[12][13] In 1975, the freshman and sophomore years consisted of interdisciplinary studies, and were organized in a modular format, with each course lasting a few weeks or months.

[9] Nobel Prize winner Melvin Calvin said that, even though he participated in a symposium on SCI, the use of his name in the MIU catalogue was "perilously close to false advertising".

John Lewis, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who created video-taped lectures for MIU, was supportive, saying that TM "unblocks the student's pathways to education".

[11] At that time, faculty and administrators were paid "approximately the same base salary of $275 per month", with additional compensation "on a sliding scale for those with spouses and children", plus free housing in university dormitories.

The following year, the university received accreditation through the doctoral level by the Higher Learning Commission, and became a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCACS).

[14] By this time the Henn Mansion, Trustee Gymnasium and Ballard Hall buildings, built in the early 1900s, showed rapid deterioration.

MIU president Morris later reported that research data indicated the conference had reduced violence in war-torn areas and inspired an increase in the Dow Jones stock index via the Maharishi Effect.

As part of its master plan to rebuild and expand the campus using natural materials and Maharishi Vastu Architecture design principles, many of the Parsons College buildings, which had high maintenance costs, were demolished, including Foster Hall.

[22][23] In response to protests the university ensured the survival of the chapel's plaques, pipe organ, and stained glass windows, which are now displayed at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center.

[27] The fourth annual David Lynch Weekend of November 2009 featured Donovan, MIU professor John Hagelin, and the American debut of James McCartney, who performed at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center.

[48][49] In 2011, MIU was one of more than 1,000 corporations which requested a waiver to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's requirement to offer maximum payouts of $750,000 per employee.

The grounds include wooded areas, fields and two small lakes with U.S. News & World Report categorizing the campus setting as "urban".

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.

[53] Two golden domes were erected between 1980 and 1981 and are used for daily group practice of the Transcendental Meditation and the TM-Sidhi program and have been called "particle accelerators of consciousness" by the university's founder.

[54] The campus was "thoroughly rebuilt" in the 1990s and seven student residence halls, with single rooms, were completed in 2005 using eco-friendly designs, natural materials and geo-thermal heating.

[20][66] MIU is committed to achieving its goals through Consciousness-Based Education (CBE) which aims to unfold "creative potential" and create life in harmony with the laws of nature.

Classes at MIU present subjects such as art, economics, physics, literature, and psychology in the context of these universal principles of consciousness.

Course content includes sustainable practices for agriculture, technology, architecture, landscape design, business and the ecology of living systems.

Intramural sports include soccer, archery, badminton, baseball, basketball, fencing, field hockey, football, rock climbing, sailing, swimming, tennis, ultimate Frisbee and weight lifting.

[84] 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,[85][86][87] including funding from the NIH's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and its Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

In 2012, the US Department of Defense granted MIU and the San Diego Veterans Administration Medical Center $2.4 million to research the effectiveness of TM for the treatment of PTSD.

[86] Lola Williamson, who practiced the TM-Sidhi program until 1981,[92] wrote a book called Transcendent in America: Hindu-Inspired Meditation Movements as New Religion.

In the book, she writes that former MIU professor of economics and business law Anthony DeNaro alleged in 1986 that there was "a very serious and deliberate pattern of fraud ... designed to misrepresent the TM movement as a science (not a cult), and fraudulently claim and obtain tax exempt status with the IRS".

Williamson writes in her book that Roark questioned other investigators "regarding the alleged reduction in crime if enough people practice TM or the TM-Sidhi program" and they "confirmed that they had suppressed negative evidence".

Author Samuel Schuman reports that while many in the higher education community did not take the university seriously when it began in 1974, the college has "persisted cheerfully" for more than three decades and its achievements and results are "incontestably impressive".

[9] A 1976 article in The New York Times described the campus as a "cheerful, optimistic place where people smile a lot and tend to be considerate and trusting".

The deputy director of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCACS), Steven D. Crow, says "Every move the university's made has been monitored" and MIU's library, faculty, academic mission and classroom space have been deemed appropriate.

[20] At the same time, John W. Patterson a professor at Iowa State University, has harshly criticized The North Central Association's evaluation, saying it "does nothing more than to lend credibility to these crackpots".

[101] According to reviews of the 1992 book, Heaven on Earth – Dispatches from America’s Spiritual Frontier,[102] author and reporter Michael D'Antonio wrote that the MIU physics department was teaching theories that he believed were "dead wrong"[103] and alleged that the university had taken Transcendental Meditation "into a grandiose narcissistic dream, a form of intellectual bondage, that they call enlightenment".

"[24] MIU graduates also gave their college experience a "higher than average satisfaction" rating as recorded in the "annual ACT alumni survey."