106-675: The Ceres Connection is a cooperative program between MIT 's Lincoln Laboratory and the Society for Science and the Public dedicated to promoting science education. It names asteroids discovered under the LINEAR project after teachers and contesting students who performed outstandingly in the following Society for Science and the Public competitions: the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge ,
212-442: A towing tank for testing ship and ocean structure designs, and previously Alcator C-Mod , which was the largest fusion device operated by any university. MIT's campus-wide wireless network was completed in the fall of 2005 and consists of nearly 3,000 access points covering 9.4 × 10 ^ sq ft (870,000 m ) of campus. The campus' primary energy source is natural gas. In connection with capital campaigns to expand
318-401: A "technological" research university and to build more autonomy from private industry. In the 1930s, President Karl Taylor Compton and Vice-President (effectively Provost ) Vannevar Bush emphasized the importance of pure sciences like physics and chemistry and reduced the vocational practice required in shops and drafting studios. The Compton reforms "renewed confidence in the ability of
424-600: A dense high-rise transit-oriented development plan. The MIT Museum has moved immediately adjacent to a Kendall Square subway entrance, joining the List Visual Arts Center on the eastern end of the campus. Each building at MIT has a number (possibly preceded by a W , N , E , or NW ) designation, and most have a name as well. Typically, academic and office buildings are referred to primarily by number while residence halls are referred to by name. The organization of building numbers roughly corresponds to
530-564: A desperate search for a new campus and funding. Eventually, the MIT Corporation approved a formal agreement to merge with Harvard and move to Allston, over the vehement objections of MIT faculty, students, and alumni. The merger plan collapsed in 1905 when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules that MIT could not sell its Back Bay land. In 1912, MIT acquired its current campus by purchasing
636-644: A draft riot that broke out among Irish Catholics in the North End of Boston , Andrew ordered six companies and additional regular troops to protect Union armories in the neighborhood from attempts by the rioters to raid them. Reform elements within the Republican establishment pressed Andrew for enforcement of the state's alcohol prohibition law, which had been passed in 1855, and which had been poorly enforced, particularly in Boston. In response, legislation
742-676: A first for a non-industrial – much less university – building in the US. Bosworth's design was influenced by the City Beautiful Movement of the early 1900s and features the Pantheon -esque Great Dome housing the Barker Engineering Library. The Great Dome overlooks Killian Court, where graduation ceremonies are held each year. The friezes of the limestone-clad buildings around Killian Court are engraved with
848-632: A highly public dispute with General Benjamin Franklin Butler , who sought to appoint officers of regiments he recruited. Andrew ended up winning in the disagreement, and (in a response viewed at the time as somewhat petulant) refused to appoint any of Butler's choices to those positions. Andrew was a regular voice, although somewhat muted in public statements, in the drive to declare an end to slavery. When Lincoln announced his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862 (shortly after
954-967: A mile (1.6 km) alongside the Charles River , and operates off-campus facilities including the MIT Lincoln Laboratory , the Bates Center, and the Haystack Observatory , as well as affiliated laboratories such as the Broad and Whitehead Institutes . As of October 2024 , 105 Nobel laureates , 26 Turing Award winners, and 8 Fields Medalists have been affiliated with MIT as alumni, faculty members, or researchers. In addition, 58 National Medal of Science recipients, 29 National Medals of Technology and Innovation recipients, 50 MacArthur Fellows , 83 Marshall Scholars , 41 astronauts , 16 Chief Scientists of
1060-472: A mile along the north side of the Charles River basin. The campus is divided roughly in half by Massachusetts Avenue , with most dormitories and student life facilities to the west and most academic buildings to the east. The bridge closest to MIT is the Harvard Bridge , which is known for being marked off in a non-standard unit of length – the smoot . The Kendall/MIT MBTA Red Line station
1166-488: A modest fee. The " edX " online platform supporting MITx was initially developed in partnership with Harvard and its analogous "Harvardx" initiative. The courseware platform is open source, and other universities have already joined and added their own course content. In March 2009 the MIT faculty adopted an open-access policy to make its scholarship publicly accessible online. MIT has its own police force. Three days after
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#17327721165941272-496: A new Schwarzman College of Computing dedicated to the study of artificial intelligence, named after lead donor and The Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman . The focus of the new college is to study not just AI, but interdisciplinary AI education, and how AI can be used in fields as diverse as history and biology. The cost of buildings and new faculty for the new college is expected to be $ 1 billion upon completion. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)
1378-678: A one-mile (1.6 km) tract of filled lands along the Cambridge side of the Charles River. The neoclassical "New Technology" campus was designed by William W. Bosworth and had been funded largely by anonymous donations from a mysterious "Mr. Smith", starting in 1912. In January 1920, the donor was revealed to be the industrialist George Eastman , an inventor of film production methods and founder of Eastman Kodak . Between 1912 and 1920, Eastman donated $ 20 million ($ 304.2 million in 2024 dollars) in cash and Kodak stock to MIT. In 1916, with
