[1544] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
NYTimes.com Article: M.I.T.’s President Is Expected to Announce His Retirement
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (fyfer@MIT.EDU)
Fri Dec 5 01:21:58 2003
Errors-To: articles-email@ms1.lga2.nytimes.com
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2003 00:49:51 -0500
Reply-To: fyfer@MIT.EDU
From: fyfer@MIT.EDU
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
This article from NYTimes.com
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M.I.T.’s President Is Expected to Announce His Retirement
December 5, 2003
By KATE ZERNIKE
The president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Charles M. Vest, is expected to announce his retirement at
a meeting with trustees on Friday morning, people close to
him and the board have said.
Dr. Vest, 62, has been president of the university for 13
years, an unusually long tenure for a modern college
president and the second longest in the institute's
history.
His presidency has reflected the challenges of leading a
university in the modern era, and made him a leader in
higher education nationwide, particularly in scientific
research.
When Dr. Vest took office, M.I.T. was heavily dependent on
federal research money, particularly from the Energy and
Defense Departments. He recognized that as the cold war had
ended so would government largesse, and he began generating
more private money from scientific companies to pay for
research.
Dr. Vest also lured 18 of the 25 largest gifts in the
university's history.
Its endowment has risen, to $5.1 billion from $1.4 billion
when Dr. Vest took office, despite the drop in the stock
market that hurt almost all colleges and universities over
the last few years.
He also added to investments in the life sciences,
recognizing the importance that fields like genetics and
biotechnology would have in the 21st century.
He hired more than half the faculty members now at the
university.
Dr. Vest was praised for his candor in 1999 when the
institute admitted that it had discriminated against
faculty members who were women for many years and in many
ways, from lower salaries to smaller laboratory space. The
admission has spawned efforts at universities across the
country to correct discrimination against women in the
sciences.
He also dealt with enduring problems of student life like
drinking and mental health. The death of a freshman, Scott
Krueger, from an overdose of alcohol in 1997 after a
fraternity hazing, highlighted the alienation many students
felt at the university, largely because so many had lived
in fraternities and independent houses around Boston and
Cambridge, Mass., since the institute was chartered in
1861.
The death resulted in a $6 million settlement with Mr.
Krueger's parents and the construction of three
dormitories, along with a requirement beginning in 2001
that freshmen live on campus.
Dr. Vest, a mechanical engineer who was provost at the
University of Michigan, is expected to stay through the
summer or until a successor is chosen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/05/national/05MIT.html?ex=1071603391&ei=1&en=1597a748cb56cbfc
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