and Institute funds has allowed the UROP Office to disburse $950,000 in student support over the most recent funding cycle (fall 1999, spring and summer 2000), exceeding the amount provided during the previous funding cycle by over $200,000.
UROP’s IAP Research Mentor Program once again proved to be a highly effective method for preparing freshmen for UROPs. One participant commented: "…the pre-UROP program was a wonderful experience for me. I think it is an excellent way to introduce us to research at MIT." Throughout the four-week program, experienced UROPers provided guidance to beginners while working on their ongoing UROP projects. This year nearly 40 mentors collaborated with 61 "pre-UROPers." Fifty-five per cent of this year’s participants went on to their own UROPs during Spring and Summer 2000.
This year, the UROP Office was very pleased to hear from two alumni who had participated in the UROP. In January, we received a call from a 1996 graduate in EECS who had recently sold his very successful company. Because he felt that his UROP experiences played a key part in his success, he indicated to UROP staff that he would like to take proceeds from the sale and make a gift to UROP. His intention is to donate $1 Million. In addition, John Grunsfeld ’80, a graduate in Physics and one of the NASA astronauts who participated in the space shuttle mission to repair the Hubble telescope, contacted UROP. Dr. Grunsfeld presented the UROP Office with a framed collection of MIT memorabilia that he took with him in space. Included in this collection was an inscription thanking UROP for helping "current and future astronauts prepare for science and engineering research in space."
This area continued its work to provide students, faculty, and staff with accurate and accessible information on academic opportunities, policies, and procedures. Almost all of its efforts are the result of collaborations with other staff both from within and outside Academic Services. Recent activities include:
The Classroom Management and Schedules Office spearheaded a major effort with faculty, Academic Computing, Facilities, Audio/Visual Services and the Planning Office to renovate three small classrooms in Building 1. In addition, a major training partnership with Audio/Visual Services continued to provide training sessions each term to outline the teaching possibilities in the technologically-equipped rooms. Some other key projects included:
Educational Research designs and administers studies about important curricular and co-curricular issues for the purpose of providing faculty and administrators with information about the undergraduate student body to help guide policy development and decision-making. This year we engaged in a variety of research projects: large- and small-scale surveys, assessment projects, focused interview studies and database mining projects.
We administered our own in-house survey of the freshman year experience to early first semester sophomores. This survey is conducted at four-year intervals. The first such survey was conducted for freshman year ’94—’95. This winter, in conjunction with the Alumni Association and the Office of the Provost, we participated in a COFHE (Consortium on the Financing of Higher Education) Alumni Survey and surveyed the classes of ’79, ’84, ’89, and ’94. The Boston Coalition, a group of universities and colleges concerned about the use of alcohol and drugs among the student population, asked its member schools to administer the CORE Alcohol and Other Drug Use Survey. In conjunction with the Medical Department, we administered this survey to a random sample of 1,000 undergraduates during the spring semester. We also administered the Educational Benchmarking, Inc. (EBI) Survey of Engineering Seniors for the School of Engineering in preparation for the 2001 ABET Accreditation Review. We assisted a number of departments with their 2000 Senior Exit Surveys. Each year around graduation time, Career Services administers a survey to all graduating students (undergraduates and graduate students). Our office assisted Career Services by analyzing the data and disseminating reports and information.
We assisted the Center for Advanced Educational Services (CAES) by assessing the usefulness of PIVoT, a newly created Web-based supplement for 8.01. During this past year, the Web site was still being developed and improved. The final version will be ready this coming fall. Last summer we conducted a formative assessment of PIVoT usage by MITES students. This past fall, we conducted a formative and summative assessment of PIVoT usage by 8.01 students who were enrolled in mainstream physics. During the spring we administered a survey about PIVoT and CyberTutor to students who were enrolled in 8.01. As we have done each summer for many years, we gave Interphase students two self-assessment questionnaires (mid-program and at the end) to target the strengths and weaknesses of the summer experience.
We conducted interviews with course 13 undergraduates to learn about the factors influencing their choice of major. Since many course 13 students had considered majoring in course 2, we selected a random sample of course 2 students as a comparison group.
In conjunction with the Admissions Office, we conducted a study for Committee on Academic Performance (CAP) to examine a cohort of students who entered MIT in 1992 to see whether having academic difficulties in the first year has an impact on undergraduate cumulative grade point averages (GPAs) and graduation rates. Using data from the 1998 Senior Survey, we engaged in an exploratory study to understand why minority student participation in UROP is lower than would be expected based on the size of the minority population.
Our office continued to convene ESWG, a group of administrators who either conduct student-related research or have an interest in this area. Our monthly or semi-monthly meetings provide an opportunity for colleagues around the Institute to share research results and insights.
