In December 2002,she was named Yale's Provost —the university's second-highest officer,with oversight of the university's 12 schools. As Provost,she led major initiatives in science,medicine,and engineering,including a $500 million investment in scientific facilities.
During her time as dean and as provost,Hockfield was at the center of an imbroglio surrounding the Graduate Employees and Students Organization and its unionization efforts. While Yale opposed the student union,Hockfield made healthcare for Ph.D. students free and increased stipends for graduate students. [2]
MIT presidency
In August 2004,the Massachusetts Institute of Technology named Hockfield its next president. MIT raised nearly $3 billion during Hockfield's presidency,making it a more successful period of fundraising than any prior administration. However,the global financial crisis put great pressure on the Institute's endowment,which was valued at $5.9 billion upon Hockfield's arrival. It peaked at $9.9 billion in June 2008,then fell to $7.9 billion. By June 2011,it was valued at $9.7 billion. Through these financial ups and downs,Hockfield made affordability a priority:Annual undergraduate financial aid increased by about 75 percent during her presidency. [3]
In her inaugural address,Hockfield called for MIT to cultivate the convergence of engineering and the life sciences to develop new approaches to address global challenges. [4] She encouraged work that crossed disciplines,departments,and schools within MIT and that fostered collaborations among the Boston region's academic medical centers and educational institutions. To that end,she led,among other efforts,the establishment of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research;the Ragon Institute (a collaboration between Massachusetts General Hospital,MIT,and Harvard University);and the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center in Holyoke,Massachusetts,an unprecedented collaboration of 5 universities,2 private companies,and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to provide state-of-the art computation tools for research in a wide variety of fields. [3]
Hockfield also announced her intention to develop a multidisciplinary,Institute-wide center focused on energy. That effort spawned the MIT Energy Initiative,which raised more than $350 million during Hockfield's tenure and accelerated research on technologies and policies for a sustainable energy future. In 2009,U.S. President Barack Obama gave an address on U.S. energy policy at MIT,and Hockfield gave him the first tour of an MIT laboratory by a sitting U.S. president. [5]
Hockfield also encouraged concerted faculty research in an area she considered vital to American national interests:manufacturing. She launched “Production in the Innovation Economy,”a campus-wide project to provide a blueprint for 21st century manufacturing in America. During her presidency,she served as the inaugural co-chair of the White House-led Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP),a task force of government,industry,and academic leaders. In an August 2011 New York Times op-ed,Hockfield wrote,“To make our economy grow,sell more goods to the world and replenish the work force,we need to restore manufacturing —not the assembly-line jobs of the past,but the high-tech advanced manufacturing of the future.” [6]
During Hockfield's presidency,representation of underrepresented minorities and women increased across the undergraduate,graduate,and faculty populations. The graduating Class of 2015 was composed of 45 percent women and 24 percent underrepresented minorities. To address the growing interest in attending MIT (applications more than doubled during her tenure),Hockfield initiated an expansion of the undergraduate population. She also guided enhancements to student life and learning,including the construction of a new residence for graduate students and a restoration of MIT's oldest building into an undergraduate residence with expanded space and amenities to foster student collaboration.
In addition,while Hockfield was president,the east side of MIT's campus was enhanced by an extension to the Media Lab complex and a new building for the MIT Sloan School of Management. Hockfield also led a comprehensive strategic planning process for campus development and worked to foster the innovation cluster around Kendall Square,which at the end of her presidency was home to more biotech and life sciences companies per square mile than anywhere in the world. [3]
In December 2011,MIT launched MITx,a not-for-profit online learning platform that offers online versions of MIT courses free of charge. In May 2012,Hockfield and Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust announced edX,an MIT-Harvard partnership in online education. EdX,Hockfield said,“represents a unique opportunity to improve education on our own campuses through online learning,while simultaneously creating a bold new educational path for millions of learners worldwide.” [7]
