Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Office of the Provost

The provost is the senior academic officer of the Institute. He or she shares responsibility with the president and the academic deans for supervision and leadership of the Institute’s policies, plans, and priorities as they affect all academic programs. The provost, working with the executive vice president, also has responsibility for coordinating the budgeting of the Institute.

The academic offices within the Institute that report directly to the provost include: the deans of the schools; the deans of the interdisciplinary centers, laboratories, and programs; the director of the Libraries; the director of Lincoln Laboratory; and the associate provosts for research, educational policy, and the arts. The provost also coordinates educational and research activities that do not fall under the jurisdiction of any one school, such as interdepartmental collaboration among faculty sponsored jointly by different departments.

The Office of the Provost was created in the spring of 1949. The first provost was Julius Adams Stratton, who continued to have the responsibilities of the Office of Provost when he was later appointed vice president and provost in 1952. During his term as MIT president, Stratton appointed the second provost, Charles Hard Townes, in 1961.

The provost is currently (as of 2010) a member of the following Institute-wide councils: Academic Council, Faculty Council, Administrative Council, and the Council on Educational Technology. The provost is also a member of the Committee on Resource and Space Planning, the Building Committee, the Budget and Finance Steering Committee, and the Enrollment Management Group.

Walter Alter Rosenblith was appointed associate provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969. In July 1971 he became provost, working with President Jerome Wiesner, and served in that capacity until July 1980. Rosenblith played a central role in the development of health sciences and biomedical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in the Institute’s collaboration with other universities and medical institutions.

Rosenblith’s terms as an associate provost and provost were marked by student-faculty protests and disruption, a slowing in the development of research programs, and funding cuts throughout the Institute. They were also characterized by movement of research and teaching efforts away from military applications towards social and environmental applications. The United States Congress required the Department of Defense to disengage from support of basic research projects not directly related to military purposes, which led to the transfer for support of the National Magnet Laboratory, the Center for Materials Science and Engineering, and the Lincoln Laboratory to the National Science Foundation.

Other significant events of Rosenblith’s terms include the institution of the Concourse Program, an integrative program for freshmen, in the fall of 1971, and the decennial reaccreditation of the Institute by the North East Association of Schools and Colleges in 1979. In preparation for the reaccreditation, Walter Rosenblith organized a self-study of the Institute that followed four themes representing continuing concerns in academic policy: the basic educational requirements of the MIT undergraduate curriculum; the evolution of interdisciplinary forums, emphasizing interdisciplinary and interdepartmental labs, centers, and programs; the role of computers in MIT education; and career paths and career expectations of MIT students and alumni.

From the guide to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Office of the Provost, records of Walter A. Rosenblith, Bulk, 1969-1980, 1958-1980, (Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute Archives and Special Collections)