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MIT Faculty Newsletter, Vol. XXIX No. 1, September/October 2016

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MIT Faculty Newsletter, Vol. XXIX No. 1, September/October 2016 Massachusetts Vol. XXIX No. 1 Institute of September/October 2016 Technology MITFaculty http://web.mit.edu/fnl Newsletter in this issue we offer commentary on the Faculty and Staff Quality of Life Survey (below and page 22); a report on MIT’s overall international activities, “Global MIT” (below) and “The MIT Haiti-Initiative” (page 14); and two articles on Access MIT (pages 16 and 18). 2016 Presidential Candidates Global MIT MIT Asked, We Editorial Answered: The 2016 Presidential Faculty Quality of Candidates Weigh In Life Survey On Science Policy Krishna Rajagopal, Leslie Kolodziejski, Issues R. K. Lester Christopher Capozzola THE MIT COMMUNITY IS magnifi- WELCOME BACK FROM WHAT we IN SEPTEMBER, PRESIDENTIAL cently but unselfconsciously multina- hope has been an invigorating summer, candidates Donald Trump, Hillary tional. With 42% of our faculty, 43% of and all best wishes for the new academic Rodham Clinton, and Jill Stein returned our graduate students, and 65% of our year. their responses to a set of 20 key science post-docs hailing from countries other The three of us have spent time over policy issues (Libertarian Party candidate than the U.S., and 151 countries repre- the summer diving into the results from Gary Johnson did not respond). The sented on our campus, MIT is truly “of the 2016 Faculty Quality of Life Survey. questionnaire was prepared by a national the world.” The outcome of the survey provides a science consortium, ScienceDebate.org, We are also, increasingly, in the world. wealth of information and insights about that included the American Association Today MIT faculty and students are the perspectives of the MIT Faculty on a for the Advancement of Science and the working in more than 75 countries, and wide variety of questions. Elsewhere in National Academy of Sciences. 50% of this year’s graduating seniors this issue of the Faculty Newsletter, The issues included were: Innovation; reported having had at least one interna- Institutional Research (IR) has provided Research; Climate Change; Biodiversity; The tional educational experience, up from a synopsis of some of the highlights [see Internet; Mental Health; Energy; Education; 23% in the class of 2006 (see Figure 1, page 22]. These are only a small fraction Public Health; Water; Nuclear Power; Food; page 9). For some students this meant tra- of the data. Much more data, as well as Global Challenges; Regulations; Vaccination; ditional study-abroad programs at other data from earlier MIT surveys, can be Space; Opioids; Ocean Health; Immigration, universities. For many more it meant found on the IR Website (web.mit.edu/ and Scientific Integrity. Unfortunately, practical internships and experiential ir/surveys/index.html), including in par- Nuclear Weapons was not among the issues learning opportunities, often preceded by ticular the highlights from the 2016 presented. The full responses can be found at country-specific cultural and historical survey. sciencedebate.org/20answers. continued on page 9 continued on page 4 continued on page 3 contents The MIT Faculty Vol. XXIX No. 1 September/October 2016 Newsletter Editorial Board 01 Global MIT *Aron Bernstein R. K. Lester Physics Robert Berwick 01 MIT Asked, We Answered: The 2016 Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Faculty Quality of Life Survey Krishna Rajagopal, Leslie Kolodziejski, Christopher Capozzola Manduhai Buyandelger Anthropology Editorial 01 Presidential Candidates Weigh In On *Nazli Choucri Science Policy Issues Political Science Christopher Cummins 14 The MIT-Haiti Initiative: Chemistry An International Engagement Woodie Flowers Haynes Miller Mechanical Engineering Ernst G. Frankel 16 MIT Adminstration “Walking the Talk” Mechanical Engineering on Transit Commuter Benefits *Jonathan King (Chair) Frederick P. Salvucci Biology 18 Access MIT Provides Flexible Commuting Options Helen Elaine Lee Writing and Humanistic Studies and an Opportunity for Meaningful Personal Action Les Norford Stephen J. Lippard (Treasurer) Chemistry 20 An Update on Gender Imbalance in Seth Lloyd MIT Admissions Maker Portfolios Mechanical Engineering Chris Peterson, Hal Abelson Fred Moavenzadeh Civil & Environmental Engineering/Engineering Systems 21 Teaching this fall? You should know . Ruth Perry (Vice Chair) Literature Section 22 Highlights from the 2016 Faculty and Staff Nasser Rabbat Quality of Life Survey Architecture Institutional Research Patrick Henry Winston Electrical Engineering & Computer Science 26 MITAC: New Ticket Office Offers Discounted Tickets to Many Activities David Lewis Diane Betz Tavitian Managing Editor 27 Nominate a Colleague as a *Editorial Subcommittee for this issue MacVicar Faculty Fellow 27 Request for