1484-405: A polytechnic school is, as I conceive, the teaching, not of the minute details and manipulations of the arts, which can be done only in the workshop, but the inculcation of those scientific principles which form the basis and explanation of them, and along with this, a full and methodical review of all their leading processes and operations in connection with physical laws. The Rogers Plan reflected
1590-560: A significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and science . Founded in response to the increasing industrialization of the United States , MIT adopted a European polytechnic university model and stressed laboratory instruction in applied science and engineering . MIT is one of three private land-grant universities in the United States, the others being Cornell University and Tuskegee University . The institute has an urban campus that extends more than
1696-421: A special type of educational institution which can be defined as a university polarized around science, engineering, and the arts. We might call it a university limited in its objectives but unlimited in the breadth and the thoroughness with which it pursues these objectives. —MIT president James Rhyne Killian These activities affected MIT profoundly. A 1949 report noted the lack of "any great slackening in
1802-497: Is a large, highly residential, research university with a majority of enrollments in graduate and professional programs. The university has been accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges since 1929. MIT operates on a 4–1–4 academic calendar with the fall semester beginning after Labor Day and ending in mid-December, a 4-week "Independent Activities Period" in the month of January, and
1908-593: Is located on the northeastern edge of the campus, in Kendall Square . The Cambridge neighborhoods surrounding MIT are a mixture of high tech companies occupying both modern office and rehabilitated industrial buildings, as well as socio-economically diverse residential neighborhoods. In early 2016, MIT presented its updated Kendall Square Initiative to the City of Cambridge, with plans for mixed-use educational, retail, residential, startup incubator, and office space in
2014-459: Is the largest research facility of its kind in the nation. With a cost of US$ 400 million, it is also one of the costliest buildings on campus. The facility also provides state-of-the-art nanoimaging capabilities with vibration damped imaging and metrology suites sitting atop a 5 × 10 ^ lb (2,300,000 kg) slab of concrete underground. Other notable campus facilities include a pressurized wind tunnel for testing aerodynamic research,
2120-470: Is the largest taxpayer in the city, contributing approximately 14% of the city's annual revenues. Holdings include Technology Square , parts of Kendall Square , University Park , and many properties in Cambridgeport and Area 4 neighboring the main campus. The land is held for investment purposes and potential long-term expansion. MIT's School of Architecture , founded in 1865 and now called
2226-403: Is widely conceived as basically a vocational school", a "partly unjustified" perception the committee sought to change. The report comprehensively reviewed the undergraduate curriculum, recommended offering a broader education, and warned against letting engineering and government-sponsored research detract from the sciences and humanities. The School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and
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#17327721165942332-580: The Artificial Intelligence Laboratory , and the Tech Model Railroad Club wrote some of the earliest interactive computer video games like Spacewar! and created much of modern hacker slang and culture. Several major computer-related organizations have originated at MIT since the 1980s: Richard Stallman 's GNU Project and the subsequent Free Software Foundation were founded in the mid-1980s at
2438-494: The Boston Marathon bombing of April 2013, MIT Police patrol officer Sean Collier was fatally shot by the suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev , setting off a violent manhunt that shut down the campus and much of the Boston metropolitan area for a day. One week later, Collier's memorial service was attended by more than 10,000 people, in a ceremony hosted by the MIT community with thousands of police officers from
2544-587: The German research university model , emphasizing an independent faculty engaged in research, as well as instruction oriented around seminars and laboratories. Two days after MIT was chartered, the first battle of the Civil War broke out. After a long delay through the war years, MIT's first classes were held in the Mercantile Building in Boston in 1865. The new institute was founded as part of
2650-684: The Intel Science Talent Search , the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair . Since 2002, over 200 asteroids are named each year through this program. This article relating to education in the United States is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT ) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts , United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played
2756-508: The MIT Sloan School of Management were formed in 1950 to compete with the powerful Schools of Science and Engineering . Previously marginalized faculties in the areas of economics, management, political science, and linguistics emerged into cohesive and assertive departments by attracting respected professors and launching competitive graduate programs. The School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences continued to develop under
