From The Faculty Chair

Much has happened during this last year, and a number of things have changed at MIT. We have changes in the top administration: a chancellor as well as a provost, and a new executive vice president; we have a task force report which asks us to rethink our educational mission and combine academics and research with community (see "Final Report Generates Comments and Controversy"); we have just gone through a completely redesigned freshman orientation; and, most recently, we learned of Chuck Vest’s decision to house all freshmen on campus starting in 2001 when the new dorm will be built.

There are many connections among these events; they all have a long history, and all were made particularly salient during last year’s intensive reconsideration of our policies following the tragic death of Scott Krueger.

The decision on freshman housing is probably the most controversial. This is not a new issue. Ten years ago the Potter report made the same recommendation, but the administration at that time decided not to implement it. There was objection from the FSILGs, as one might expect, and also from faculty, particularly those who had been MIT undergraduates themselves. We saw the same division among the faculty when the issue came up again last fall, in the first shocked response to Krueger’s death. But, though not without some serious soul-searching, the Committee on Dangerous Drinking as well as the Task Force and the Committee on the First Year (all consisting of faculty and students, plus staff), for very different reasons, supported the idea.

The faculty reaction to this decision relates to both process and substance. There are a number of faculty who feel that the decision is wrong, that MIT’s residential system, based as it is on treating even its youngest students as adults, i.e., putting their residential decision completely into their own hands when they first arrive on campus, is one of the things that makes MIT unique. Choice, not randomization; students of all classes living together; retaining the viability of the smaller, more cohesive living groups, both in the Greek system and independent -- these seem to be the aspects of the present system that are particularly valued. The challenge therefore is to retain these characteristics as much as possible even when the freshmen are on campus. It is a challenge that is still ahead of us: to design a system that will include these valued aspects of the current model.

The issue of process is more complicated. Not surprisingly, the two often go together: those faculty most concerned about the substance of the decision are also most concerned about the process. But logically they are separate, and the process issue concerns the timing of the decision and the seeming lack of faculty input into it. Since this is a decision that in the end rests with the president, and could not have been made by faculty vote, the question is whether the faculty were sufficiently consulted. Ideally, one would have wanted the substance of the idea to be presented for open discussion and comment, before any decision was made. As a basic principle, I think administrative intent should always be announced prior to such a decision in order to give faculty time to inform themselves, to comment, and to raise their concerns. Unfortunately, the external context within which the decision on freshman housing was reached, made it not possible to do this.

So where does this leave us? It leaves us with a decision that some of us approve of and others do not, and a number who feel that they had insufficient opportunity to make their views known. I hope that in ensuing discussion we can air all of these concerns and perhaps alleviate them to a certain extent. But mainly, the real task is still ahead: to design the system that will come into effect in 2001 in such a way that it retains the best of MIT’s current system while at the same time making freshman orientation to MIT a smoother and even more rewarding experience. I hope that many faculty, especially those currently most concerned, will join in this effort.