diff --git a/envs/common.py b/envs/common.py
index 2af02bd0b0..4fd5046792 100644
--- a/envs/common.py
+++ b/envs/common.py
@@ -34,7 +34,8 @@ PERFSTATS = False
 
 # Features
 MITX_FEATURES = {
-    'SAMPLE' : False
+    'SAMPLE' : False,
+    'USE_DJANGO_PIPELINE' : True,
 }
 
 # Used for A/B testing
diff --git a/envs/dev_ike.py b/envs/dev_ike.py
index 39a031748f..dd6ffa9176 100644
--- a/envs/dev_ike.py
+++ b/envs/dev_ike.py
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ DEBUG = True
 ENABLE_MULTICOURSE = True     # set to False to disable multicourse display (see lib.util.views.mitxhome)
 QUICKEDIT = True
 
+MITX_FEATURES['USE_DJANGO_PIPELINE'] = False
+
 COURSE_SETTINGS =  {'6.002_Spring_2012': {'number' : '6.002x',
                                           'title'  :  'Circuits and Electronics',
                                           'xmlpath': '/6002x/',
diff --git a/templates/main.html b/templates/main.html
index 807f8dec23..e51ae6195b 100644
--- a/templates/main.html
+++ b/templates/main.html
@@ -6,27 +6,35 @@
 
   <link rel="stylesheet" href="${static.url('js/jquery.treeview.css')}" type="text/css" media="all" />
 
-## these two lines are broken (28may12)
-## <%static:css group='application'/>
-## <%static:js group='application'/>
+## these two lines need to run django-pipeline / sass 
+% if settings.MITX_FEATURES['USE_DJANGO_PIPELINE']:
+ <%static:css group='application'/>
+ <%static:js group='application'/>
+% endif
 
-## replace with this one line
+## use this in case django-pipeline is broken
+% if not settings.MITX_FEATURES['USE_DJANGO_PIPELINE']:
   <link rel="stylesheet" href="/static/sass/application.css" type="text/css" media="all" / >
+% endif
 
   <script type="text/javascript" src="${static.url('js/jquery-1.6.2.min.js')}"></script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="${static.url('js/jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.min.js')}"></script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="${static.url('js/swfobject/swfobject.js')}"></script>
   <link rel="stylesheet" href="/static/css/codemirror.css" type="text/css" media="all" />
-##  <script type="text/javascript" src="${ settings.LIB_URL }codemirror-compressed.js"></script>
-  <script type="text/javascript" src="/static/js/CodeMirror-2.25/lib/codemirror.js"></script>
-  <script type="text/javascript" src="/static/js/CodeMirror-2.25/mode/xml/xml.js"></script>
-  <script type="text/javascript" src="/static/js/CodeMirror-2.25/mode/python/python.js"></script>
+  <script type="text/javascript" src="${ settings.LIB_URL }codemirror-compressed.js"></script>
 
-## and these four lines
+## alternate codemirror
+##  <script type="text/javascript" src="/static/js/CodeMirror-2.25/lib/codemirror.js"></script>
+##  <script type="text/javascript" src="/static/js/CodeMirror-2.25/mode/xml/xml.js"></script>
+##  <script type="text/javascript" src="/static/js/CodeMirror-2.25/mode/python/python.js"></script>
+
+## use these four lines if django-pipeline is broken
+% if not settings.MITX_FEATURES['USE_DJANGO_PIPELINE']:
   <script type="text/javascript" src="/static/coffee/src/courseware.js"></script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="/static/coffee/src/feedback_form.js"></script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="/static/coffee/src/calculator.js"></script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="/static/coffee/src/main.js"></script>
+% endif
 
 ## image input: for clicking on images (see imageinput.html)
   <script type="text/javascript" src="/static/js/imageinput.js"></script>
diff --git a/templates/mathjax_include.html b/templates/mathjax_include.html
index 273efa4fa9..24d8a2615a 100644
--- a/templates/mathjax_include.html
+++ b/templates/mathjax_include.html
@@ -82,7 +82,9 @@ function DoUpdateMath(inputId) {
 
   <!-- This must appear after all mathjax-config blocks, so it is after the imports from the other templates -->
   <!-- TODO: move to settings -->
+
+## next two lines are alternate mathjax sources and configurations
 ## <script type="text/javascript" src="http://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/2.0-latest/MathJax.js?config=TeX-MML-AM_HTMLorMML-full">
-##  <script type="text/javascript" src="/static/js/mathjax-MathJax-c9db6ac/MathJax.js?config=TeX-AMS_HTML-full"></script>
+## <script type="text/javascript" src="/static/js/mathjax-MathJax-c9db6ac/MathJax.js?config=TeX-AMS_HTML-full"></script>
+
   <script type="text/javascript" src="/static/js/mathjax-MathJax-c9db6ac/MathJax.js?config=TeX-MML-AM_HTMLorMML-full"></script>
-</script>
\ No newline at end of file