2862-729: The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States in recognition of his support of the Union during the Civil War. Andrew was elected with support from a large and primarily populist base. He was not part of Boston's relatively conservative aristocracy, whose support he needed to govern, especially in managing the war effort. Many of his military advisors and aides were drawn from Boston's elites, which caused some discontent among his populist supporters. Construction of
2968-700: The Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act to fund institutions "to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes" and was a land-grant school. In 1863 under the same act, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts founded the Massachusetts Agricultural College , which developed as the University of Massachusetts Amherst . In 1866, the proceeds from land sales went toward new buildings in
3074-554: The One Laptop per Child initiative to expand computer education and connectivity to children worldwide was launched in 2005. MIT was named a sea-grant college in 1976 to support its programs in oceanography and marine sciences and was named a space-grant college in 1989 to support its aeronautics and astronautics programs. Despite diminishing government financial support over the past quarter century, MIT launched several successful development campaigns to significantly expand
3180-546: The governor of Massachusetts , on April 10, 1861. Rogers, who was educated at the College of William & Mary and later held professorships at both William & Mary and the University of Virginia , wanted to establish an institution to address rapid scientific and technological advances. He did not wish to found a professional school , but a combination with elements of both professional and liberal education , proposing that: The true and only practicable object of
3286-467: The "Technology Plan" in 1920. As MIT grew under the Tech Plan, it built new postgraduate programs that stressed laboratory work on industry problems, including a new program in electrical engineering. Gerard Swope , MIT's chairman and head of General Electric , believed talented engineers needed scientific research training. In 1930, he recruited Karl Taylor Compton to helm MIT's transformation as
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3392-538: The 1858 state Republican convention. In anticipation of gaining a higher elected office, Andrew refused Governor Banks' offer of a seat on the Superior Court bench in 1859. I pause not now to consider ... whether the enterprise of John Brown and his associates in Virginia was wise or foolish, right or wrong; I only know that, whether the enterprise itself was the one or the other, John Brown himself
3498-510: The 1980s, there was more controversy at MIT over its involvement in SDI (space weaponry) and CBW (chemical and biological warfare) research. More recently, MIT's research for the military has included work on robots, drones and 'battle suits'. MIT has kept pace with and helped to advance the digital age. In addition to developing the predecessors to modern computing and networking technologies, students, staff, and faculty members at Project MAC ,
3604-742: The AI Lab; the MIT Media Lab was founded in 1985 by Nicholas Negroponte and Jerome Wiesner to promote research into novel uses of computer technology; the World Wide Web Consortium standards organization was founded at the Laboratory for Computer Science in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee ; the OpenCourseWare project has made course materials for over 2,000 MIT classes available online free of charge since 2002; and
3710-556: The Back Bay. MIT was informally called "Boston Tech". The institute adopted the European polytechnic university model and emphasized laboratory instruction from an early date. Despite chronic financial problems, the institute saw growth in the last two decades of the 19th century under President Francis Amasa Walker . Programs in electrical, chemical, marine, and sanitary engineering were introduced, new buildings were built, and
3816-568: The Boston area's classical architecture and serve as examples of contemporary campus " starchitecture ". These buildings have not always been well received; in 2010, The Princeton Review included MIT in a list of twenty schools whose campuses are "tiny, unsightly, or both". Undergraduates are guaranteed four-year housing in one of MIT's 11 undergraduate dormitories. Those living on campus can receive support and mentoring from live-in graduate student tutors, resident advisors, and faculty housemasters. Because housing assignments are made based on
3922-616: The Holy Cross , a Catholic college in Worcester , and subsequently attending its first commencement exercises. In support of the war effort, he rescinded a ban, enacted by the Know Nothing Governor Henry J. Gardner , against the formation of militia companies composed of immigrants. This made possible the formation of state units populated mainly by German and Irish immigrants. On July 14, 1863, in response to
4028-589: The Hoosac Tunnel was a significant issue within the state during Andrew's tenure. The state had loaned its builder, the Troy and Greenfield Railroad , $ 2 million in the 1850s to support the construction. In 1861, both outgoing Governor Banks, and Andrew, after he took office, refused to sign a bill authorizing additional funding to the financially troubled project. Andrew lacked confidence in Herman Haupt ,
4134-611: The Institute to develop leadership in science as well as in engineering". Unlike Ivy League schools, MIT catered more to middle-class families, and depended more on tuition than on endowments or grants for its funding. The school was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1934. Still, as late as 1949, the Lewis Committee lamented in its report on the state of education at MIT that "the Institute
4240-514: The LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves, two Caltech physicists, Kip Thorne and Barry Barish , and MIT physicist Rainer Weiss won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2017. Weiss, who is also an MIT graduate, designed the laser interferometric technique, which served as the essential blueprint for the LIGO. In April of 2024, MIT students joined other campuses across
