Massachusetts Vol. XXXII No. 5 Institute of May/June 2020 Technology

MITFaculty http://web.mit.edu/fnl Newsletter

in this issue we offer extensive responses to the killing of George Floyd, beginning with the Editorial and “Heartsick. Anguished. Enraged.” (below) and continuing through page 15; Faculty Chair Rick Danheiser’s “ ‘May You Live in Interesting Times’: The Year in Review” (page 22); and “On the Risks and Benefits of New International Engagements,” (page 24). See the new Aron Bernstein Memorial Page or visit our website.

George Floyd Memorial, Minneapolis Interview with Heartsick. Editorial Ragon Institute Anguished. I. Challenging Systemic Racism at MIT Director Dr. Bruce Enraged. II. Greetings to our Graduates Walker in the Year of the Pandemic

Helen Elaine Lee THE FOLLOWING INTERVIEW by HERE WE GO AGAIN with the grief Challenging Systemic Racism at MIT Faculty Newsletter Editorial Board Chair and outrage of being black in America. FOLLOWING THE KILLING OF Jonathan Alan King (JAK) with Dr. Bruce This time, we’re trying to survive two George Floyd by a white policeman on Walker (BW) was held on May 18, 2020. pandemics. With Covid, our communi- May 25, protests erupted across the ties are suffering disproportionate sick- nation against the grotesque wrongs of JAK: You’re part of the Ragon Institute and ness and death borne of longstanding anti-black racism and its long, tenacious the Institute for Medical Engineering and inequality, and enduring exploitation as hold on the American social structure. In Science [IMES] as well as the “essential” workers with no choice but to this hopeful moment fraught with possi- Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen show up and risk exposure to do the work bilities, it is only right that MIT aims for Readiness. What’s the relationship among that keeps the socioeconomic engine greater self-reflection. However, self- them and your role within them? going, without fair compensation, health reflection is not enough. Deliberate and insurance, or even basic resources to sustained action is required, not some BW: I’m the director of the Ragon prevent the spread of the virus. And the day, not tomorrow, but now. Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard, pandemic of racism and violence directed MIT’s long history of inaction on the which is my primary role. The Institute at black people rages on. issue of racism is well documented. There was established 10 years ago with the Whiteness continues to be is a pattern. mission of harnessing the immune weaponized and black lives continue to system to prevent and cure human be criminalized. Endlessly, everywhere, • An incident motivates an educational disease. We have focused on specific we are surveilled and policed. On a whim campaign directed at the MIT commu- goals, the initial goal being to develop an or with a casual flexing of the muscle of nity, or a study and report, including rec- HIV vaccine, and that work is underway white privilege, we are removed from ommendations for change. This takes continued on page 16 continued on page 5 continued on page 3 contents The MIT Faculty Vol. XXXII No. 5 May/June 2020 Newsletter Editorial Board 01 Interview with Ragon Institute Director Robert Berwick (Vice-Chair) Dr. Bruce Walker Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Manduhai Buyandelger 01 Heartsick. Anguished. Enraged. Anthropology Helen Elaine Lee Nazli Choucri 01 Political Science Editorial I. Challenging Systemic Racism at MIT II. Greetings to our Graduates Christopher Cummins Chemistry in the Year of the Pandemic *Sally Haslanger 05 Words + Words + Words Linguistics and Philosophy Sandy Alexandre *Jonathan A. King (Chair) Biology 06 The Case Against “#BlackLivesMatter?” *Helen Elaine Lee J. C. Woodard Comparative Media Studies/Writing Ceasar McDowell (Secretary) 08 Voices from the MIT Community Vigil Urban Studies and Planning Kendyll Hicks, Ramona Allen, Malick Ghachem, Corban Swain Fred Moavenzadeh

Civil & Environmental Engineering/Engineering Systems 11 A Faculty Testimonial Jonathan A. King Ruth Perry Literature Section 12 *Nasser Rabbat CMS/W and Racial Justice: A Path Forward Architecture 14 Literature’s Statement of Solidarity Balakrishnan Rajagopal Urban Studies and Planning 14 Statement from MIT Anthropology Robert Redwine Physics 15 Statement from the Graduate Student Council (GSC) *Warren Seering Mechanical Engineering 19 Ramping Up On-Campus Research at MIT Maria T. Zuber and Tyler E. Jacks David Lewis Managing Editor From The 22 “May You Live in Interesting Times”: Faculty Chair The Year in Review *Editorial Subcommittee for this issue Rick L. Danheiser

24 On the Risks and Benefits of New International Engagements Richard Lester

29 Anonymity, Liquidity, and Mobility: A Quandary Kenneth R. Manning and Lisa Parks

Photo Credit: Page1: Lorie Shaull, Wikimedia Commons.

