History
Olin College was founded by the F. W. Olin Foundation in 1997. The foundation's trustees were concerned about perpetuating Franklin W. Olin's donor intent indefinitely, so Olin Foundation president Lawrence W. Milas proposed creating a new college. “We always had a bias toward supporting science and engineering schools because Mr. Olin was an engineer,” Milas said. “I was concerned with whether or not this would be consistent with what Mr. Olin had ever considered. I went back and read minutes of board meetings. And sure enough, in the late 1940s, at two or three board meetings shortly before his death, he expressed the idea of starting a new institution.” By 2005, the foundation had donated most of its remaining financial resources to the college, providing Olin with an endowment of about 460 million dollars. Richard Miller was inaugurated as the college's first president on May 3, 2003.
In a program known as "Invention 2000", Olin College hired its first faculty and invited 30 students, known as "Olin Partners," to help them form the first curriculum. The Olin Partners lived in temporary housing and spent their first year after high school investigating assessment and grading methods, jump-starting the student culture, and experimenting with forms of engineering education.
Olin admitted its first full class of 75 students in 2002. This class included the Olin Partners, a group of deferred students known as the Virtual Olin Partners, and recent high school graduates. After admitting three more classes, the college reached its full size of approximately 300 in fall 2005.
Olin's campus was designed by architects Perry Dean Rogers & Partners in the postmodern architectural style. The construction of the first phase of the Olin College campus was completed in 2002, comprising four buildings. The construction of a second dormitory, East Hall, was finished in fall 2005. Future plans include another academic building that would contain additional machine shops and project space. Olin College shares many of its campus services with Babson College, including health, public safety, and athletic facilities.
Read more about this topic: Franklin W. Olin College Of Engineering
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