MIT life: academics and culture: 1955 – 1960

1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960

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The turnabout at MIT in the decade following the war, part of a larger pattern of change in engineering education in mid-century, brought with it a lot of turmoil. It flowed out of the wartime experiences of physicists and engineers, many of whom returned to academia with the conviction that engineering education before World War II had not prepared the engineers sufficiently for participation in enterprises like the Radiation Laboratory and the Manhattan Project. As a result, there began to be a kind of general agreement that more physics and mathematics were needed in the engineering curriculum. (Wildes and Lindgren, A Century of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, 1882-1982, MIT Press, 1985, pp310)

 

During World War II, the major breakthroughs in engineering radar systems in the RadLab came from the scientists—physicists for the most part—rather than the engineers. Gordon Brown realized that the necessary science responsible for such breakthroughs was not known to the engineers. He concluded that MIT must make changes to the educational program to address this issue. He became the head of the Electrical Engineering department in 1952 and immediately instituted a curriculum review to identify the underlying science in all areas. In 1959 Gordon Brown became the dean of the School of Engineering and began to promote similar ideas for other engineering programs. In the late 1950s a series of six undergraduate text books, known as the Green Books, were written in line with these changes to the academic program.

 

“In the new generation of students in the postwar era, when curriculum changes were taking place, there was a high degree of optimism about what engineering research promised for their future.” (Wildes and Lindgren, pp238)

In the post-war period the Institute made strides towards becoming a residential university, and the functions of the Office of the Dean of Students(ODS) changed to reflect these efforts. The ODS introduced professionally-run programs in music and athletics and improved existing guidance programs to include mental health. The ODS was also involved in constructing new physical facilities to accommodate the changes in MIT student life as well as the growing academic programs. During the 1950s the campus was greatly enlarged with dormitories, athletic facilities, a non-denominational chapel, and an auditorium.

By 1957 the dean defined his role as "an administrative officer whose chief concern is for the development of all the facets of education which occur outside the classroom." In 1958 the ODS established the system of housemasters in the dormitories. (Institute Archives, History of the Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education and Student Affairs)

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• 1955
  • Paul Penfield wrote over 70 articles on transistor technology between 1955 and 1960, while a graduate student in electrical engineering
    
    
  • The Kresge Auditorium and Chapel, designed by Eero Saarinen, was dedicated
    
    
• 1956
  • The Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC) was begun by physics professor Jerrold Zacharias. This was a seedbed for new, modernized curricula, instructional materials, and teacher training programs at the college and pre-college level
    
    
  • A student housing committee, charged by President Killian to develop a residential system for “the furtherance of the education of our students,” delivered its report(the Ryer Report). McCormick Hall, which increased the number of spaces available for women to effectively allow admissions to be gender neutral, would not open until 1962
    
    
  • William Shockley ’36 became the first MIT alumnus to win a Nobel Prize. He shared the prize for the development of the transistor
    
    
• 1957
  • Undergraduate curriculum reform known as “engineering science” began in the Electrical Engineering Department under Gordon Brown. In 1957 a curriculum workshop for electrical engineering faculty brought 104 faculty from around the country to MIT to learn about curriculum reform and spread it to their colleges
    
    
  • A system of housemasters in the dormitories was established by the Office of the Dean of Students
    
    
  • MIT opened a Computational Center, supported by IBM, which served other colleges. This was the first campus computing center of its kind in the country. MIT professors and students in every department found computers could greatly extend their power to deal with research problems, and there was a great deal of enthusiasm for the growth of computer services
    
    
  • Tech Talk began publication as the Institute’s newspaper
    
    
• 1958
  • Smoots (364.4 plus one ear) first appeared on the Harvard Bridge.Oliver Smoot ’62 was pledging the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and was used to measure the bridge. He was 5’7” tall
    
    
  • The Department of Nuclear Engineering grew out of the Chemical Engineering Department
    
    
  • Radar astronomy at Lincoln Labs begins to study Venus’s atmosphere and the mapping of Mars’s surface
    
    
• 1959
  • MIT submits a proposal entitled, “A Proposal for Experimental Development in Engineering Education” to the Ford Foundation and receives a grant of $9,275,000, the largest grant ever made to MIT at that time
    
    
  • The Joint Center for Urban Studies was established with Harvard
    
    
  • Julius A. Stratton became the eleventh president
    
    
  • Gordon Brown became the dean of engineering
    
    
• 1960
  • The Second Century Fund campaign was launched to raise $66 million for new buildings, endowed chairs, and research development
    
    
  • Recommendations in the “Report of the Committee on the Future of the Graduate School” promote the establishment of a graduate center to enhance a sense of community at MIT
    
    

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