DEVELOPMENT AND HISTORY OF CRISIS
Dr. Yale Zussman created CRISIS in the fall of 1989 for inclusion in ESP's SPLASH weekend, which had just been introduced. It is based on a simulation he conducted on behalf of Course XVII for IAP, 1982, which "predicted" the extent of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in that year to within one kilometer.
The program grew very rapidly in the next few years:
| PARTICIPATING | STAFF | |||
| YEAR | STUDENTS | MIT | ADULTS | HIGH SCHOOL |
| 1989 | 19 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 1990 | 26 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 1991 | 62 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
CRISIS moved out of SPLASH in 1992, becoming a two-day event during the winter. The next two years brought explosive growth, fueled by two high schools that incorporated the program into their curricula. During these years, the MIT Political Science Department and the Center for International Studies adopted CRISIS as their community outreach program. CIS assigned a grad student to work with CRISIS, and Course XVII authorized Dr. Zussman to sign off on six units' credit for undergrads who worked on the program. The numbers speak for themselves:
| PARTICIPATING | STAFF | |||
| YEAR | STUDENTS | MIT | ADULTS | HIGH SCHOOL |
| 1993 | 122 | 10 | 15 | 0 |
| 1994 | 167 | 5 | 11 | 8 |
By 1995, interest had overrun our ability to build the staff and infrastructure necessary to continue expanding as we had. We sought a site with a permanently-installed computer network, at one point offering to install one at Boston Latin School if they agreed to allow us to operate there, but nothing came of it.
CRISIS was hit at this point by the introduction of the Massachusetts Educational Frameworks, which made it very difficult for the two schools to continue using the program in their curricula. The result was a hiatus that lasted almost four years.
In 1998, CRISIS returned, first as part of SPLASH, then at Chelsea High School, and finally with a second run at MIT. The trend since then is clear:
| PARTICIPATING | STAFF | |||
| YEAR | STUDENTS | MIT | ADULTS | HIGH SCHOOL |
| 1998 | 25 | 3 | 6 | 0 |
| 1998B | 37 | 6 | 8 | 9 |
| 1999 | 34 | 9 | 4 | 9 |
| 2000 | 52 | 0 | 9 | 1 |
| 2001 | 49 | 3 | 10 | 2 |
| 2002 | 61 | 1 | 7 | 2 |
| 2003 | 67 | 1 | 9 | 4 |
| 2004 | 65 | 0 | 7 | 5 |
CRISIS has attracted a loyal following over the years. Some students participate throughout their high school years (some start even younger!), and several participants have gone on to join the staff, some as high school students, some in college, and some after settling into professional lives. In 2004, we said good-bye to three seniors who had each participated for four years.
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