Working group studies options for creating a new set of faculty hires for MIT's new college.
Since February, five working groups have been generating ideas about the form and content of the new MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing. That includes a Working Group on Faculty Appointments. Its co-chairs are Eran Ben-Joseph, head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and William Freeman, the Thomas and Gerd Perkins Professor of Electrical Engineering. MIT News talked to Ben-Joseph and Freeman about the group's progress and ideas at this point.
Q: What are the major issues your working group was formed to address?
Freeman: It's a really big opportunity to have this college. And now we have to decide important things, such as: How does the electrical engineering and computer science department (EECS) relate to the new college, and how does the rest of the university relate to it? The big sense I got from our working group is that people really want to be included and don't want to be left out. How faculty appointments are made is important - to make sure existing faculty are included, and of course that new faculty are included as well.