4346-528: The MIT Investment Management Company (MITIMCo), a subsidiary of the MIT Corporation created in 2004. A minor revenue source for much of the Institute's history, the endowment's role in MIT operations has grown due to strong investment returns since the 1990s, making it one the largest endowments held by American universities . Among its holdings are a majority of shares in the audio equipment manufacturer Bose Corporation . MIT
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4452-628: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Acts of 1861, Chapter 183 In 1859, a proposal was submitted to the Massachusetts General Court to use newly filled lands in Back Bay , Boston for a " Conservatory of Art and Science ", but the proposal failed. A charter for the incorporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, proposed by William Barton Rogers , was signed by John Albion Andrew ,
4558-638: The Media Lab, the Sloan School's eastern campus, and graduate residences in the northwest. In 2006, President Hockfield launched the MIT Energy Research Council to investigate the interdisciplinary challenges posed by increasing global energy consumption . In 2001, inspired by the open source and open access movements , MIT launched OpenCourseWare to make the lecture notes, problem sets , syllabi, exams, and lectures from
4664-535: The New England region and Canada. On November 25, 2013, MIT announced the creation of the Collier Medal, to be awarded annually to "an individual or group that embodies the character and qualities that Officer Collier exhibited as a member of the MIT community and in all aspects of his life". The announcement further stated that "Future recipients of the award will include those whose contributions exceed
4770-546: The Radical agenda by not making black suffrage a prerequisite for the readmission of rebel state legislators to Congress. He had in part acted on private efforts to aid in the reconstruction of the south in 1865, forming a land agency as a clearing house for Northerners seeking to invest in the southern properties. Andrew was elected a 3rd Class Companion (honorary member) of the Pennsylvania Commandery of
4876-608: The Reconstruction policies of President Andrew Johnson, resulting in a split with his longtime political ally Charles Sumner. The party split was such that Andrew was considered as a potential candidate for Sumner's Senate seat, but he rejected the possibility. With the war at an end in 1865, he decided not to run for reelection. In his final speech to the state legislature in January 1866 he outlined his vision of how Reconstruction should proceed, significantly diverging from
4982-404: The Republican fold. The state had in 1859 enacted a constitutional amendment requiring newly naturalized citizens to wait two years before they could vote. This amendment was repealed in 1862–1863 (by a process requiring votes of consecutive legislatures and a referendum). Andrew also deliberately snubbed the sentiments of the anti-Catholic Know Nothings by signing the charter for the College of
5088-523: The School of Architecture and Planning, was the first formal architecture program in the United States, and it has a history of commissioning progressive buildings. The first buildings constructed on the Cambridge campus, completed in 1916, are sometimes called the "Maclaurin buildings" after Institute president Richard Maclaurin who oversaw their construction. Designed by William Welles Bosworth , these imposing buildings were built of reinforced concrete ,
5194-635: The South by arms, an allegiance to the Constitution thus violated." In the early war years that followed, Andrew was a persistent radical voice, pressuring President Abraham Lincoln on the conduct of the war and the need to end slavery. Shortly after taking office, Andrew began to ready the Massachusetts militia for duty, promoting younger and more vigorous leaders, and contracting for updated armaments, equipment, and supplies. He also wrote to
5300-538: The US Air Force , and 1 foreign head of state have been affiliated with MIT. The institute also has a strong entrepreneurial culture and MIT alumni have founded or co-founded many notable companies. MIT is a member of the Association of American Universities . [...] a school of industrial science aiding the advancement, development and practical application of science in connection with arts, agriculture, manufactures, and commerce [...] Act to Incorporate
5406-665: The Union victory in the Battle of Antietam ), Andrew was supportive, but called it "a poor document but a mighty act ", and complained that it was too limited in scope and late in becoming effective. Andrew was one of the leading state executives at the Loyal War Governors' Conference in Altoona, Pennsylvania , held in late September 1862, which ultimately backed the Emancipation Proclamation and
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#17327721165945512-643: The United States in protests and setting up encampments against the Israel–Hamas war . Student likened their actions to the historic protests against the American invasion of Vietnam and MIT investment’s in South African apartheid ; they called for ending ties to the Israeli Ministry of Defense . MIT's 166-acre (67.2 ha) campus in the city of Cambridge spans approximately
5618-531: The Whig, Free Soil, and Republican parties during his career. Educated at Bowdoin College , Andrew was a radical abolitionist of slavery from an early age, engaged in the legal defense of fugitive slaves against owners seeking their return. He provided legal support to John Brown after his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia , raising his profile and propelling him to the Massachusetts governor's chair. Andrew
