$200 Million Pledged For Engineer Training Olin Foundation Gift To Start Massachusetts School Sets Record

With the kind of largesse once practiced by railroad and steel barons, a foundation has pledged $200 million to start a brand-new, four-year college near Boston that will reshape the way engineers are trained.

The gift from the New York-based F.W. Olin Foundation - the largest donation ever to an American college or university - will launch the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham.

The first class of 50 to 100 students would start in 2001 under the current proposal. Enrollment would eventually grow to about 800.

The foundation hopes the endowment will be large enough to make the school tuition-free.

Students will get a broader science education than many engineering schools now offer, and there will be more emphasis on communications, business and marketing.

The National Science Foundation has spent the last six years pushing for reform in engineering education after a series of studies found that engineering graduates are often narrow-minded in their approach.

“They were trained very well in analyzing problems, but there was not sufficient attention to solving the problems,” said Sue Kemnitzer, NSF deputy division director for engineering education.

The NSF made several recommendations for the country’s 300 engineering schools, which turn out about 60,000 graduates each year. Among those recommendations were better business and communications skills.

The proposed college, Kemnitzer and others said, is a step in the right direction.

Several observers said the new program is likely to frighten some of the nation’s top engineering programs into altering their approach.

“If we can put some shivers through some spines, I’m all for that,” said Milas, who is not an engineer. “Competition is what drives people away from complacency and to improving their own institutions.”