History of MIT Residences and Outlook for Future
O. Robert Simha
Former Director of the MIT Planning Office
Preparation:
Read:
"Report of the Task Force"
MIT Strategic Advisory Committee to the Chancellor,
"Unified proposal for the MIT residence dystem"
Good, Clancy & Associates, "Vassar street corridor student housing study," MIT
Planning Office
Abraham H. Maslow, "The hierarchy of needs"
The Evolving MIT Campus
The goal of many universities is to conserve knowledge. The goal of MIT is
to expand and better knowledge.
This difference is reflected in the
development of the MIT campus.
Up until 1909, MIT (campussed in Boston, near today's Copley Square)
had been modelled much like a standard German Universitat. The institution
treated students like any other adult and therefore did not provide housing
or other extracurricular activities. This was up to the students, who lived
in the nearby residential area and organized their own recreations, often
doing both in fraternities (somewhat like Germany's Burschenschaften).
In 1909, a new MIT president was installed. He had been a student at
Cambridge University and therefore was a strong proponent of the English
univeristy system, where the studies AND life of the students took place
entirely in their Colleges.
MIT built a new campus in Cambridge and used this opportunity to build
some residential halls (the current Senior House and East Campus dormitories)
and a community center (Walker Memorial). This was particularly necessary
because the new campus was in the middle of a industrial, housing-poor part
of Cambridge, much unlike the Copley Square area.
Since that time, MIT existed as a mixture of the two housing systems:
off-campus housing dominated by Boston fraternities and on-campus
Institute housing in Cambridge.
In the 1920's Mr. DuPont, a member of the MIT Corporation, arranged
the purchase of 24 acres of land west of Massachusetts Avenue, which was
dedicated to recreation and athletics. It is interesting to note that, along
with the 5 acres of MIT's Killian Court, that MIT dedicates almost 30 acres
to open space almost exactly in the geographic center of the Boston
metropolis. This reflects MIT devotion to a sound body as well as mind.
By the 1960's, MIT had only built three more dormitories (Burton-Connor,
Baker and Graduate House). At the time, influenced by several factors,
including the Lewis Commission Report, it was decided to transform MIT
completely into a typical (for America) residential university. Dormitory
construction commenced on Memorial Drive and land was obtained northwest
of Vassar Street, much of which to be used for housing MIT faculty and staff.
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