5724-496: The administration, Andrew was granted permission to raise a black regiment in January 1863. Due to Massachusetts's small black population, the 54th (and then also the 55th ) Massachusetts were composed of blacks recruited not just from Massachusetts, but also Ohio , New York , Pennsylvania , and other states. Andrew wanted the regiments to be staffed by black officers, but this was rejected, and their officers were instead hand-picked by Andrew from strong abolitionist circles. He
5830-408: The arts and sciences. In 2010, it was dubbed "most selective" by U.S. News , admitting few transfer students and 4.1% of its applicants in the 2020–2021 admissions cycle. It is need-blind for both domestic and international applicants. MIT offers 44 undergraduate degrees across its five schools. In the 2017–2018 academic year, 1,045 Bachelor of Science degrees (abbreviated " SB ") were granted,
5936-467: The boundaries of their profession, those who have contributed to building bridges across the community, and those who consistently and selflessly perform acts of kindness". In September 2017, the school announced the creation of an artificial intelligence research lab called the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab. IBM will spend $ 240 million over the next decade, and the lab will be staffed by MIT and IBM scientists. In October 2018 MIT announced that it would open
6042-679: The budget, new programs, degrees and faculty appointments, and elects a president to manage the university and preside over the Institute's faculty. The current president is Sally Kornbluth , a cell biologist and former provost at Duke University , who became MIT's eighteenth president in January 2023. MIT has five schools ( Science , Engineering , Architecture and Planning , Management , and Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences ) and one college ( Schwarzman College of Computing ), but no schools of law or medicine. While faculty committees assert substantial control over many areas of MIT's curriculum, research, student life, and administrative affairs,
6148-636: The campus, the Institute has also extensively renovated existing buildings to improve their energy efficiency. MIT has also taken steps to reduce its environmental impact by running alternative fuel campus shuttles, subsidizing public transportation passes , constructing solar power offsets , and building a cogeneration plant to power campus electricity, heating, and cooling requirements. MIT has substantial commercial real estate holdings in Cambridge on which it pays property taxes , plus an additional voluntary payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) on academic buildings which are legally tax-exempt. As of 2017 , it
6254-430: The campus: new dormitories and athletics buildings on west campus; the Tang Center for Management Education ; several buildings in the northeast corner of campus supporting research into biology , brain and cognitive sciences , genomics , biotechnology , and cancer research ; and a number of new "backlot" buildings on Vassar Street including the Stata Center . Construction on campus in the 2000s included expansions of
6360-439: The chair of each of MIT's 32 academic departments reports to the dean of that department's school, who in turn reports to the Provost under the President. Academic departments are also evaluated by "Visiting Committees," specialized bodies of Corporation members and outside experts who review the performance, activities, and needs of each department. MIT's endowment , real estate, and other financial assets are managed through by
6466-403: The chairmanship of the state Republican Party, competing against Radicals. When President Johnson engaged in political attacks against Charles Sumner in 1866, charging him with treason, Andrew decided to withdraw from the contest. Among Andrew's clients in 1867 were a group of businessmen who sought a loosening of the state's strict alcohol prohibition law. Even though Andrew had laxly enforced
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#17327721165946572-408: The choice to head the Massachusetts delegation to the 1860 Republican National Convention . He was nominated for governor at the state convention that year, despite an attempt by the more moderate Governor Banks to secure the nomination for Henry L. Dawes . Banks sought to put off the announcement of his retirement until the last possible moment, but state Republican chairman William Claflin leaked
6678-455: The continued war effort. Andrew was a leading force in promoting the enlistment of black men as uniformed soldiers in the Union Army , although the state legislature was at first reluctant to authorize it. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass had advocated this from the start of the war, and Andrew viewed it as a necessary equalizing step, and a means to fill the state's enlistment quotas with something other than factory workers. After lobbying
6784-437: The country gathered at MIT's Radiation Laboratory , established in 1940 to assist the British military in developing microwave radar . The work done there significantly affected both the war and subsequent research in the area. Other defense projects included gyroscope -based and other complex control systems for gunsight , bombsight , and inertial navigation under Charles Stark Draper 's Instrumentation Laboratory ;
6890-619: The development of a digital computer for flight simulations under Project Whirlwind ; and high-speed and high-altitude photography under Harold Edgerton . By the end of the war, MIT became the nation's largest wartime R&D contractor (attracting some criticism of Bush), employing nearly 4000 in the Radiation Laboratory alone and receiving in excess of $ 100 million ($ 1.2 billion in 2015 dollars) before 1946. Work on defense projects continued even after then. Post-war government-sponsored research at MIT included SAGE and guidance systems for ballistic missiles and Project Apollo . ...
