Description

A remote-controlled car decorated with painted cardboard to make it look like a trolley from the television show "Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.” The front of the trolley has a sign that reads "Hartley Rogers for President."

During the 1992 United States presidential election, some MIT students felt that their interests were not served by either Bill Clinton, Ross Perot, or George Bush. Students in Hartley Rogers’ Calculus II (18.02) course decided to take matters into their own hands and ran a write-in campaign for their professor. Playing on a phrase Rodgers frequently used during lectures, the students even gave him a campaign slogan: “Hartley Rogers: the intuitively obvious choice for president” In the weeks leading up to Election Day, the students hung up banners and passed out flyers, but the campaign culminated with a great display on the 18.02 lecture held on Election Day. At the end of that Tuesday class, Rodgers lowered the screen in the lecture hall to reveal a message of support for the presidential candidate, while Jason K. Bucy (1996) maneuvered this remote controlled trolley with a campaign sign across the lecture hall stage. Despite the enthusiastic campaign, however, Professor Rogers was unable to secure even one electoral vote.