(3 of 3)
A result of the reappraisal at both schools is a growing emphasis on the humanities, to produce what M.I.T.'s Johnson calls "the true generalist capable of dealing with the great problems cutting across every area of our lives" and also what Caltech's DuBridge terms "literary people with a scientific point of view." Caltech offered a humanities major for the first time last year, already has more students majoring in humanities than in either geology or chemical engineering. M.I.T. now offers a humanities major, has three poets, two novelists, two composers and one expert in Old Testament history on its staff.
As their interests seem to merge, Caltech and M.I.T. are nevertheless likely to retain a distinctive difference in attitude. Caltech, content with its quiet 75-acre campus in Pasadena, is determined to remain small enough to retain what DuBridge calls "a feeling of family." M.I.T., pushed against the Charles River by crowded Cambridge, is ambitious to grow. "In the past, we have been grooming the student to run U.S. Steel," says M.I.T.'s Professor Valley. "Now we are grooming him to run the U.S."