6996-553: The dormitory system starting in 2002. Because FSILGs had previously housed as many as 300 freshmen off-campus, the new policy could not be implemented until Simmons Hall opened in that year. In 2013–2014, MIT abruptly closed and then demolished undergrad dorm Bexley Hall, citing extensive water damage that made repairs infeasible. In 2017, MIT shut down Senior House after a century of service as an undergrad dorm. That year, MIT administrators released data showing just 60% of Senior House residents had graduated in four years. Campus-wide,
7102-537: The election , but the party was somewhat more successful at the state level, gaining seats in the state legislature and Congress. In 1847, Andrew, then 29 and with his law practice underway, met Eliza Jane Hersey of Hingham at an anti-slavery fair . They were engaged that year and married on Christmas evening in 1848. They had four children: John Forrester (1850), Elizabeth Loring (1852), Edith (1854), and Henry Hersey (1858). The Boston Vigilance Committee attracted many new members following congressional passage of
7208-417: The eventual election of Nathaniel Prentice Banks as the first Republican governor in 1857. He continued legal activity on behalf of anti-slavery interests. In 1857, Andrew won election as a representative in the Massachusetts General Court , as part of a complete Republican takeover of the Massachusetts government. He was quickly promoted as a leading abolitionist voice, filling a void left after Sumner
7314-411: The executive committee of Boston's first vigilance committee , an anti-slavery organization established in 1846 that was devoted to assisting escaped slaves. Andrew participated in the establishment in 1848 of the Free Soil Party , whose principal political goal was ending the expansion of slavery into western territories. The Free Soilers nominated Martin Van Buren for president; he placed third in
7420-501: The expanding university. By the 1950s, MIT no longer simply benefited the industries with which it had worked for three decades, and it had developed closer working relationships with new patrons, philanthropic foundations and the federal government. In late 1960s and early 1970s, student and faculty activists protested against the Vietnam War and MIT's defense research. In this period MIT's various departments were researching helicopters, smart bombs and counterinsurgency techniques for
7526-570: The federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 , which required law enforcement officials and citizens of free states as well as slave states to aid in the recovery of fugitive slaves. Andrew sat on a subcommittee that handled the legal defense of individuals accused of being fugitive slaves. He was also a regular attendee at meetings of the "Bird Club", a political group organized by businessman Francis Bird. Its members were mainly anti-slavery ex-Whigs, described by Samuel Gridley Howe as "straight & impractical republicans". Bird Club members would dominate
7632-474: The first academic buildings complete, the MIT administration and the MIT charter crossed the Charles River on the ceremonial barge Bucentaur built for the occasion. Institute faculty continued to debate whether the Institute education should continue to emphasize "hands on" industrial training or scientific research. Needing funds to match Eastman's gift and cover retreating state support, President Richard MacLaurin launched an industry funding model known as
7738-548: The four-year graduation rate is 84% (the cumulative graduation rate is significantly higher). MIT is a publicly-chartered nonprofit corporation governed by a privately appointed board known as the MIT Corporation . A large board since MIT's founding, the Corporation has 60–80 members at any time, some with fixed terms, some with life appointments, and eight who serve ex officio . The Corporation approves
7844-421: The funding and arming of Brown's force, and Andrew was summoned to testify to his connections with Brown. Andrew led efforts to raise money to help Brown's family. Andrew's actions on behalf of Brown and his family were highly popular in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Republican Committee published his speeches and testimony on Brown's behalf in a pamphlet to distribute to voters. Andrew's popularity made him
7950-435: The governors of Maine and New Hampshire , urging them to also step up preparations. Once hostilities broke out, he also took the lead to update the state's coastal defenses, which were in poor condition and largely obsolete. Taking this step without federal authorization or funding, he secured bank loans from major Boston banks to fund the effort in the interim. With the war already underway in late 1861, Andrew engaged in
8056-641: The great majority of its courses available online for no charge, though without any formal accreditation for coursework completed. While the cost of supporting and hosting the project is high, OCW expanded in 2005 to include other universities as a part of the OpenCourseWare Consortium, which currently includes more than 250 academic institutions with content available in at least six languages. In 2011, MIT announced it would offer formal certification (but not credits or degrees) to online participants completing coursework in its "MITx" program, for
8162-439: The law while governor, his successor Alexander Bullock was a strict prohibitionist, and his enforcement of the law was the strictest the state had yet seen. Andrew represented the businessmen in extensive hearings (lasting six weeks) before a legislative committee considering the issue. His promotion of the cause was seized on by Democrats in the 1867 gubernatorial campaign, in which Andrew's chief of staff John Quincy Adams II
8268-548: The men participated in fraternities and 20% of the women were involved in sororities. Most FSILGs are located across the river in Back Bay near where MIT was founded, and there is also a cluster of fraternities on MIT's West Campus that face the Charles River Basin. After the 1997 alcohol-related death of Scott Krueger, a new pledge at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, MIT required all freshmen to live in
8374-679: The men who was arrested for trying to rescue Burns from the ship on which he was being held. Anger over that year's passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (which overturned the limitation of slavery's expansion under the Missouri Compromise of 1820) revitalized the Free Soil movement. He once defended a poor mixed race man on a murder charge at the Norfolk County Courthouse , pro bono. Andrew