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2 MIT Faculty Newsletter May/June 2020

Challenging Systemic Racism at MIT Nobody is more dangerous than he who In any society or organization, it is not continued from page 1 imagines himself pure in heart; for his possible to meet everyone’s needs or dis- purity, by definition, is unassailable. tribute burdens equally. In unjust institu- significant time and energy by faculty and – James Baldwin, Nobody Knows My Name tions, the problem is not that some groups students of color. For example: lose out, are outvoted, or suffer substantial Intuitively Obvious 1996: Video, Website Recommendations for change fall into costs; this happens even in just democra- A More Inclusive MIT 2015: Video, three categories: transparency, structural cies. Rather, an unjust system is set up so Website, student article evaluating change, and accountability. Demands for that the pattern of redistribution of costs progress in The Tech, June 2, 2020. transparency and accountability are and benefits over time is skewed: one The Hammond Report 2010: Executive familiar enough, especially given chal- group makes the sacrifice, another group Report and Recommendations lenges to the Administration’s (in)actions gets the benefits, over and over and over. over the past year. We will return to them In the United States, benefits have system- • This is usually followed by a letter, or in our recommendations. But let us first atically gone to White folks. It is time now a vigil, or a breakfast. take a moment to clarify the demand for for those who have benefited to recognize structural change. the injustice and accept the price of its • No further action is taken. Structural change requires modifica- fixing. tions to the organization of an institu- This pattern is itself a performance of tion, that is, transformation of the rules For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s systematic injustice and is insulting both and policies affecting the distribution of chains, but to live in a way that respects to those who have been wronged and power and finances, of credibility and and enhances the freedom of others. those who have devoted their efforts to authority; such structural change is – Nelson Mandela bring about change. It is an embarrass- needed in order to make the Institute ment to the Institute. more inclusive, more representative of We cannot hope to solve the problems No wonder that we, along with the the institution’s constituency, and more of racism at MIT (or in the wide world) by Black members of the MIT community consistent with its stated mission. Of acting on a few recommendations, but we and their supporters, are outraged. Their course, it is important to hire Black can better position ourselves to solve the frustration is palpable. For some of their faculty and staff and admit Black stu- problems. and other reflections see the special dents. But we cannot simply rely on the section in this issue beginning with Helen good will of a few individuals to make 1. The Faculty should establish a Elaine Lee’s “Heartsick. Anguished. this happen, and history teaches us that Standing Committee on Race. This com- Enraged.” on page one and continuing we cannot trust that those who join the mittee needs to be nominated and elected consecutively. Included are “Voices from MIT community through such efforts by the faculty-at-large. the MIT Community Vigil,” page 8, and will be welcomed as full members. 2. Working with the Standing Faculty some MIT departmental responses. We Moreover, appointing individuals, even Committee on Race, the Institute Office of also recommend visiting the Support Black individuals, to do the work of Research will develop a Racial Impact Black Lives at MIT website. “equity” can – in spite of their hard work Assessment that must be completed by all It is important to recognize that MIT’s – end up being no more than window- proposed research projects. history is part of a larger systemic web of dressing in combating racism, without 3. Funding for research that might be racial injustice that pervades the academy. real effect on the broken system. used for increased citizen surveillance, And although it should not take a mass These individuals are effectively dis- predictive policing, smart prisons, bail public outcry for people to educate them- empowered within the structure and their determination, and other efforts to selves about the inequities that have been efforts are compromised. Obviously, control the Black population and activists happening around them all along, it is changing the culture of MIT would be supporting anti-racism, should be sub- illuminating to read the posts made under helpful, but a few more implicit bias jected to heightened scrutiny. #BlackintheIvory. On this platform, Black workshops will not change culture; sub- 4. The Institute should take concrete people are raising their voices about the stantial structural changes, incentives for steps to achieve the objectives outlined in racism they have experienced and con- adhering to them, and strict accountabil- the BGSA petition: (i) to develop a 3-year tinue to deal with in academia. Once you ity measures are necessary. We are talking and 10-year strategic plan to address racial read about these traumatic experiences, it about more than cosmetic change, more bias at MIT by accomplishing the remain- is impossible to see racism in the abstract than changing minds. Structural change is ing tasks of the 2015 BSU/BGSA recom- or as a distant phenomenon that does not not easy. It demands struggle, commit- mendations and new addendums to the affect you. ment, discipline, and a radical change of perspective. continued on next page

