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Maharishi University of Management (MUM), formerly known as Maharishi International University, was founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who introduced the Transcendental Meditation technique. The campus is located in Fairfield, Iowa, United States, on the grounds of the former Parsons College.

The university is not-for-profit, accredited through the Ph.D. level by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, and offers "consciousness-based education" that includes practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique. Degree programs are offered in the arts, sciences, business, and the humanities.

Maharishi University of Management cites high rankings on "benchmarks of effective educational practice" from the National Survey of Student Engagement and also the results of the ACT alumni survey that show a high level of alumni satisfaction.

History

Santa Barbara (1973-1974)

The first campus opened its doors in 1973, and was located in a former residential complex in Goleta, a small community near Santa Barbara, California, with one hundred students and thirty-five faculty members.

The founding principles of the university are:

1. To develop the full potential of the individual
2. To realize the highest ideal of education
3. To improve governmental achievements
4. To solve the age-old problem of crime and all behavior that brings unhappiness to our world family
5. To bring fulfillment to the economic aspirations of individuals and society
6. To maximize the intelligent use of the environment
7. To achieve the spiritual goals of humanity in this generation.

In 1974, the college moved to a new campus in Fairfield, Iowa, the former site of Parsons College.

Prior history of the Fairfield campus

Parsons College, incorporated February 24, 1875, was the result of a legacy from Lewis B. Parsons, Sr., a merchant committed to education and to Christianity, and who had throughout his business life successfully invested in wild Iowa land. On his death, the sale of 3,800 acres (15 km) of undeveloped land was to provide for the creation of an institution of learning in Iowa.

The college opened in a building already on a site situated north of Fairfield in September 1875, and by December of that same year the college had moved into a newly completed building. The first president, Rev. John Armstrong, A. M., and sixteen of the thirty trustees were required by the Articles of Incorporation to be members of the Presbyterian Church.

Maharishi International University, Fairfield (1974-present)

After 99 years as a functional college, Parsons College closed in June 1973, and the campus was purchased by Maharishi University of Management in June 1974. After moving from Santa Barbara to the Fairfield campus, the University received accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission and became a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCACS).

The Beach Boys recorded their 1979 album M.I.U. Album on the campus, and named it after the university.

In 1995, Maharishi International University changed its name to Maharishi University of Management.

Campus

Maharishi University of Management has 272 acres (1.1 km) surrounded by wooded areas, fields, and two small lakes, and is located 50 miles (80 km) west of the Mississippi River. The original Parsons College campus included 80 buildings, several of which were listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Many of those structures have been demolished in favor of new buildings using ancient Vedic principles of architecture and environmentally conscious design. As of 2007, the University has over 45 buildings on campus, including 17 main classroom and administrative buildings. A master plan for reconstruction includes attention toward environmental conservation, incorporating renewable energy, and state-of-the-art building technologies.

Administrative and teaching

The Dreier Building houses the offices of Admissions, Alumni, Campus Reconstruction, Development, the Dean of Faculty, the Dean of Women and Men, the Enrollment Center, the Executive Vice-President, Legal Counsel, Human Resources, and six classrooms.

A new 50,000 sq ft (5,000 m) Student Center that opened in 2008 houses a large, open reception area, dining rooms, kitchens, student cafe, student book store and shopping area, interdenominational chapel, an auditorium, classrooms, exercise studio, and Student Government offices.

The Library Building houses the main library, classrooms, administrative offices, multimedia computer lab, Unity Art Gallery, Campus Security and Facilities Management. The library catalog includes 140,000 volumes, 60 reference databases and Internet Reference Resources, 7,000 electronic books, 12,000 full-text periodicals, special collections including the Science of Creative Intelligence Reserve Collection, Journal of Modern Science and Vedic Science, Ph.D. Dissertations by university students, and a Vedic Literature Collection. A campus-wide closed-circuit television network includes 10,000 hours of videotaped and audio taped courses, conferences and presentations. Additional facilities include network plug-in ports for laptop users, support for international distance education students, and DVD/video rentals with over 1,500 titles. Interlibrary loans include books and articles and access to the University of Iowa Library and worldwide libraries.