8480-446: The most popular department, collectively identify themselves as "Course 6". MIT students use a combination of the department's course number and the number assigned to the class to identify their subjects; for instance, the introductory calculus-based classical mechanics course is simply "8.01" (pronounced eight-oh-one ) at MIT. The four-year, full-time undergraduate program maintains a balance between professional majors and those in
8586-439: The most powerful university-based nuclear reactors in the United States. The prominence of the reactor's containment building in a densely populated area has been controversial, but MIT maintains that it is well-secured. MIT Nano, also known as Building 12, is an interdisciplinary facility for nanoscale research. Its 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m ) cleanroom and research space, visible through expansive glass facades,
8692-702: The names of important scientists and philosophers. The spacious Building 7 atrium at 77 Massachusetts Avenue is regarded as the entrance to the Infinite Corridor and the rest of the campus. Alvar Aalto 's Baker House (1947), Eero Saarinen 's MIT Chapel and Kresge Auditorium (1955), and I.M. Pei 's Green , Dreyfus, Landau, and Wiesner buildings represent high forms of post-war modernist architecture . More recent buildings like Frank Gehry 's Stata Center (2004), Steven Holl 's Simmons Hall (2002), Charles Correa 's Building 46 (2005), and Fumihiko Maki 's Media Lab Extension (2009) stand out among
8798-576: The news to Andrew supporters. Andrew won the nomination by a wide margin, and defeated Constitutional Union Party candidate Amos A. Lawrence in the general election. When Andrew took office on January 2, 1861, on the eve of the American Civil War, the Albany Argus called him "a lawyer of a low type and a brutal fanatic" who "proposes to maintain the condemned [personal liberty] statutes of [Massachusetts], and to force upon
8904-826: The only type of undergraduate degree MIT now awards. In the 2011 fall term, among students who had designated a major, the School of Engineering was the most popular division, enrolling 63% of students in its 19 degree programs, followed by the School of Science (29%), School of Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences (3.7%), Sloan School of Management (3.3%), and School of Architecture and Planning (2%). The largest undergraduate degree programs were in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science ( Course 6–2 ), Computer Science and Engineering ( Course 6–3 ), Mechanical Engineering ( Course 2 ), Physics ( Course 8 ), and Mathematics ( Course 18 ). John Albion Andrew John Albion Andrew (May 31, 1818 – October 30, 1867)
9010-399: The order in which the buildings were built and their location relative (north, west, and east) to the original center cluster of Maclaurin buildings. Many of the buildings are connected above ground as well as through an extensive network of tunnels, providing protection from the Cambridge weather as well as a venue for roof and tunnel hacking . MIT's on-campus nuclear reactor is one of
9116-556: The pace of life at the Institute" to match the return to peacetime, remembering the "academic tranquility of the prewar years", though acknowledging the significant contributions of military research to the increased emphasis on graduate education and rapid growth of personnel and facilities. The faculty doubled and the graduate student body quintupled during the presidential terms of Karl Taylor Compton (1930–1948), James Rhyne Killian (1948–1957), and chancellor Julius Adams Stratton (1952–1957), whose institution-building strategies shaped
9222-905: The preferences of the students themselves, diverse social atmospheres can be sustained in different living groups; for example, according to the Yale Daily News staff's The Insider's Guide to the Colleges, 2010 , "The split between East Campus and West Campus is a significant characteristic of MIT. East Campus has gained a reputation as a thriving counterculture." MIT also has 5 dormitories for single graduate students and 2 apartment buildings on campus for married student families. MIT has an active Greek and co-op housing system, including thirty-six fraternities , sororities , and independent living groups ( FSILGs ). As of 2015 , 98% of all undergraduates lived in MIT-affiliated housing; 54% of
9328-637: The protests. The student body, faculty, and administration remained comparatively unpolarized during what was a tumultuous time for many other universities. Johnson was seen to be highly successful in leading his institution to "greater strength and unity" after these times of turmoil. However six MIT students were sentenced to prison terms at this time and some former student leaders, such as Michael Albert and George Katsiaficas , are still indignant about MIT's role in military research and its suppression of these protests. ( Richard Leacock 's film, November Actions , records some of these tumultuous events. ) In
9434-473: The same oratorical style in which they were delivered. While a teenager, he was exposed to the early abolitionist writings of William Lloyd Garrison and others. He entered Bowdoin College in 1833. Although he was studious and popular with other students, he did not shine academically and was ranked near the bottom in his class. After his graduation in 1837, Andrew moved to Boston to study law under Henry H. Fuller, with whom he became close friends. He
9540-674: The size of the student body increased to more than one thousand. The curriculum drifted to a vocational emphasis, with less focus on theoretical science. The fledgling school still suffered from chronic financial shortages which diverted the attention of the MIT leadership. During these "Boston Tech" years, MIT faculty and alumni rebuffed Harvard University president (and former MIT faculty) Charles W. Eliot 's repeated attempts to merge MIT with Harvard College's Lawrence Scientific School . There would be at least six attempts to absorb MIT into Harvard. In its cramped Back Bay location, MIT could not afford to expand its overcrowded facilities, driving
9646-451: The spring semester commencing in early February and ceasing in late May. MIT students refer to both their majors and classes using numbers or acronyms alone. Departments and their corresponding majors are numbered in the approximate order of their foundation; for example, Civil and Environmental Engineering is Course 1 , while Linguistics and Philosophy is Course 24 . Students majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS),
