Chancellor
The Chancellor's office was reinstituted by the President on August 1, 1998. In recreating the office, the President transferred a number of responsibilities from the Office of the Provost to the Office of the Chancellor. These include broad oversight for graduate and undergraduate education, student life, strategic planning, campus development, and the management of the Institute's large-scale institutional partnerships.
Reorganization of the Office of the Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education
In last year's report, I described the plan to reorganize the Office of the Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education. The reorganization was implemented this past year. Dr. Larry G. Benedict, formerly Dean of Student Affairs at Johns Hopkins University, was appointed Dean for Student Life following a national search. Professor of Physics Robert P. Redwine, formerly Director of the Laboratory for Nuclear Science, was appointed Dean for Undergraduate Education. Both deans have moved swiftly to implement the reorganization plan. As part of the reorganization, the offices of these two deans, along with the Senior Associate Dean Robert M. Randolph, were moved to the first floor of the Infinite Corridor to facilitate better interaction with the undergraduate population. In addition, the Office of Minority Education was moved to space immediately across the Infinite Corridor from the offices of the two deans. Additional space changes were made to consolidate staff in the Registrar's Office, as well as the Office of Student Financial Services, Academic Services, and the Teaching and Learning Laboratory. In addition, space was allocated for the Technology Enabled Active Learning Program directed by Professor of Physics John W. Belcher.
Residence System Redesign
Planning for the implementation of President Vest's decision to house all freshmen on campus continues. Dean Benedict's office assumed responsibility for implementation of the Chancellor's final report on the redesign of the residence system. As part of this process, additional resources were allocated to the Office of the Dean for Student Life to add additional programmatic support for residential life. In addition, a number of Residence Based Advising programs were piloted this past year. These programs received largely favorable reviews, and will be expanded this next year.
Undergraduate and Graduate Housing
This past year, construction began on the new undergraduate residence to be named Simmons Hall, in recognition of a $20 million gift in support of student life and campus activities received from Richard and Dorothy Simmons. Construction on this project began following the settlement of a lawsuit brought by an abutter to the site. Executive Vice President John Curry and Mr. Steven C. Marsh, Director of Real Estate, played important roles in helping to settle this litigation. Construction is expected to be complete by the start of the fall term 2002.
Construction also began on a new student residence located at the intersection of Sidney and Pacific Streets. This residence will house approximately 700 students. We anticipate that this residence will be devoted to graduate students. However, it has been designed to accommodate undergraduate students should the opening of Simmons Hall be delayed. It is expected to open in the fall of 2002 as well.
Construction also began this year on a new graduate residence located at 224 Albany Street. This graduate residence will contain approximately 120 units of loft-style housing. Professor Steven Lerman and his wife Lori will be the housemasters for this new graduate residence. It will open in August of 2001. Upon the opening of these two new graduate residences, the Institute will be able to offer on-campus housing to approximately 45 percent of its graduate student population.
Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center
Construction began this year on the Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center. The Chancellor's office spearheaded fund raising for this new facility, which will house a 50-meter Olympic pool, 14,000 square feet of weight training and exercise facilities, a new sports medicine facility, new squash courts, multi-purpose courts, and new administrative offices for the Department of Athletics, Recreation, and Physical Education. Commitments for major gifts were received from Albert L. and Barrie R. Zesiger to name the building, Alex and Brit d'Arbeloff to name the men's and women's locker rooms, Thomas P. Gerrity to name the Health Fitness Center, and Michael Kasser to name the Sports Medicine Facility. This new facility will open in time for the fall 2002 term.
In concert with the planning of new athletic facilities, the Chancellor's office also supported the development of a new strategic plan for the Department of Athletics, Recreation, and Physical Education. This plan, which is nearing completion, will articulate priorities for intercollegiate athletics, intramural athletics, physical education, and recreational sports.
