Concourse Program at MIT
Concourse is an alternative freshman program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Concourse admits up to sixty select MIT freshmen a year who are interested in understanding the breadth of human knowledge and the larger context of their science and engineering studies.
History
Concourse began in 1970 as a project initiated by Professors Louis Bucciarelli and David Oliver of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and sponsored by the Commission on MIT Education.[1] The founding staff members (later known as the Clock Group) came from a variety of academic disciplines. From science and engineering were Ronald Bruno, Louis Bucciarelli, Duncan Foley, Martin Horowitz, Daniel Kemp, David Oliver, and Brian Schwartz. They were joined by Nancy Dworsky and Travis Merritt from the humanities. In fall 1970, the group ran a seminar titled "From Earth to Moon: Fact, Fiction, and Fantasy."[2]
In spring 1971, Concourse received academic approval and budgetary approval, along with permission to enroll up to 35 freshmen (class of 1975). The common room and office space were in building 35. Nancy McFarland was the administrative assistant. Jeffrey Hankoff, Adrian Houtsma, Karl Linn, and Robert Silbey joined the roster above ("Clock Group").[3]
Past directors include Jerome "Jerry" Lettvin, and Robert M. Rose.
The program had office and classroom space on the second floor of the old barracks building (MIT building 20), where it resided until the building's demolition in 1998 to make way for the Stata Center.[4]. It now resides in the Dorrance Building (MIT building 16) at the center of the central section of campus and along the extension of the Infinite Corridor.
Present Program
Since becoming director in July 2009, Professor Bernhardt Trout has begun slowly renovating the program to return it to its interdisciplinary roots. In spite of institute-wide budget cuts, he expanded the humanities offerings of the program and started an integration seminar that connects the students' science studies to the humanities.
Concourse offers MIT's general institute requirements in science and math (viz., physics, chemistry, calculus, differential equations)
Citations
- ^ Martin Horowitz, "A Study of Interdisciplinary Education at MIT: The Concourse Program", PhD Dissertation, June 1975, p. 13.
- ^ Ronald Bruno, Louis Bucciarelli, Nancy Dworsky, Duncan Foley, Martin Horowitz, Daniel Kemp, Travis Merritt, David Oliver, Brian Schwartz, "A Proposal for a New Mode of Undergraduate Education for the First Two Years at MIT," prospectus submitted to the Committee on Educational Policy (February 1971), pp. 2-3.
- ^ "Concourse: Report to the Committee on Educational Policy" (April 1972), p. 2.
- ^ "Occupants of Building 20" accessed 2011-03-03.
External links
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