Departments are not generally motivated to collaborate across units. Those who do engage in collaboration do so by their own initiative, making use of fortuitous contacts and friendships rather than long-term partnerships. Because initiatives tend to be entrepreneurial, they receive little or no central coordination. Educational innovation does not exhibit the same degree of rigor and institutional commitment as MIT puts into its other endeavors. Typically, educational-technology experiments are not well documented.
Funding is the area where cross-departmental projects and innovations suffer the most.
Cross-department educational initiatives are often started on the margin. Successful initiatives, like the Freshman Advisory Seminars, are then expected to become part of the Institute educational program without any funding base for their support. This system of unfunded mandates hobbles cross-departmental initiatives that deserve more general Institute support. If MIT is to prepare adequately for the future, it must coordinate educational strategies at an Institute-wide level. Otherwise the Institute will continue to be held back by the many obstacles that currently stand in the way of strategic planning.