MIT’s students harbor amazing stores of energy: intellectual energy, of course, but also creative, social, and in most cases, athletic energy. Well over half of first-year students each year arrive having played at least one varsity sport in high school, and that interest persists once they come. Overall, more than four-fifths of undergraduates engage in sports or recreation in some form — and our grad student body isn’t far behind.

In response to mounting student demand, along with growing competition among top universities focused around non-academic opportunities for students, MIT maintains a reasonable level of emphasis on athletics. (The Institute gives no athletic scholarships and makes no special admissions provisions for the athletically gifted.)

Key features of today’s athletic program include:

• 41 varsity sports, one of the highest such figures nationwide;
• a required physical education/wellness/outdoor education program that provides learning opportunities for all;
• a host of club offerings, which are open to grad students as well as undergrads;
• 21 intramural sports programs — also open to grad students — that collectively involve roughly 2,000 individual competitions each year; and a professional and dedicated coaching staff.

Doing well, aiming higher

MIT’s approach works. One indicator: the Institute has had more National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Academic All-Americans than any other Division III school. MIT has also nurtured premier athletes. In 2003, for example, then first-year students Jessica Huot and Juha Valkama went to the world ice-dancing championships in Japan.

But more than anything else, MIT athletics is about opportunity. Any undergrad can try out for a varsity sport. Field and court availability is generally good to excellent. And with the Zesiger Center — the three-story, state-of-the-art recreation and sports facility that opened in 2002 — activities like swimming, squash, and physical workouts have hit new heights.

Going forward, MIT and its Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation (DAPER) will be focusing more than ever on building our sports and recreation program. Why so? Athletics can teach invaluable lessons: about decision-making, persistence, team-building, strategy. Students who take part in regular, disciplined physical activity are often mentally more alert and engaged than their less active counterparts. And, far from least important, athletics offers a superb respite from the severe academic pressures facing MIT’s students.

One further reason: MIT students deserve the chance to explore and enhance their physical skills. These are truly future leaders — the individuals who have not only entrepreneurial inclinations and a gift for engineering change but also a grasp of the scientific and technological issues that increasingly shape society. For many, sports and recreation are a key part of preparing for a lifetime of achievement, and MIT owes them the opportunity to act on that aim.

Building for the future

To meet the Institute’s goal of enhancing one of the nation’s broadest, most effective, and most equitable athletic programs won’t be easy. MIT must move on a variety of fronts, from upgrades of existing varsity or club programs to major projects. To do so, it has created a long-range plan. Key goals include: upgrade and steward current facilities, including the sailing pavilion and selected fields; realize capital projects; and build endowment support for specific varsity sports programs and for our superb staff of coaches and assistants.

Frankly, though, the Institute enters this new phase of its drive to craft a truly comprehensive athletic-recreation program facing major challenges. MIT’s overall athletics budget is $10.5 million yearly — lean for such an extensive enterprise, but also a big stretch for the Institute. Thanks to a modest athletics endowment and wonderful support from alumni, MIT nearly keeps pace, but not quite: this fiscal year, DAPER continues to draw down on its reserves and stint on vital maintenance and rehabilitation.

In true MIT fashion, the Institute can make up such gaps, and go forward with needed improvements, too. Your help makes that possible. Remember that this is not only about enhancing athletics on this campus but also about building a unique resource for society — the student body — and giving them the chance to hone leadership skills that will serve them, and all of MIT, for decades to come.

Endowed funds last in perpetuity. If you create such a fund, MIT will invest and manage it, and averaged annual returns will go to support the sports or recreation priority that you designate. In creating such a fund, you can apply any name, or names, you desire.