Mission: to attract, engage, and empower future military and civilian leaders through rigorous training, education, and mentorship by fostering a winning culture of excellance. Ever since the first day of classes in 1865, military training has taken place at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Originally, MIT students were required to take part in compulsory military instruction, including drill, under the terms of the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862. The objective of the Morrill Act, passed in the midst of the Civil War, was to provide a "means by which a democratic people could gain a competent officer corps for a military reserve without endangering basic liberties." Since it was feared that the war might establish a large, centrally-controlled standing army, responsibility for creating such an officer corps would be assigned not to a military agency of the federal government, but rather to at least one college in each state and under the jurisdiction of that state. MIT was designated a Land Grant College and so established a Department of Military Science and Tactics at its inception, as specified in its state charter. Since that time, MIT has built a military heritage second only to West Point, the United States Military Academy. Today, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology hosts one of the best leadership development programs in the nation. Through the Army, Airforce and Naval ROTC programs at the Institute, more than 12,000 officers have been commissioned from MIT, of whom 150 have reached the rank of general or admiral.
