Christine Ortiz sparked a mix of curiosity and skepticism last week, when she announced her plan to step down as dean of graduate education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and start a nonprofit university with no lectures, no departments, and no tenure. When her as-yet-unnamed university made its way into conversation on social media, some people asked: Doesn’t this model already exist? And do ideas like eliminating departments and courses really work? To try to answer those questions, The Chronicle spoke with administrators at two institutions that were founded with similar ambitions to shake up the standard system: Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, founded in 1997, and Hampshire College, which enrolled its first students in 1970. Both are Massachusetts-based institutions with transdisciplinary programs, and both struggled to figure out how a model without departments, traditional majors, or tenure could get funding, faculty members, and students.

February 5, 2016 ・ From Chronicle of Higher Education