My group (Myself, Dan and Xin) summarized this article as looking at the history if IIT and UIC as a social project to uplift the inner city of Chicago. I hope Dan will add to this, since as he mentioned in class he lived through this "experiment". Because of his close encounter (as Alice pointed out in class) our group discussion focused very much on the social experience. More specifically, how the idea of placing the university in the inner city was meant to improve and "uplift" the ghetto, but what ended up happening was the ghetto was "bulldozed" and people from the ghetto were seen as a threat to the reputation of their program.
Our MIS(s) were on page 141: "Within the terms set by economic indicators, it made sense for engineering schools to turn away from the address of social problems and from any curricular programming that might a "cutting edge" reputation. As we have seen, remedial coursework or altered timeframes for Undergraduate degrees that might have led to greater minority inclusion in Chicago fell under this heading. If we cease to understand growth as the first or only cause of American economic decisions, we can begin to see that hierarchical society also justified these exclusionary priorities in research and teaching."
This excerpt illustrates the failure of the engineering program to bring about social change.
I will leave the invitation to Dan and Xin to add to this.
-Ruthie
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