Other buildings include:

• A fieldhouse;
• A K-12 Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment, which includes a separate digital media center and a greenhouse;
• The McLaughlin Building, which houses the Computer Science Department and Mathematics Department;
• The Maharishi Veda Bhavan Building, which houses the Education Department, Maharishi Vedic Science Department, and the Center for Educational Excellence;
• Henn Mansion, a restored 1857-building, housing the Resource Development Office, Literature and Writing department, Public Affairs, and International Student Advisor Office;
• Gate Ridge Court Building houses the Department for the Development of Consciousness, the Management Department, accounting, and a number of classrooms; and,
• Two Golden Domes for Research in Consciousness classes.

Residential buildings and amenities

• 14 former fraternity houses, now used as residence halls;
• Six new Maharishi Sthapatya Veda arcitecture residence halls;
• Five Hi-Rise residence halls;
• Hildenbrand Residence Hall;
• Faculty and staff apartments and homes;
• Verrill Hall, which houses communications, custodial services, housing, mail room, the Press, Press Marketing, KHOE 90.5 FM radio station, and video studios; and,
• An 80,000-square-foot (7,000 m) Recreation Center.

Sustainability

MUM is establishing itself as a leader in sustainable architecture among Iowa colleges universities. The University's efforts to create a sustainable campus includes the use of green and energy-efficient architecture and community planning that incorporates a form of ancient Vedic architecture - a system of country, town, village, and home planning. Over 40 old buildings have been demolished and over a dozen new buildings have been erected according to these design principles.

The University is planning a new structure that will house its sustainable living program. It is hoped that the building will be greener that any structure of its kind. The single-story building is planned to be entirely off the grid, with its own electricity, heating, cooling, water and waste disposal. Solar panels and wind-power generators, combined with thickly insulated walls, will keep the building at a constant 70 degrees. The building will take advantage of natural light to keep rooms bright. All drinking water will come from rainwater, stored in a cistern. Drinking water will be treated using a non-toxic, non-chemical filtration system, while wastewater will be treated using a system of plant roots that will purify the water before it is routed back into a leach field.

The University operates an organic vegetable farm including a one acre, year round, greenhouse. This enables them to provide their students and faculty with a 100% organic, food services program.

A recycling program is also active on campus.

Academics

Consciousness-Based education and block system

As a component of Consciousness-Based education, students and faculty practice the Transcendental Meditation technique twice daily. Consciousness-Based education includes both personal experience and intellectual understanding of both knowledge and consciousness.

Maharishi University of Management operates on a block system. Students take one course at a time during a four-week period.

Science of Creative Intelligence

Entering MUM freshmen and transfer students begin their first semester with a Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI) class, which consists of 33 taped lessons created by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The course outlines a systematic understanding of consciousness that enables the students to connect any academic discipline to a holistic paradigm that includes themselves. Entering students also participate in “Base Camp,” where they travel as a group to a semi-wilderness environment to experience the outdoors.

All disciplines are also integrated with an understanding of the theoretical aspects of human consciousness as outlined in the Science of Creative Intelligence course.

Other distinguishing features

The University participates in a state sponsored, fast-track license program for school teachers.

The University offers a sustainable living program, the first of its kind in the nation. The program includes a B.S in Sustainable Living and an M.B.A. in Sustainable Business. According to CityTownInfo.com MUM has more degrees in conservation and resource management than 93% of all other colleges.

Maharishi University of Management has a program known as the "Rotating University", in which students can take courses of study abroad, usually of 4–6 weeks duration, in the one course at a time format.

MUM also offers a B.A. in Communications and Media with options for video and audio production, graphic and web design, and professional creative writing. Students and recent graduates have won awards for their work at the Iowa Motion Pictures Association Awards, the Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival, and the Webby Awards.

The University is experimenting with a program of "brain integration report cards" that will measure and evaluate a students brain development as the education process progresses.

MUM also offers undergraduate programs in China.

Accreditation and recognition

The University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, the oldest accrediting agency in the USA. MUM is recognized by the US Department of Education and the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). The University’s business programs (B.A., MBA, and Ph.D.) are accredited by the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE). The University is also a charter signatory of the American College and University Climate Committment.

Enrollment

In 2007, MUM had 948 students (813 full time) of which 78% were foreign students. This was the third highest number of foreign students at an Iowa university that year. Seventy one percent of these students were enrolled in the graduate degree program. The largest age group (42%) was 25-29 years of age. In this same year, MUM awarded 125 Masters degrees and 34 Bachelor degrees.

In 2009, there were 805 full time students and 479 part time students. In this same year, there were 964 full and part-time graduate students.