9752-606: The state takeover of the Hoosac Tunnel construction project. In 1865, he signed legislation establishing the Massachusetts State Police , the first statewide police force of its type in the nation. He died early of apoplexy at the age of 49. Andrew was born in Windham (in modern-day Maine , then a part of Massachusetts ) on May 31, 1818, the eldest of four children. His father, Jonathan Andrew,
9858-486: The state's political establishment into the 1870s. Andrew's political activity was otherwise minimal, as he was devoted to his growing law practice and family, which was settled in Hingham. By 1855, his practice was sufficiently successful that he also purchased a house on Charles Street in Boston. In 1854, Andrew became personally involved in the highly publicized fugitive slave case of Anthony Burns , defending one of
9964-427: The successive terms of the more humanistically oriented presidents Howard W. Johnson and Jerome Wiesner between 1966 and 1980. MIT's involvement in military science surged during World War II . In 1941, Vannevar Bush was appointed head of the federal Office of Scientific Research and Development and directed funding to only a select group of universities, including MIT. Engineers and scientists from across
10070-441: The tunnel's chief engineer, and withdrew the state engineer overseeing the project. These actions cost Andrew votes in the 1861 election in the towns on the railroad route, but not enough to cost him the election. The state took over the tunnel project in 1862, and it was finally completed at great expense in 1875. Andrew also had to contend with ongoing political activities of the nativist Know Nothings, some of whom were now in
10176-588: The war in Vietnam as well as guidance systems for nuclear missiles. The Union of Concerned Scientists was founded on March 4, 1969 during a meeting of faculty members and students seeking to shift the emphasis on military research toward environmental and social problems. MIT ultimately divested itself from the Instrumentation Laboratory and moved all classified research off-campus to the MIT Lincoln Laboratory facility in 1973 in response to
10282-526: Was a persistent voice criticizing President Abraham Lincoln 's conduct of the war, and pressing him to end slavery . By the end of the war, his politics had moderated, and he came to support the Reconstruction policies of Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson . In Massachusetts, Andrew opposed the Know Nothing movement of the 1850s and the state's strict alcohol prohibition laws, and oversaw
10388-490: Was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1840, and began the practice of law. After his admission to the bar, Andrew joined the Whig Party and became actively involved in the anti-slavery movement. As a Conscience Whig , he opposed the election of " Cotton Whig " Robert Charles Winthrop in the 1846 election for Congress , promoting Charles Sumner (over the latter's objection) as an independent candidate. He sat on
10494-460: Was also supportive of efforts by the recruits to receive equal pay; he offered them money from the state to do so, but they refused, holding out for equal pay from the federal government. He was somewhat less receptive to the relocation of freed slaves to Massachusetts, objecting to a plan to send 500 of them to Massachusetts from South Carolina in 1862. By the end of the war, Andrew's politics had moderated. In late 1865, he expressed support for
10600-619: Was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts . He was elected in 1860 as the 25th Governor of Massachusetts , serving between 1861 and 1866, and led the state's contributions to the Union cause during the American Civil War (1861–1865). He was a guiding force behind the creation of some of the first African-American units in the United States Army , including the 54th Massachusetts Infantry . He belonged to
10706-861: Was descended from an early settler of Boxford, Massachusetts , and ran a small but prosperous merchant business in Windham. His mother, Nancy Green Pierce, was a teacher at Fryeburg Academy . Andrew's 5th great grandfather was an immigrant from England named George Andrew who settled in Boxford, Massachusetts , in 1637. His 4th great grandfather was born in Boxford, Massachusetts , in 1638, being his first American-born ancestor. Andrew received his primary education first at home, and then at several area boarding schools. After his mother's death in 1832, he attended Gorham Academy in nearby Gorham . During his youth he exhibited talent for both memory and public speaking, memorizing church sermons and recounting them with
10812-514: Was designed and constructed by a team of scientists from California Institute of Technology , MIT, and industrial contractors, and funded by the National Science Foundation . It was designed to open the field of gravitational-wave astronomy through the detection of gravitational waves predicted by general relativity . Gravitational waves were detected for the first time by the LIGO detector in 2015. For contributions to
10918-554: Was elected chair of a committee to manage a nominating convention for the 1854 elections. This meeting resulted in the first organization of the Republican Party in Massachusetts. Its slate was undermined by Henry Wilson 's defection to the Know Nothing movement, which swept the state's elected offices that year. The Republicans reorganized in 1855, but Andrew was not involved in the party processes that resulted in
11024-491: Was enacted in 1865 and signed by Andrew creating a statewide constabulary, now the Massachusetts State Police; it was the first police force of its kind in the nation. Andrew was not a supporter of prohibition, and did little to enforce the law; his fondness of alcohol was well known. Andrew resumed the practice of law after leaving office, although he intended to remain active in politics. He sought
11130-538: Was right. —Andrew, in his 1859 fund-raising appeal for John Brown's defense Following John Brown's 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry , Virginia, Andrew helped organize legal aid for Brown. He expressed sympathy with Brown's position, if not his deeds. Andrew's efforts on behalf of Brown brought him statewide notice, and also drew the attention of Southern interests in the United States Senate . They were seeking evidence to tie Northern interests to
11236-522: Was severely injured in an attack in Congress . Andrew led the debate in favor of removing Judge Edward Loring from office over his actions in the Burns case, and in opposition to the proposed repeal of the state's stringent anti-slavery personal liberty law . Although he did not run for reelection, Andrew gained popularity as his actions became known in the state Republican party. He was selected to chair
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