Maharishi University of Management - History

History

The concept for a university came out of a "series of International symposia on Science of Creative Intelligence" (SCI) attended by notable academics. It was established in 1971 by Nat Goldhaber. and created with the belief that a school that incorporated the "philosophy and techniques of Transcendental Meditation" would create an "unusual contribution to higher education". Its founding principles were to develop the full potential of the individual, realize the highest ideal of education, improve governmental achievements, solve the age-old problem of crime and all behavior that brings unhappiness to our world family, bring fulfillment to the economic aspirations of individuals and society, maximize the intelligent use of the environment, and, achieve the spiritual goals of humanity in this generation.

It was inaugurated by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and Robert Keith Wallace became the first university president in 1973. Its first location was an apartment complex in Goleta, California. The university enrolled 700 students during its first year of operation. In August 1974, the university purchased the campus of the bankrupt Parsons College in Fairfield, Iowa for $2.5 million and relocated there.

In 1975, the freshman and sophomore years consisted of interdisciplinary studies, and were organized in a modular format, with each course lasting a few weeks or months. All students, regardless of their previous education, were required to attend 24 interdisciplinary courses, some of which consisted of pre-recorded video tapes of "resident faculty" who were not on campus while graduate students and teaching assistants played the video tapes and conducted discussions. Nobel Prize winner Melvin Calvin said that, even though he participated in a symposium on SCI, the use of his name in the MIU catalogue was "perilously close to false advertising". John Lewis, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who created video taped lectures for MIU, was more supportive, saying that TM "unblocks the student's pathways to education". During this period, an open admissions policy was instituted, and transfer students were welcomed regardless of their academic history.

In 1976, the accreditation evaluation team from the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools said the 19 senior and 20 assistant faculty were "creative in their vision for higher education and eminently qualified", and the university was granted "candidate for accreditation" status. At that time, faculty and administrators were paid "approximately the same base salary of $275 per month", with additional compensation "on a sliding scale for those with spouses and children", plus free housing in university dormitories. On campus, drugs and alcohol were "shunned" and a "strong sense of community" was said to pervade the institution.

Bevan Morris was appointed president and chairman of Maharishi International University's board of trustees in 1979. The following year, the university received accreditation through the doctoral level by the Higher Learning Commission, and became a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCACS), "the oldest and largest accrediting body in the U.S.". 1981 saw the completion of two, 20,000 square foot, meditation buildings called Golden Domes, that were built on campus for daily group practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs. By this time the Henn Mansion, Trustee Gymnasium and Ballard Hall buildings, built in the early 1900s, showed rapid deterioration. These buildings were scheduled to be demolished but instead the university spent $500,000 to rebuild Henn Mansion and nominated the six other buildings for the National Historic Register.

In July 1983, The Argus-Press reported that competing meditation seminar teacher, Robin Woodsworth Carlsen, had criticized and ridiculed the university in a full page ad placed in a local newspaper and had filed a law suit against the university. As a result, "many students" who were distributing Carlsen's literature on campus were asked to leave the campus and several were suspended and their meditation dome, admission privileges were revoked. In December 1983, the university hosted a three-week "Taste of Utopia" conference with more than 7,000 participants and practitioners of the TM-Sidhi program "from around the world". MIU president Morris, later reported that research data indicated the conference had reduced violence in war torn areas and inspired an increase in the Dow Jones stock index via the Maharishi Effect. By 1992, the university had 800 students from more than 70 countries, paying approximately $10,000 a year for their tuition and board.

In 1995, Maharishi International University changed its name to Maharishi University of Management (MUM) to emphasize that gaining deep experience and deep knowledge had a profound practical value in enabling a student to "fully manage" their life. As part of its master plan to rebuild and expand the campus using natural materials and Maharishi Sthapatya Veda design principles, many of the Parsons College buildings which had high maintainence costs, were demolished, including Foster Hall and Henn Mansion.

In 2000, local preservationists protested the demolition of Parsons Hall, built in 1915, and Barhydt Chapel, designed in 1911 by Henry K. Holsman. University officials said that MUM would donate the buildings to any community group who could raise the $1 million needed to move what the local newspaper described as an "ailing building". In response to protests the university ensured the survival of the chapel's plaques, pipe organ, and stained glass windows which are now displayed at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center. Between 2000 and 2005, the university demolished Carnegie Hall, Parsons Hall (1915), Barhydt Chapel (1911), Blum Stadium (1966), Laser Tower, the dining hall, and 38, dormitory style "pods". Seven student "residence halls" with single rooms were completed in 2005 using eco-friendly designs, natural materials and geo-thermal heating.

The university's stabbing incident occurred in 2004, when Shuvender Sem, a student at MUM, attacked two other students in separate instances on the same day. He stabbed the first student with a pen, and hours later, fatally stabbed Levi Butler with a knife. Sem was found not guilty due to insanity and the university settled a lawsuit that charged it with negligence.

Beginning in 2005, film director David Lynch began hosting an annual "David Lynch Weekend for World Peace and Meditation" at MUM. The 2008 event included musical performances by Donovan, Moby and Chrysta Bell. The 4th annual David Lynch Weekend of November 2009 featured Donovan, MUM professor John Hagelin, and the American debut of James McCartney, who performed at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center. The weekend conference was intended to appeal to those "interested in creativity, film, art, sustainable living, organic agriculture, brain development, consciousness, meditation, natural medicine, renewable living peace".

By 2007, the University had over 45 campus buildings, including 17 classroom and administrative buildings. Between 1974 and 2008, a total of 43 buildings were demolished and 70 new buildings had been erected in their place. At that time, MUM had 948 students (813 full time) of whom 78% were foreign students — the third highest number of foreign students at an Iowa university that year. Seventy-one percent (71%) of these students were enrolled in a graduate degree program. The largest age group was 25–29 years of age (42%). In this same year, MUM awarded 125 Masters degrees and 34 Bachelor degrees.

In 2008, the Argiro Student Center was completed, featuring "the most advanced green technologies" and included dining areas, student cafe and book store, interdenominational chapel, auditorium, classrooms, exercise studio and student government offices.

In 2010, there were 1,210 students enrolled — 754 full-time and 456 part-time students, with 928 full- and part-time graduate students. According to the MUM publication Achievements, total enrollment for 2009/2010 was 1,231, including 276 undergraduate and 955 graduate students. From this total, 516 were at the Fairfield campus, and the rest were enrolled in distance education, or in MUM's partner institution in China. These students hailed from 75 countries including Brunei and Liberia. The median age of new undergraduate students was 21, with an increase in the percentage of new students in the 17–19 age range. Hollywood actor and native Iowan Stephen Collins was the featured speaker at the 2010 commencement ceremony and spoke to the 234 graduating students about his views on "counter-culturalism".

Psychiatry professor Norman E. Rosenthal addressed graduates in 2011 and CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley spoke at the 2012 commencement.