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Challenging Systemic Racism at MIT 13. We should ensure that support for governing. Many joined efforts to protect continued from preceding page demonstrators, participation in demonstra- international members of our community tions, and arrest in the course of demon- from the threat of exclusion or deportation. recommendations, and (ii) to investigate strating will not be used adversely in They became attentive to issues such as and implement new models for public safety decisions within the Institute around immigration, climate change, nuclear disar- that reduce the scale of policing and increase employment, promotion, funding, partner- mament, the reduction of global poverty, safety and well-being. ship, or other support. and the need to protect fundamental demo- 5. The Institute should fully cover all cratic rights. Many of them joined or sup- unrecovered overhead for research related to MIT often prides itself on being a ported the Women’s March, the March for racial justice. “leader” in research and its mission requires Science, and the March for Climate. 6. The Institute should undertake it to bring “knowledge to bear on the world’s The values of scientific investigation and changes to the academic structure that great challenges.” Racism is one of the great- assessment, previously taken for granted, promote interdisciplinary research on race est of the world’s challenges. If MIT is to live have now become arenas for contention and and racism. We recommend that funding be up to its mission, now is the time to uproot even denial. Defending these values will provided to form a center or program with racism in all forms at MIT and to promote require the urgent involvement of us all. In funded faculty lines and its own space. (This antiracism in teaching, research, and the international arena, conflicts among might be part of a larger center such as the through its service to the nation and the nations that may have once seemed very far one suggested by Caroline Jones and Sherry world. away have intensified. We have to take more Turkle in the January/February 2020 FNL, Editorial Subcommittee seriously our responsibilities as citizens to but must explicitly include in its mission the ensure that our nation’s actions in the world study of anti-black racism.) * * * * * increase the prospects of peace and prosper- 7. Efforts should be made to increase ity for the world’s peoples, rather than commitment to and funding for commu- Greetings to our Graduates undermining them. nity-based participatory research that serves in the Year of the Pandemic During their time here the campus experi- Black communities. IN OTHER YEARS , this issue of the enced a revival in student engagement. 8. The Institute should make curricular MIT Faculty Newsletter would be sitting in Examples include the fossil fuel divestment changes that ensure that students graduat- the laps of the thousands of parents, family campaign; the continuing opposition to MIT’s ing from MIT are educated about race and members, and friends who would have agreements with the Saudi Arabian monarchy; anti-blackness from an interdisciplinary attended Commencement. We would have the campus die-in led by Black students; the perspective. expressed our congratulations to both the protest and counter forum to Henry Kissinger’s 9. Any department that has less than 15% graduates and their families, and wished role as spokesperson for ethics in artificial intel- POC in tenure-track positions, must have at them well in taking the next steps along ligence; the revival of MIT Students Against least one senior faculty of color, in the field career paths. Unfortunately, the pandemic War, and many other expressions of social, eco- from another institution on the hiring com- precluded publication of a hardcopy nomic, and political concerns. mittee. This person must vote affirmative on Newsletter, and this electronic version doesn’t During their years with us, we on the the hiring recommendation. This same process reach either students or their families. faculty have watched the burgeoning of their should apply to promotion and tenure cases. Nonetheless, MIT’s Faculty values and many talents, their creative ambitions, their 10. Policy changes should be transparent takes pride in the accomplishments of the class resilience in the face of setbacks, their and guided by faculty, staff, and students. of 2020. Teaching and mentoring the students thoughtful and quirky self-expression, and (See also recommendations for implemen- has been a source of deep satisfaction. Their their creative and entrepreneurial energy. We tation from the Hammond Report.) senior year was extraordinarily stressful due to hope that, as their individual paths unfold, Especially in this moment: the Covid-19 pandemic. As they have learned they will put their powers to work on solving 11. We should enable our colleagues, and grown, absorbing and generating knowl- some of the problems that confront us all, assistants, students, and affiliates to partici- edge and new insights, so have we. Their future and on making our society more responsibly pate in the ongoing Black Lives Matter contributions to their communities and to productive and more supportive of those in demonstrations. We call upon those in society will be among the most gratifying out- need. On behalf of the entire Faculty, we wish positions of authority to make room for comes of our academic efforts. the class of 2020 – facing a more uncertain participation by allowing for flexible leave, The class of 2020 will be entering a world environment than any graduating class in schedule shifts, and deadline extensions. of considerable uncertainty and an increased decades – vision, strength, commitment, 12. Voting in local, state, and federal elec- level of social and political polarization. After wisdom, and success, in addressing the tions is a right. MIT should provide time at full the last presidential election, many of our unique challenges you will face. pay for voting by allowing for half-day leave graduates rose to the challenges presented by time, schedule shifts, and deadline extensions. the new administration and its method of MIT Faculty Newsletter

