Reports

Over the past two years, the Subcommittee on the HASS Requirement (SHR) conducted the first full review of how the Concentration Component of the HASS Requirement is functioning.

A five-School group of faculty convened by the Chair of the Faculty and the Dean for Undergraduate Education conducted an in-depth study of the meaning of the phrases “algorithmic reasoning” and “computational thinking” in the context of the education of MIT’s undergraduates across the Institute, including whether MIT should expect algorithmic and computational thinking of all of its graduates.

The work of the CUP Subcommittee on the Educational Commons built on the final report of the Task Force on the Undergraduate Educational Commons, taking into account reactions to that report by the wider MIT community following its presentation to the President in October 2006.

MIT President Charles M. Vest charged the Task Force on the Undergraduate Educational Commons to address the goals, content, and structure of MIT’s undergraduate education.

This report, from the CUP Subcommittee on the Communication Requirement (SOCR) and its affiliated Implementation Working Group, describes the progress made in carrying out the charge of the CUP “to oversee and establish policy for the Communication Requirement” and to develop “an implementation plan that outlines the administrative processes for the Communication Requirement.”

At its meeting on April 17, 1997, the Faculty directed the Committee on the Undergraduate Program to conduct a series of experiments and pilot programs to help in the design of a new Communication Requirement. These experiments should be evaluated by a subcommittee of the CUP.

The Faculty (through the Committee on the Undergraduate Program) and the administration (through the Office of the Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education) have established a committee of faculty to review the current educational commons, particularly the freshman educational program, and make recommendations about how it might be redesigned to be more effective.

MIT President Charles M. Vest appointed the Presidential Task Force on Student Life and Learning to undertake a comprehensive review of the Institute's educational mission and its implementation.

In the spring of 1989 the Faculty passed a motion endorsing the addition of biology to the Science Requirement. The Committee on the Science Requirement was formed to examine how the new biology requirement might be implemented and how the Science Requirement should be modified to accommodate it.

The Committee on Curriculum Content Planning was formed upon recommendation of the Committee on Educational Policy to make an intensive study of undergraduate education at MIT.

In January 1947, the Faculty appointed the Committee on Educational Survey to review the state of education at the Institute.