Since 1995, the Office of Academic Services has been responsible for end-of-term subject evaluation. Until the spring of 1999, we had been contracting an outside company to scan and analyze evaluation forms and produce reports. In the spring of 1999 we implemented an in-house process that is faster, more reliable and specifically tailored to MIT needs. We also introduced new evaluation forms - one for Science/Engineering subjects and one for Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences subjects - with new questions about the use of information technology and the number of hours spent in class and on homework. The new evaluation forms also allow departments to include questions specific to an evaluated subject. Departments and Schools receive their reports within three to four weeks of the end of term. In the Spring Term, 653 MIT subjects (378 Science/Engineering and 275 HASS subjects) were involved in the subject evaluation process, representing all academic departments except Courses 6 and 15. An MIT-only web site (http://tute.mit.edu:8001/acadinfo/sse/) has been developed, containing all statistical data from both Fall and Spring Term evaluations. We are working with the School of Engineering to tailor the evaluation form to be more useful for assessing students’ perception of what they learned in specific subjects. We are expanding the "subject specific" portion of the evaluation form, which will likely result in an increased workload for the staff who support the process.
The WTW is designed to improve how MIT collects data about individuals involved in the teaching program. The primary goal of the pilot efforts underway over the last year has been to develop a user-friendly, automated process to collect instructor information from academic departments. This collaborative effort between Academic Services and ODSUE IT was motivated by the need to respond to the increasing requests for information about who is teaching our students. Five departments served as pilot sites during the Fall Term of 1999; they worked with developers and tested the input screens. Six additional departments joined the pilot during the Spring Term. The goal is to involve all departments in this process in the 2000—2001 academic year.
The Council on Educational Technology and its Grants Subcommittee issued a call to faculty for proposals for innovative and ambitious educational projects that would enhance and potentially transform dramatically the first year experience of our students. This office provided considerable support throughout the entire process — from the drafting of the original Request for Proposals and overseeing the proposal review process, to managing the budget disbursements to the seven projects that have been funded for the 2000-2001 academic year. In addition, we were involved in the development of the first year advising proposal and continue to work with individual faculty who are undertaking pilot projects next year.
With the launch of the I-Campus and d’Arbeloff initiatives, the past year has seen heightened activity in the area of educational innovation at MIT. The Teaching and Learning Laboratory has been involved in several aspects of the overall administration of I-Campus, as well as with a number of individual projects. (TLL’s Director is a member of the Council on Educational Technology and co-chairs the Assessment/ Learning subcommittee). In addition, TLL has: served as host to a number of international visitors who have been interested in learning more about MIT’s educational efforts; begun a research effort tentatively titled the "Project on Interdisciplinarity"; and maintained its stable of ongoing programs.
TLL was asked to contribute to the system-wide organization and administration of the I-Campus initiatives in several ways. We coordinated the effort to create and evaluate an initial assessment plan that was submitted by each of the I-Campus finalists. We also designed and co-facilitated the first of a series of seminars for the I-Campus and d’Arbeloff PI’s. Now named the "Educational Change Seminars," this series will continue throughout the next year. We serve on an ad hoc committee that will arrange to bring a number of U.S. and international experts in education to MIT to speak on issues of importance to the I-Campus and d’Arbeloff initiatives.
Table 2. Individual projects Receiving Consultation from ODSUE IT
|
PROJECT |
P.I. |
CONSULTATION |
|
"Engineering Education in an IT Environment" |
M. Boyce |
Review of proposal; assessment |
|
"A School-wide Modular Program for Fluid Mechanics" |
C. Mei |
Review of proposal; learning styles; assessment |
|
"Technology-Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) at MIT" |
J. Belcher |
Development of learning objectives; collaborative learning |
|
"New Communication Links for Freshmen-Sophomore Mathematics" |
D. Jerison |
Review of proposal |
|
"Active Learning Enabled by Information Technology" |
D. Newman |
Consultation done as part of Course 16 Teaching Team |
In addition, we continue to be part of the on-going team that advises the TEAL effort and will help design and lead workshops on teamwork skills for the Mission 2004 undergraduate facilitators as well as the freshmen enrolled in the course.
With Donna Qualters, Director of the Teaching Effectiveness Center at Northeastern University, we are embarking on a research project to study interdisciplinary education. This project is based on a request from Professor Martha Gray to explore one of the strengths of HST–the enrollment of Ph.D. students and medical students in the same program–to see if that coupling might be made even stronger. Our working hypothesis is that when working together, faculty and students from different disciplines are, in effect, engaging in a kind of intercultural communication: that is, they talk a different language, have different norms and values, use different tools, have different expectations for success, etc. We believe interdisciplinary work can be improved by understanding those differences and providing teachers, students and researchers with the means to "communicate" across "cultures." Although we will be working with HST initially as a case study, we believe this work will have implications for many other efforts at MIT and for higher education.
Finally, this year, our article, "Educating the ‘Larger Life,’" was published as a chapter in The Reflective Spin: Case Studies of Teachers in Higher Education Transforming Action edited by Ai-Yen Chen and John Van Maanen.
TLL hosted several faculty and student groups who were interested in learning more about MIT’s efforts to improve teaching and learning. These visitors came from Lebanon, Singapore, the Netherlands and Thailand. In addition, we went to the University of Cambridge as part of the Cambridge-MIT Institute to meet our counterparts in faculty development at that university. As a result of that visit, a recommendation has been made jointly with Richard Wakeford, Cambridge Staff Development Officer, to create workshops for both faculty and students who will be involved in exchanges. The objective of those workshops will be to help make the transition to the new institution easier.
