MIT Schwarzman College of Computing

The Schwarzman College of Computing reshaped the organization of MIT, creating a new academic unit that interfaces between the university's five Schools of Architecture and Planning, Engineering, Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Science, and Management.[1] Several existing departments were restructured as joint programs: the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science became a part of both the college and the School of Engineering, and the Operations Research Center became a part of both the college and the Sloan School of Management.[13]

The establishment of the college added 50 new faculty positions to the university. Half of these positions focus on computer science, while the other half are jointly appointed in collaboration with other academic departments.[8] The New York Times described the college's structure as an effort to "alter traditional academic thinking and practice" and allow the university to more effectively bring computing to other fields.[8]

Interdepartmental research labs affiliated with the college include the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, the Quest for Intelligence, the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, and the Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health.[13]

The MIT Schwarzman College of Computing introduces three additional integrated programs:

• Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC) aims to develop "responsible habits of mind and action" regarding computing technology.[13] SERC facilitates the teaching of ethics throughout MIT courses, conducts research in social, ethical, and policy implications of technology, and coordinates public forums regarding technology and public policy.[14]
• Common Ground for Computing Education coordinates interdepartmental teaching in computing, supporting interdisciplinary courses, majors, and minors on computing and its applications.[14]
• Center for Advanced Studies of Computing hosts research fellows and assists project-oriented programs in computing-related topics.[14]

MIT professor and AI researcher Patrick Winston praised the organization of the college and viewed it as an entity poised to serve "all of MIT". He expressed optimism regarding the college's long-term impacts, stating that he has "a very romantic dream of discoveries on par with those of Copernicus,...Darwin,...Watson and Crick".[15]

Some MIT students spoke positively regarding the college's potential to "better manage the overflowing major" of computer science. At the time of the college's establishment, roughly 40 percent of MIT undergraduates majored in computer science or a joint program involving computer science.[16]

MIT's creation of the Schwarzman College of Computing led to several negative responses. A group of MIT students, faculty, and alumni issued a strong criticism against the university's decision to accept money from Schwarzman, deeming it to be unethical. In an opinion piece in The Tech, they condemned Schwarzman's relationship as an advisor to US President Donald Trump, his ties to Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and his firm's opposition to an affordable housing bill in California.[3][5] The group stated that "Schwarzman...represents an agenda of profit at any cost, a far cry from the pious statements about 'ethics' pronounced in public", expressing doubt that the college would fulfill its claims of ethical research.[5] Schwarzman's firm Blackstone responded that "advancing artificial intelligence responsibly is one of the most pressing challenges of our times and it should transcend politics".[3]

MIT professor and theoretical astrophysicist Edmund Bertschinger later echoed these criticisms of accepting Schwarzman's donation, suggesting that the perspectives of MIT community members had been neglected by administrators. "How many of our senior team understood that taking dirty money to do clean work means destroying the community's trust?" he wrote.[17]

Free software advocate and former MIT visiting scientist Richard Stallman expressed a negative view on MIT's decision to appoint Daniel P. Huttenlocher as the college's dean, criticizing Huttenlocher's ties to Amazon and the company's controversial practices. Stallman wrote that Amazon is responsible for surveillance and censorship, anti-competitive practices, tax avoidance, and mistreatment of workers, viewing these practices as incompatible with the college's stated goal of teaching ethics. "[Will] the College of Computing teach students to see possible injustice in these practices, or will it legitimize them?" he questioned.[18]

In addition, the "Hello World, Hello MIT" celebration of the college led to a further round of criticism regarding MIT's ethics. A particular point of controversy was MIT's invitation of Henry Kissinger as a guest speaker. A group of students and faculty described Kissinger's involvement in the secret bombing campaigns in Cambodia and Laos, deeming Kissinger to be a war criminal.[11][12] The critics stated that the celebration had "no purpose aside from accumulating money and the wrong kind of prestige" and called for MIT to cancel the event, which the university did not do.[11] A protest was held next to the event, involving around 300 participants. "Kissinger you can’t hide, you committed genocide", some of the protesters chanted.[4] MIT community members have placed the Schwarzman College of Computing within a greater trend of controversial outside engagements by the university's administrators. WBUR wrote that some students and faculty were "really sick" of MIT's partnerships with the military-industrial complex, David Koch, Jeffrey Epstein, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in addition to Stephen Schwarzman. The critics called for MIT president L. Rafael Reif to resign.[19]

From another perspective, some students questioned the societal value of MIT's focus on computing and AI. Viewing MIT administrators' emphasis on these technologies as a fad, they argued that MIT should instead promote research and education in areas that they believed to be more impactful. "[Why] aren't we putting this large sum of money into our climate change research, our urban planning department, or our economics and political science departments?" wrote a student in an opinion piece in The Tech.[20] Students also described MIT's initiative to create the college as "very top-down in its approach" and expressed skepticism regarding "buy-in from faculty, staff, and students".[21]

Outside of MIT, the Yale Daily News wrote that Schwarzman's donation to MIT "appeared to be a snub at Yale".[22] The paper stated that an earlier donation to Yale for a $150 million Schwarzman Center led to similar controversies. The Schwarzman Center was viewed by its critics as "being driven by the donors rather than driven by the faculty and their mission".[22][23] Schwarzman received his bachelor's degree from Yale in 1969.