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December 05, 2003
Vest To Retire From MIT Presidency
CAMBRIDGE, MA - At a meeting of the MIT Corporation, university president Charles Vest announced his intention to step down prior to the beginning of the 2004 fall semester.
Vest has served longer as president, 13 years, than any of his predecessors other than legendary MIT president Karl Taylor Compton. During his tenure, he worked tirelessly to dismantle the undergraduate experience that produced some of the technology revolution's greatest minds. He brought a passion for instilling a bland, homogenous, corporate culture throughout MIT and he systematically undermined most of the institute's traditional undergraduate institutions to further that goal. Far from understanding the quirky, experimental ethos that made MIT a hotbed of technological innovation, he concentrated on running the university like a giant, for-profit research lab.
Trustees were visibly panicked at the news of Vest's imminent departure. "Vest's flying the coop! Dump my options! Dump my options!" one board member shouted into his cell phone. He was then informed that he had no stock options, owing to the fact that MIT is, at least nominally, an institution of higher learning. "Not a public corporation?" he replied, incredulously, "That's ridiculous! Why did we spend eight hours last week listening to a plan to outsource the Computer Science department to India if this isn't a public corporation?"
Undergraduate students interviewed around campus generally had no opinion on Vest's sudden announcement, having long ago realized that having an opinion on any topic concerning MIT was a waste of time.
Posted by Dan at December 5, 2003 02:56 PM
Comments
When reached for comment on Vest's retirement, former MIT president Paul Gray simply asked for more pudding and for someone to turn up the volume on "Matlock."
Posted by: jug at December 5, 2003 03:31 PM
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