During the few weeks since the Task Force on Student Life and Learning report was released, considerable controversy has arisen over the recent decision of President Charles M. Vest to house all freshmen in residence halls beginning in 2001. In his letter to the MIT community, President Vest pointed out that this was a recommendation of the Task Force on Student Life and Learning, which indeed it was.

Given the attention this aspect of the report has received, predictable though that attention was, discussion is only now beginning to turn to the report's 19 other recommendations, and to the Task Force's formulation of MIT's educational mission and principles.

Indeed, it may surprise many to learn that it was the educational mission, not the housing recommendation, that engendered the most debate during the deliberation of the Task Force. Examining the educational mission was President Vest's first charge to the committee, and the topic occupied the group for two years - right through the summer of 1998. As deadlines drew near, members of the Task Force found themselves huddled around a blackboard, painstakingly hashing out the language of the mission statement. After the chalk and eraser came to rest, however, we came to feel that the mission statement discussion had helped crystallize the overall thrust of the Task Force's work.

Whereas most mission statements are inherently conservative, reflecting what has been done in the past, our mission statement represents a departure from the past. The departure is the explicit articulation of the educational triad composed of academics, research, and community. The mission statement recognizes the importance of the community aspect of the triad, and it also seeks to show the breadth of educational activities at MIT.

This mission statement is paired with 11 principles that define MIT as an institution of higher learning. Not surprisingly, four of the principles were originated by MIT's founder, William Barton Rogers. Four more principles derive from the seminal Lewis Commission of 1949, a committee many have considered the prototype for the Task Force. The final three principles derive from the work of the Task Force itself: Principle 9, which describes "an integrated educational triad of academics, research, and community," Principle 10, outlining the merits of MIT's intensity, curiosity, and excitement, and Principle 11, the importance of diversity.

The Central Finding

The Task Force's central finding is that "the interaction among the [formal and informal aspects] of the student's experience is fundamental." The report goes on to describe the educational triad concept, already listed as one of MIT's basic principles, noting that to achieve excellence higher education must go beyond classroom learning: experiences in research and community activities should be recognized for their educational value, and they should take their proper place alongside academics as contributors to the learning that takes place at MIT.

The need to bring about a closer relationship between formal and informal education underlies the rest of the report, and stands as the Task Force's main argument. The report notes that bringing research and community activities into the fold with academics will require a cultural shift at the Institute: "It is a shift from demanding separation of student life and learning to demanding they be inseparable, from a community divided by place, field, and status to a community unified by its commitment to learning, from keeping research, academics, and community apart to unifying the educational value each provides."

While it might seem unrealistic to expect a cultural shift to come about at a hundred-year-old institution as a result of one committee's work, it is significant that the committee's diverse membership was able to reach consensus on this point. Indeed, the Task Force report notes that the idea for the educational triad was brought to the group by the Student Advisory Committee, a group of roughly two dozen graduate and undergraduate students who worked in tandem with the Task Force and produced two reports underlining the need for integrating research, academics, and community.

Some Findings and Recommendations

Space does not permit a complete listing of the report's many findings and the recommendations that follow from them. The overall thrust of the report, however, is aimed at emphasizing the need to integrate academics, research, and community activities, and the organizational change that will be required to bring about that integration. Freshman housing is by no means the only sacred cow confronted by the Task Force: recognition for faculty involvement in community and research activities with undergraduates, the departmental and faculty governance structure, advising, orientation, campus planning, UROP, and management education are all covered by the report's findings and recommendations.

One of the most sweeping changes now in the pipeline as a result of the Task Force's work is a major expansion of undergraduate research experience. The Task Force has recommended that all MIT undergraduates be expected to participate in research activities at some point during their undergraduate career. To accomplish this, the group recommends expanding UROP significantly, and creating a system of Freshman Advisory Research subjects (FARs) that would establish the value of research participation early on in the student's work and help address the need for more excitement in the first-year program.

Another major change advocated by the report is a realigning of MIT's priorities vis-a-vis its campus community - which is composed not just of students residing on campus, but also of faculty members and staff. It is the Task Force's belief that bringing students and faculty together in informal settings is a key part of the educational experience. The distinguishing quality of a residential research university is that those who take part in its research and educational enterprise learn from one another. The notable strengths of MIT's community, including especially its living group system, help bring about much informal learning among students, but the community as it is now arranged does little to bring about faculty-student interaction outside the classroom. Many of the Task Force's recommendations are geared toward bringing about change in this aspect of MIT culture.

The uses of educational technology were also subject to much of the Task Force's discussion. In its report, the group argues for an experimental approach to educational technologies such as distance learning, proposing that the Institute undertake aggressive experiments designed to provide more information about the technology's potential while maintaining MIT's reputation for excellence. The report also calls for educational technologies to focus on educational benefits for students on campus.

Now that the Task Force has completed its review, the Institute is beginning the process of discussing and debating its findings and recommendations. Appropriately, the community will begin to come to terms with the need for change through both formal and informal activities. The regular meeting of the faculty will be one formal setting for discussing the report, but there will be other opportunities for wider input as well. Although this is the end of the Task Force's work, in many ways it is the beginning of the Institute's. With hard work and perseverance, we can maintain MIT's position of excellence in higher education and be a model to others in the decades to come.

A Little Housekeeping

Additional copies of the Task Force report are available from Anders Hove, staff to the Task Force, at MIT Room 4-117. His e-mail address is anders@mit.edu. The Task Force's Web address is http://web.mit.edu/committees/sll/.