"Hacker" and "hacking" at MIT have a couple of meanings, neither of which specifically means trying to "hack" into a system. "Hacking" either means 1) Working hard on a problem set or other project or 2) Pulling off a prank on the MIT campus without permission of the administration, e.g. turning the Great Dome into R2D2's head.

So in the context of some people from MIT putting out a list of resources, originally for others at MIT doing #1 above, "hacker" is the right word to use.