Student Mental Health
In response to concern over a number of recent suicides, the Chancellor's office initiated a comprehensive study of student mental health services at MIT. The Task Force on Student Mental Health is co-chaired by Dr. Kristine A. Girard and Mr. David A. Mellis, an undergraduate student. The Task Force is evaluating the entire range of services designed to support our students' mental health needs. It is also gathering data to benchmark our students' mental health services against those services provided by our peer institutions. The Task Force is expected to issue its final report in the fall of 2001.
Cambridge-MIT Institute
This past fall, seven MIT students departed for Cambridge University as the first undergraduates in the exchange between Cambridge and MIT. These students participated in a pilot program. In academic year 2001-2002, we expect approximately 25 MIT students will study at Cambridge, and a comparable number of Cambridge students will study at MIT. In addition, numerous faculty from MIT and Cambridge participated this past year in workshops sponsored by the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI). These workshops were designed to identify potential areas of joint research. CMI funded a number of joint research projects this year. In addition, CMI began work on adapting a number of professional masters programs, originally developed at MIT, for implementation at the University of Cambridge. Finally, MIT faculty and staff participated in a number of activities sponsored by the National Competitiveness Network (NCN). NCN is administered by CMI and organizes a number of British universities into a consortium focused on improving the competitiveness and productivity of British industry.
Space Planning
The Committee for the Review of Space Planning (CRSP), chaired by the Chancellor, spent $29 million to renovate space throughout the Institute this year. Major projects included the renovation of the fifth floor of Building 9 for the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, the planning for the consolidation of major parts of the Department of Physics, improvements to both classroom and office space for the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, renovation of the fluid mechanics laboratory in Mechanical Engineering to create the new Hatsopoulos Microfluids Laboratory, relocation of the News Office from Building 5 to Building 11, major renovations to The MIT Museum, improvements to the libraries in Building 14, and completion of phase 2 of the consolidation of astrophysics in the Center for Space Research. In addition, CRSP also funded major improvements to laboratory and classroom space throughout the Institute.
Council on the Environment
The Chancellor continued to co-chair the Council on the Environment with Professor David H. Marks. Together with Professor Marks, the Chancellor assisted in broadening the base of support for the Alliance for Global Sustainability, the collaboration between MIT, the University of Tokyo, and the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology. This year, the Chancellor also facilitated the merger of the Center for Environmental Initiatives with the Energy Laboratory into the newly formed Center for Energy and the Environment. Professor David Marks will head this new center. This merger recognized the evolving common intellectual agenda of these two research programs. Over time, much of the work of the Energy Lab reflected growing concern for the environmental consequences of the development of new energy sources and technologies. As a result, increasingly the same faculty were collaborating on projects sponsored by both the Energy Lab and the Center for Environmental Initiatives. The merger brings these faculty together and also results in some reduction in administrative overhead. It was accomplished with the cooperation of all the participating faculty and departments. Following the creation of the Center for Energy and the Environment, the Chancellor and the Council worked together to consolidate the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Climate Change, and the Center for Energy and the Environment on the fourth floor in Building E40. Through consolidation of these various research activities into adjacent space, we hope to encourage more collaborative research across the various schools in the area of the environment.
Industrial Partnerships
The Chancellor continued to provide oversight for two of the Institute's major industrial partnerships: The Ford-MIT Alliance and the Merrill Lynch-MIT Partnership. Both of these collaborations continue to show great promise. In order to learn more about how MIT can work more effectively with industry, the Chancellor's Office, together with the Office of Corporate Relations, is organizing a meeting for all of MIT Industrial Partners for the upcoming academic year. The purpose of this meeting will be to identify ways that the various partnerships can learn from each other, to evaluate new models for university-industry collaboration, to explore our mutual experience in transferring knowledge from the laboratory to the marketplace, and to identify best practices for addressing intellectual property issues.
Conclusion
This marks my last report as Chancellor of the Institute. It has been a privilege and an honor to serve the Institute in this role. Over the past three years, I have made many wonderful friends from throughout the Institute community, and have been blessed with truly wonderful colleagues. I am delighted that my long-time friend and departmental colleague, Professor Phillip L. Clay, will succeed me. I wish him great success.
More information about the Chancellor's Office can be found online at http://web.mit.edu/chancellor/.