Nightwork: Hackito Ergo Sum

The Case of the Disappearing President’s Office

by MIT President Charles M.Vest HM

It simply isn’t even close when it comes to naming my favorite and most unforgettable hack. That’s because I was the hackee.

It all goes back to my very first day on the job nearly twelve years ago, on Monday, October 15, 1990. The late vice president Constantine Simonides was escorting me to my office — his was across the hall — on the second floor of Building 3. When we arrived, however, there was no office to be seen, only a large bulletin board, flush against the wall and covered with newspaper clippings, including several about the search that led to my selection as president, and also clips from The Tech headlines, “Vest Takes over on Monday.”

So good was the ruse that Constantine became momentarily disoriented and thought we had, perhaps, while engrossed in conversation, climbed the stairs to the wrong floor. Then we broke out in hearty laughter when we realized what had happened: the bulletin board, ingeniously constructed and snugly fitted within the opening, was moved aside and, lo, there were the outer doors to the president’s and provost’s offices.

We gave the bulletin board a place of honor and humor for a time, and I still have it. As I explained later that day to a group I was addressing, “My first major policy is that we’re going to keep that. The first time issues get hot on campus, we’ll put it back in place. ”Well, there have been some fairly hot issues, but none so bad that I’ve had to hide behind the bulletin board.

Excerpts from Nightwork:

Where No Cow Has Gone Before: Accessing the Inaccessible

Hacking Ethics

Hack, Hacker, Hacking

IHTFP

The Case of the Disappearing President's Office

Where the Sun Shines, There Hack They

Introduction: Hackito Ergo Sum

Alumni Remember Hacks

>MIT Museum >The MIT Press

If there was a message in all this, I suppose, it was that MIT presidents come and go, as do students, but the rich culture and traditions of the Institute will endure. The student hackers, who remained anonymous, left behind a bottle of champagne as a gesture of welcome and goodwill. Later, when we opened it, we toasted the hackers and MIT students generally, whose ever-inventive minds help to make MIT such a special place.