Creating a masterpiece at Olin College

ASEE Prism, Sep 2000 by Sanoff, Alvin P

The new school has plenty of money, a first-- rate team, and some big ideas about altering the landscape of engineering education.

Between now and then much remains to be done. But that is not surprising. After all, it isn't every day that you start a college from scratch, let alone one whose ambition is to offer a new paradigm for undergraduate engineering education by establishing an institution without academic departments, and one in which engineering and entrepreneurship are melded together. "This is an opportunity that comes along less than once in a lifetime," says Provost David Kerns, who, along with his wife Sherry Kerns, was lured away from Vanderbilt University's engineering school to be part of Olin's leadership.

Building an institution with such lofty ambitions is precisely what the trustees of the F.W. Olin Foundation envisioned when they decided three years ago to provide the funding for a new undergraduate engineering college. Since its inception in 1938, the foundation had funded 72 buildings at colleges and universities around the nation. Now, the board of trustees felt, the time had come to do something that would have greater impact, something that would serve as the ultimate memorial to Franklin W. Olin, the engineer and entrepreneur who created the foundation. The board was willing to commit at least $300 million-- more if needed-to build a college that would chart a new path for undergraduate engineering education.

Lawence Milas, president of the foundation and the driving force behind the college, says that the foundation has more than $500 million in assets and, if necessary, will spend every last dollar on the new school. "We are not going to try to economize," he says. "We want to give the college the resources it needs to excel If that takes all of our resources, so be it." To prove that the foundation has no intention of skimping, Milas is offering Olin students a tuition-free education. Students also will not have to pay for housing. They will be responsible only for food, books, and incidental expenses.

Multiple Choice

Before deciding to establish an independent college of engineering, the foundations board considered two other possibilities. One option: start an engineering school at an established, high-quality university. But the board feared that an engineering school in an established university would always be competing for resources with other schools at the institution. The second option: provide support to an existing engineering school that was doing a good job but lacked adequate financial resources. Ultimately, the board scrapped both ideas, concluding that it preferred to build a college from the ground up. While that was the most costly choice, it held out the greatest promise. There would be no institutional constraints standing in the way of innovation, and no faculty with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo with which to contend.

Having made that choice, board members had to decide where to locate the college. They began conversations with Babson College, a specialty business institution located in suburban Boston that is internationally known for its entrepreneurship programs. An alliance with Babson was appealing because it offered the opportunity to expose engineers to training in business and, more specifically, to entrepreneurship, in keeping with the legacy of Franklin W. Olin (see sidebar). Moreover, Babson had ample land on which to build, and was located near Boston's high-tech corridor, Route 128. The foundation struck a deal with Babson to purchase 70 acres, and in June of 1997 announced establishment of the college.

"All along we envisioned a collaborative arrangement with another college," explains Milan. "We were taken by the model of the Claremont Colleges--separate freestanding colleges that collaborate. That model expands opportunities for students and provides cost savings for institutions. By being next door to Babson, we will be able to tap into existing facilities. We don't need to build an athletic center, since they have one. We can use their library for non-engineering needs. Babson is number-one ranked in entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship is the hottest thing in engineering education."

Building a Team

The board next faced the challenge of putting together a leadership team that could create a college that would shatter the traditional mold for engineering education. Drawing on the ideas of the National Science Foundation and corporate leaders, the board felt that the new school should include not only a heavy dose of training in entrepreneurship but also an interdisciplinary approach to learning. There would be no academic departments--the idea was to integrate knowledge by avoiding artificial boundaries. The board also wanted the college to place a premium on students working in teams and to stress development of communications skills. Building such an institution, the board felt, required educators who loved a challenge and were not bound by academic convention.