Financial Aid

At MUM more than 90% of U.S. undergraduate students receive financial aid covering most of their tuition, fees, housing and meals charges, which total $30,430 per year. U.S. graduate students may receive financial aid packages covering 100% of their educational charges. Financial aid packages consist of federal and state grants (undergraduate students only), institutional scholarships, and low interest federal loans.MUM participates in Federal Title IV financial aid programs.

International students may be eligible for financial aid. Different packages are available through the financial aid office. Awards vary depending on the program.

Programs

According to CityTownInfo.com, MUM has a greater number of degree programs than 86% of colleges of similar sizes.

Research and faculty

Maharishi University of Management has had studies published in numerous scientific journals. The university has also received over $20 million in funding from different branches of the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C.. The university's Department of Physiology and the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention received $8 million from the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) to establish the first research center in the U.S. specializing in natural preventive medicine for minorities. In the past decade, Institute director Dr. Robert Schneider and national collaborators have received grants totaling over $10.5 million for research on prevention-oriented natural medicine. Studies were published in the American Heart Association's journal Hypertension. Other Institute research findings were published in periodicals such as the American Journal of Cardiology, Psychosomatic Medicine, Ethnicity and Disease and the American Journal of Managed Care. The Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention collaborates with a consortium of medical centers including the University of Iowa College of Medicine in Iowa City, Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention trains future researchers that includes graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and physicians, in the area of natural approaches to medicine.

Since the establishment of its research facilities, the university has been awarded over 150 federal, state, and private grants and contracts totaling over $24 million, including funding from the National Institutes of Health’s Cancer Institute; the NIH Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Science Foundation; the National Endowment for the Humanities; and the U.S. Department of Education. Research grants have been awarded in the fields of physics, molecular biology, physiology, and preventive medicine.

Notable past and present faculty at MUM include Dr. John Hagelin and Dr. David Orme-Johnson.

Student life

Activities and organizations include drama/theater, radio station, choral group, student newspaper, global student council, fencing club and knitting club. Student services include health clinic, psychological counseling and legal services.

Health

Maharishi University of Management emphasizes "natural health". To this end, students are encouraged to maintain a regular schedule of academic work, rest, meals, and exercise.

In addition to a tobacco-free, alcohol-free, and drug-free campus policy, access to natural health improvement practices are provided to the students. These include guidelines for daily and seasonal routines, diet and digestion, simple breathing techniques, basic yoga postures called asanas, personalized fitness programs, and self-pulse health assessment techniques.

Students are required to participate in physical activity every day. A variety of recreation, exercise classes, and sports are offered to meet most schedules. A recreation Center and an outdoor swimming pool are open to students at no charge.

The university also offers an all-vegetarian, organic menu made from fresh ingredients rather than frozen or processed foods. Organic, whole-grain breads and pastries are produced in university kitchens, while a local, organic dairy farm supplies milk, yogurt and ice cream. University organic farms and greenhouses supply the produce, cooked within a day of picking. A buffet-style dining room includes outdoor dining when weather permits. The campus meal plan includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week.

Residence halls

Single rooms are standard for all students to ensure quiet and privacy. All rooms are furnished and include high-speed Internet connections. Most residence halls are equipped with exercise and TV rooms. Family homes are available in a 200-unit Utopia Park located on the northern part of campus, and housing can also be found throughout the surrounding town of Fairfield. Freshman are required to live on campus. MUM offers dorm rooms to a higher than average percentage of its students when compared to other colleges.

Seven new “home-style” residence halls opened in early 2005, each with eight private bedrooms and baths plus a central kitchen and living room area. The new residence halls were built according to the ancient principles of Maharishi Sthapatya Veda architecture. Geothermal technology is used to conserve energy, and natural materials were used whenever possible.

The University is now in the process of designing its first “green” residence hall, a fully nontoxic building with earth-friendly energy and water systems.

Sports and recreation

Intercollegiate sports include golf, soccer, archery, badminton, baseball, basketball, fencing, field hockey, football, rock climbing, sailing, soccer, swimming, tennis and weight lifting. Players on the soccer team represent as many as 16 countries, and the team has been three-time undefeated champion of its league.

