MIT
MIT Faculty Newsletter  
contents Vol. XXI No. 4
March/April/May 2009

This issue of the Faculty Newsletter features our editorial comments on the Institute budget cuts, an interview with the Director of MIT Medical, and outgoing Faculty Chair Bish Sanyal's "The Moral Moment."

Spotlight
walking in snow
Engineering Excellence in Challenging Times
Dean of Engineering Subra Suresh highlights the School's innovative plans for the future.
Arts & Humanities at MIT
A new arts and humanities feature is initiated with this issue.
MIT Faculty Vote to Make Their Articles More Available
The MIT faculty became the first university faculty in the country to allow open access to their scholarly publications.
 
Editorial
Should One Size Fit All?
The precipitous decline of the financial markets has taken its toll on college and university endowments across the country. MIT has not been immune to this . . .
Teach Talk
Rethinking the Math Core
Michael Sipser
It never hurts to remind ourselves that MIT has the greatest students in the world, and that we have a profound obligation to give them an equally great MIT education.
Tom Kochan New Faculty Chair
Newsletter Staff
Thomas A. Kochan will take up his duties as Chair of the Faculty this June after a year of apprenticing under outgoing Chair and good friend Bish Sanyal.
From the Faculty Chair
Distrust of Educational Innovations
Bish Sanyal
By a vote of 81-69, faculty in attendance at the February 4 special faculty meeting supported the motion to restructure the General Institute Requirements (GIRs).
Engineering Excellence in Challenging Times
Subra Suresh
Like so many of our peer institutions, MIT is in the process of adjusting to a new economic reality. The Institute has experienced a significant decline in its . . .
Leadership Skills for Engineering and Science Faculty
Charles E. Leiserson
Few would argue that our formal positions as MIT professors motivate our graduate students to work hard on our research projects. Our personal leadership skill –
Interview with Director of MIT Medical Dr. William Kettyle
As with the rest of the Institute, MIT Medical has been hit hard by the economic downturn, being told by the MIT administration that it needs to make budget cuts . . .
Update on the Faculty Renewal Program
Douglas Pfeiffer
The MIT Faculty Renewal Program was established in 2008 and was designed to offer eligible senior faculty members the option to retire voluntarily with certain . . .
Newsletter Adds Two Board Members
The new members of the Faculty Newsletter Editorial Board as of this spring are:
The Moral Moment: Departing Words from the
Outgoing Faculty Chair
Bish Sanyal
How different are the times from when I started my term as the Faculty Chair in June 2007 and now, in May 2009, when I am at the end of my term! Unfortunately, the . . .
MIT Faculty Vote to Make Their Articles Openly Available
Hal Abelson, Ann Wolpert
On March 18, 2009, MIT faculty at the Institute faculty meeting voted unanimously to make their scholarly articles openly available, the first university-wide faculty . . .
Teach Talk
TA Training Bootcamp Reinforces Curriculum Innovations and Improves Recitation Experience in Freshman Chemistry Course
Elizabeth Vogel Taylor, Rudolph Mitchell, Catherine Drennan
Through a graduate-student teaching-assistant (TA) training “bootcamp,” a modest time investment by Chemistry teaching staff prior to the semester is resulting in . . .
MIT Faculty Work/Life Website Created
No doubt there is a lot of information "out there" to support MIT faculty in the area of work/life balance. The problem has been accessing this information –
MISTI Launches Call for Second Round of
Global Seed Funds Proposals
MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) has launched a call for proposals for its second round of Global Seed Funds grants. The program . . .
Arts & Humanities at MIT
Laughing Together
West Garage
Helen Elaine Lee
With this issue of the Faculty Newsletter we initiate another regular feature: Arts & Humanities at MIT. Some faculty in these disciplines feel that they live on the . . .
Bernard M. Gordon-MIT Leadership Program:
Developing Engineering Leaders of Tomorrow
Edward F. Crawley
In its recent report, The Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Century, the National Academy of Engineering outlined the various fields in which students . . .
Letters
The Need for Interdisciplinary Education
Anne EC McCants
Having just departed from the Institute faculty meeting, I find myself inspired to write in regard to the discussion generated by the CUP proposal for a change to the HASS . . .
MIT 150 Exhibit to Celebrate Institute's 150th Birthday
The MIT 150 will be a major exhibit celebrating the Institute's 150th birthday in 2011. What makes it particularly cool is that the Museum is making a determined effort . . .
M.I.T. Numbers
The Federal Research Dollar on the MIT Campus
The Future of Medical Care?
   
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