Preliminary Proposals for Innovative Curricular Projects M.I.T. Numbers 28 from the 2016 Faculty and Staff Quality of Life Survey Photo credits: Page1: uselectionday2016.com; Page 26: Christopher Harting. Address MIT Faculty Newsletter Bldg. 10-335 Cambridge, MA 02139 Website http://web.mit.edu/fnl Telephone 617-253-7303 Fax 617-253-0458 E-mail [email protected] Subscriptions $15/year on campus $25/year off campus 2 MIT Faculty Newsletter September/October 2016 Presidential Candidates Rapid Response Fund,” with consistent, the military is underfunded and called for continued from page 1 year-to-year budgets, to better enable the waiving the Congressional “sequester” Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. that currently limits increases in the Reflecting her experience in both the Department of Health and Human Pentagon budget, and rebuilding the mili- Congressional and Executive branches of Services, the Federal Emergency tary through even more federal spending. the government, Clinton’s responses Management Agency, state and local It would be very useful in this election exhibit much more specificity in terms of public health departments, hospital year to have a good national debate about programmatic proposals. Among the systems, and other federal agencies to the balance between our domestic and clearer differences between Trump and quickly and aggressively respond to major military spending and the proper balance Clinton were in the responses to the threat public health crises and pandemics.” between them. This should include the of climate change. Trump stated that Trump, much more restrained, issues of education and research as invest- “There is still much that needs to be inves- responded that “In a time of limited ments for our future. In this connection, tigated in the field of ‘climate change.’” resources, one must ensure that the nation we should keep Eisenhower’s admoni- However, his follow-up downplayed the is getting the greatest bang for the buck. tions that a strong economy is essential for issue and suggested that the nation’s We cannot simply throw money at these a strong defense. We should debate the “limited financial resources” would be institutions and assume that the nation need for the modernization of many better spent making sure people have will be well served. What we ought to weapons systems that are currently being clean water, eliminating diseases such as focus on is assessing where we need to be proposed. Indeed, many observers of the malaria, or developing energy sources that as a nation and then applying resources to military budget have concluded that we reduce dependence on fossil fuels. those areas where we need the most work. are spending too much and that this is Clinton’s view was that “When it Our efforts to support research and public reducing our security. Senator Markey comes to climate change, the science is health initiatives will have to be balanced and Representative Blumenauer intro- crystal clear. Climate change is an urgent with other demands for scarce resources.” duced bicameral legislation that would threat and a defining challenge of our Trump and Clinton identified a cut $100 billion from the nuclear weapons time and its impacts are already being felt number of programmatic initiatives that budget over the next decade at home and around the world.” She con- would require Congressional budget (www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/ tinued with identification of intermediate authorization. However, they will all be sen-markey-and-rep-blumenauer-introduce goals she would pursue, including gener- constrained by the reality that the single -bicameral-legislation-to-cut-100-billion ating half the nation’s electricity from largest component of the discretionary -from-wasteful-nuclear-weapons-budget). clean energy sources. Congressional budget is Pentagon spend- Last, but not least, we return to the Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party candi- ing, some 55% of the total $1.15 trillion, question of nuclear weapons that surpris- date, had the strongest, most detailed about $625 billion dollars last year ingly was not on the list of questions. response on this front: “Climate change is (https://media.nationalpriorities.org/ What is their proper role in our defense? the greatest existential threat that human- uploads/discretionary_spending_pie%2C Do we have the right number or too ity has ever faced.” She called for a WWII- _2015_enacted.png). This excludes many, as well as their proper deployment style national mobilization to respond to Medicare and Social Security, which are and alert status, for our defense needs? the danger, with the implication that a federal Trust Funds. It is this enormous Trump also asserts that he may want to “Green New Deal” could create millions expenditure which constricts investment use nuclear weapons in the Middle
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