A 60,000-square-foot (6,000 m) indoor facility is equipped with a weight room, gymnastic equipment, basketball courts, volleyball courts, tennis courts, ping-pong tables, track, and a 28-foot (9 m) rock-climbing wall. Outside are 10 tennis courts, a soccer field and a swimming pool with an adjoining sand volleyball court. The swimming pool is open June to mid-September, and there is an indoor pool in Fairfield available throughout the year. There is also a soccer stadium, the home field of the University soccer team.

Within a five-minute walk is a small two-lake reservoir, suitable for flat water kayaking, canoeing and windsurfing. A 17-mile (27 km) walking and cycling trail surrounds the lakes. Bicycles, canoes, and cross-country skis are available for student use through the Recreation Center. The Department of Exercise and Sport Science offers three-day adventure trips (on weekends between courses) that are professionally supervised. These can include alpine skiing, rock climbing, white-water kayaking on the Wolf River in Wisconsin, horseback riding, and canoe trips.

Activities

The Global Student Council hosts events throughout the year, and the Student Activities department supports and helps staff these events. Cultural festivals are organized by students from different nations and may include food fests with music and costume. Annual Eco Fairs include presentations and panel discussions with experts in renewable energy and sustainable living, sustainable agriculture, green building processes and methods, and renewable water filtration systems for home or business, plus a fashion show using only organic or recycled materials. Talent variety shows, open mike evenings, games night at the Cosmic Café, and national-day celebrations honoring the over 50 nations represented on campus occur during the year. The Student Union Theater hosts films and live performances, while a large downstairs ballroom is the site for everything from Latin dance classes to fashion shows. The library offers DVD/video rentals of over 1,500 titles.

Alumni

Some noted alumni include Christopher Hartnett, Ronald J.D. Parker, Jennie Rothenberg, Fred Gratzon, author John Gray, Nat Goldhaber (1973), and Steven Greer.

Reception

In 1992, a New York Times article described Maharishi University where all students and faculty meditate, as "an accredited university with grant-winning faculty members and competitive students who mix daily transcendental meditation in the dome with serious academic studies, striving to create their own new world.” The article say that even as the university gains research grants and subsequent credibilty, it also faces controversy. A former student, Curtis Mailloux (class of 1979), said the Fairfield campus is a “coercive environment” with a “propensity for fraudulent research”. Stephen Crow, then deputy director of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, the accrediting body for Midwest schools, said North Central has found the university and its facilities and faculty to be "appropriate". John Patterson, a professor at Iowa State University questions the accreditation itself, saying it lends credibility to what he describes as “these crackpots”.

Reporter Michael D’Antonio wrote in his book, “Heaven on Earth – Dispatches from America’s Spiritual Frontier” that, as practiced at MUM, Transcendental Meditation is “a cult, not a culture”. D'Antonio wrote that Transcendental Meditation was like the worst of religion: rigid, unreasonable, repressive, and authoritarian, characterized by overt manipulation, a disregard for serious scholarship, and an unwillingness to question authority. For the first time in his travels he found people he believed to be truly deluded, and a physics department teaching theories that were dead wrong. D’Antonio charges that they have taken Transcendental Meditiation “into a grandiose narcissistic dream, a form of intellectual bondage, that they call enlightment”.

MUM's former Dean of Faculty and Chair of the Department of Physics, Dennis Roark, is critical of the university’s “crackpot science” protocols, meritless claims concerning the relationship between physics and consciousness, and the suppression of negative data in research that is then widely quoted as “scientific” proof by MUM of the benefits of Transcendental Meditation.

References

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Further reading

• Lee, Gary (November 12, 2006). "Om on the Grange". Washington Post. Retrieved 2004-04-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

• Lydersen, Kari (August 9, 2004). "Iowa Town Booms On Eastern Ways". Washington Post. Retrieved 2004-04-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

• Blume, Mary (July 8, 1995). "A Little Meditation on the Bottom Line". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 2004-04-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

• Campbell, Duncan (August 10, 2000). "Buchanan supporters split the great right hope". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 2004-04-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

• Keen, Judy (May 23, 2006). "Maharishi meets the Bible Belt". USA Today. Retrieved 2004-04-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

• Quick, Susanne (October 17, 2004). "Delving into alternative care". Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 2004-04-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

External links

• Maharishi University of Management - Homepage
• Consciousness based Education Programs

41°01′05″N 91°58′08″W / 41.0180°N 91.9688°W / 41.0180; -91.9688

• Universities and colleges in Iowa
• Transcendental Meditation
• North Central Association of Colleges and Schools