The MIT Alumni Association at 150

This year the MIT Alumni Association (MITAA) marks 150 years of working to “further the well-being of the Institute and its graduates by increasing the interest of members in the school and in each other.” Read on to learn about key moments in MITAA history. 

1875

Robert Hallowell Richards, Class of 1868, becomes the first president of the MIT Alumni Association—in the same year that he marries the Institute’s first alumna, Ellen Henrietta Swallow, Class of 1873. He will be followed by 129 more presidents over the next century and a half.

1904

MIT’s first Tech Reunions take place on the original Boston campus and include an excursion to Nantasket with a class procession on the beach. During class “stunts,” alumni assert MIT’s independence in response to a planned (but never realized) merger between MIT and Harvard. Tech Reunions continue today with beloved traditions like Reunion Row, Toast to Tech, and Tech Night at Pops, now in its 127th year.

1916

The Institute’s move to Cambridge is marked by a banquet for which 1,500 alumni gather at Symphony Hall. They connect via a transcontinental telephone circuit with alumni clubs in 34 other US cities. Alumni in Taiwan, Chile, and other countries send telegrams. Today there are more than 200 clubs and alumni groups across the globe.

1940

Following earlier fundraising efforts, the modern-day MIT Alumni Fund is established “to provide capital funds for Technology,” and continues to invite participation over the decades through such appeals as this 1971 recording of President Jerome Wiesner and Chancellor Paul Gray ’54, SM ’55, ScD ’60. Alumni and friends today uphold the tradition of providing critical Institute support through MIT Annual Giving.

1955

The Bronze Beaver Award is established to recognize alums’ distinguished service to the Association and the Institute. It’s just one of the awards now presented during the Alumni Leadership Conference each fall.

1966

Returning to campus for its 50th reunion, the Class of 1916 organizes a drive to purchase classmates a standard outfit of gray slacks or skirt and a cardinal blazer bearing a detachable, intricately stitched MIT breast-pocket crest—and the Cardinal & Gray Society is born. Since then, the 50th-reunion class has led the graduating class into Killian Court for commencement.

1988

The Boston and Cambridge skylines are added to the side bezels of the Brass Rat by the Class of 1990 “Ringcomm,” so when grads turn their rings at commencement they are looking back at campus. In 2003, a grad rat committee will design the first custom ring for grad students. Alumni have been proudly sporting Brass Rats since the first Ring Committee voted in 1929 to feature a beaver—not MIT’s Dome—on the ring.

2001

While MIT Tech Reunions celebrate classes with five- and 10-year milestones (pictured), the Class of 1997 introduces a new “only at MIT” tradition: Pi Reunion, which marks 3.14 years since graduation. The event has become one of the many events that help the Institute’s most recent alumni—known also as “MIT10”—stay close.

2020

With the pandemic making in-person events unviable, the MITAA holds virtual Tech Reunions attended online by some 4,800 alumni and friends worldwide. An interactive mosaic of the Great Dome is created from more than 7,000 photos submitted by members of the MIT community.

2022

The new MIT Alumni Lounge gives graduates a “forever home” in Building 10. Its placement along the Infinite Corridor, the Institute’s iconic and most highly trafficked hallway, honors the important role of alumni in the MIT community. Beyond providing a space for visiting alums to meet and work, the lounge also pays homage to the past with a display featuring MITAA presidents going back to 1875—and space for those to follow.

Want to know more about the 150 years of the MIT Alumni Association? Learn about early traditions and look back with President Sally Kornbluth. 

This story also appears in the May/June issue of MIT Alumni News magazine, published by MIT Technology Review. 

Top photo: An enormous papier-mâché beaver was made for MIT’s move from Boston to Cambridge in 1916.

Photos courtesy of the MIT Museum (1875, 1916); Technology Review (1904); Utile/Randy Crandon (2022); MIT Alumni Association.