WPI sought out George Hazzard, formerly a scientist at General Electric Company and an educator at St. Lawrence and Washington Universities, to lead the Institute through the demanding implementation of the WPI Plan. As was the case for so many new faculty members and students at that time, it was the challenge and excitement of the Plan that attracted Hazzard. And it was to this challenge that he marshaled the resources of WPI and its people. Under his guidance, WPI established academic degree programs in management, biology, and biomedical engineering. The school's first off-campus residential project center, in Washington, D.C., was launched during the Hazzard years.
The Plan spawned a new realization at WPI of the importance of both academic focus and quality of life for students. The "Greening of the Campus" became the slogan for efforts to minimize the competition between people and automobiles around the east campus academic buildings.
Hazzard recognized the need to bring the entire campus up to first-class condition by renovating Boynton Hall and the Foundry (now the Project Center) to the standards of recent new construction to attract the most qualified faculty and students in the years ahead.