This year, responsibility for the organization of the New Faculty Orientation, which had been a TLL project, was transferred to the Provost’s Office. However, TLL maintains the remainder of the activities and programs it has developed over the last three years. These include:
We continue to partner with ODSUE IT to develop technology to expand our delivery of information and services. Key activities this year included development and implementation of:
In addition, we worked with Information Services, House masters, and the office of the Dean of the School of Science to improve how online information is tracked and delivered.
In other areas:
Finally, we responded to an ever-increasing volume of data requests pertaining to student performance and class enrollment.
In 1999—2000 student enrollment was 9,972, compared with 9,885 in 1998—99. There were 4,300 undergraduates (4,372 the previous year) and 5,672 graduate students (5,513 the previous year). The international student population was 2,386, representing 8% of the undergraduate and 36% of the graduate populations. These students were citizens of 105 countries. (Students with permanent residence status are included with US citizens.)
In 1999—2000, there were 3,287 women students (1,768 undergraduate and 1,519 graduate), compared with 3,202 (1,776 undergraduate and 1,426 graduate) in 1998—99. In September 1999, 452 first-year women entered MIT, representing 43% of the freshman class of 1,055 students.
In 1999—2000, there were, as self-reported by students, 2,669 minority students (1,996 undergraduate and 673 graduate), compared with 2,600 (2,009 undergraduate and 591 graduate) in 1998—99. Minority students included 370 African Americans (non-Hispanic), 93 Native Americans, 554 Hispanic Americans and 1,652 Asian Americans. The first-year class entering in September 1999 included 494 minority students, representing 47% of the class.
Degrees awarded by the Institute in 1999-2000 included 1,253 bachelor's degrees, 1,457 master's degrees, 14 engineer's degrees and 475 doctoral degrees–a total of 3,199 (compared with 3,196 in 1998—99).
Michael Bergren was promoted to Assistant Director of UROP, and Elizabeth Cogliano Young was promoted to Assistant Dean for Student Academic Programs.
New staff in the office include Professor J. Kim Vandiver, Director of UROP and Dean for Undergraduate Research; Karen Blose, Administrative Assistant for the Academic Resource Center; and Pauline Blair, Administrative Assistant in the Registrar’s Office.
A number of OAS staff departed for new positions within MIT. Kathleen Connolly left her position to return to the Sloan School of Management. Laurie Ward is now a staff member in Residential Life and Student Life Programs. Joseph Gottinger is now employed by Information Services; and Marsha Orent has a position in the Provost’s Office. Professor Kip Hodges resigned his position as Dean for Undergraduate Curriculum and returned to teaching and research in EAPS. Because of the transfer of the Writing Requirement office to the Program in Writing, Leslie Perelman and Madeline Brown are now included on the staff of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.
Finally, this year saw the retirement of Bonnie Walters as Associate Dean for Freshman Advising. She will be missed by many.
More information on this department can be found on the World Wide Web at http://web.mit.edu/odsue/academic/.
Margaret Enders and Mary Callahan
The Office of Career Services and Preprofessional Advising’s (OCSPA) mission is to help students learn about the relationship between what they do at MIT and life after graduation, to develop the competencies required beyond technical knowledge, to make informed decisions about career goals and find opportunities related to their professional objectives and to contribute to civilization.
OCSPA’s philosophy is that career development is an ongoing process that includes: self-assessment, career exploration, choice of major, competency development; and preparation for the job search or graduate/professional school application process and productive, rewarding lives. Above all else, it is a generative process, which provides a foundation for achieving goals throughout life. Students are encouraged to begin their career education early, including a visit to OCSPA during the freshman year or the first year of graduate school, to learn what career resources are available.
In striving to provide better service to MIT students, employers, alumni, faculty and other administrators, Career Services and Preprofessional Advising seeks to contribute to a dialogue about Institute-wide learning. Our academic role at MIT is to build and maintain enabling systems, which encourage us as a community, and especially our students, to become self-managed learners who can contribute to learning organizations where we work and live.
OCSPA assists students as they explore career options in relation to choice of major; understand the competencies required beyond their technical knowledge to succeed in the competitive global marketplace, and contribute to civilization; identify networking, informational interviewing, mentoring, internships, summer jobs and other opportunities to gain experience in fields of interest; apply to medical, law or other graduate/professional school; study abroad; write resumes and conduct interviews; and find employment after graduation.
Employers, like society at large, hire and promote on the basis of competencies, not majors. The required competencies get the job, but these competencies are not major dependent. In addition to technical knowledge, the desired competencies are: effective communication, critical thinking, team building, information technology, managing change, leadership, diversity, social responsibility and self-managed learning. It is important to ask what are other or will be new competencies that civilization will require of us.
OCSPA’s efforts to focus on generative learning are intended to help us, both ask that question and find shared answers. While we have accomplished many objectives in this past year, addressing new services to students and employers, including demand from students for major specific employment recruiting and employers, equipment and staffing, OCSPA continues to have serious needs in terms of facilities and location.