4 The Editorial Board of the MIT Faculty Newsletter May/June 2020

Heartsick. Anguished. Enraged. it, even as it breaks our hearts, and carry I will keep on seeing, and I will keep on Lee, from page 1 on. But the all of it feels sometimes like writing stories and novels that honor our more than we can bear. The casual disre- complex and beautiful black lives, and public space. We know that we may be gard, disrespect, silencing, and devalua- trying to expand student understanding harassed for being in a Starbucks or a tion that we experience as facts of daily and inquiry in the classroom. library, entering an Airbnb rental, having life. Routine institutional indifference and WGS (Women’s & Gender Studies) will a cookout. And we may well pay with our malignant neglect. Organized, systematic continue to do the work of educating MIT lives for the pleasure of running in the assaults on the rights and resources and students through the intersectional lens of open air or watching birds. opportunities of black people. race, gender, class, and sexuality. We will Militarized police brutalize and The pain of this moment has struck continue to uphold values of social justice. murder us on the street and in our own me speechless for a stretch of days and left We will work to hold the MIT homes, and as they show contempt for me wondering what words would go Administration and the MIT community our lives and humanity, they continue to beyond sanguine, institutional reassur- as a whole accountable to confronting be protected by police unions and codes ances to do justice to the realities we are racial inequity on campus and beyond. of silence and outright lies. living. This is what I’ve got to say. Racial justice is everybody’s work. How Black women, black queer people, and We must keep talking about the organ- will you contribute? black trans people continue to be debased ization and funding of the project of Helen Elaine Lee is Director, MIT Program in and subjected to disproportionate state, white supremacy that deepens inequality Women's & Gender Studies; Professor, MIT institutional, and personal violence. and attacks black lives by strategic design, Comparative Media Studies/Writing Injustice after injustice, it’s enough to and we must keep talking about who ([email protected]). make us explode. We try to keep on seeing invests in and profits from this project.

Words + Words + Words Sandy Alexandre

AS A BLACK SCHOLAR of literary Let me tell you, these words on this Faculty Newsletter to make sure I thank all studies, I want to honor and thank all of page would almost need to be thickly of the ancestors, activists, agitators, peti- the justice-seeking words that came before embossed in order to show, clearly and tioners, grassroot movements, and our 2020 ones – words that either vocally conspicuously, how indebted they are – freedom fighters who paved the way and or in written forms of communication indeed, how much they stand on the sub- modeled the courage for us to continue in sought and fought for racial justice in the stance and heft of other words more pow- the struggle for our collective liberation world and on this campus. Verily, thank erful than mine could ever hope to be. But from the racist (and therefore unjust) you! I want to make sure to acknowledge I dare say a better and more feasible alter- systems that bind and hamstring all of the that any courage I might have to form native to embossing my words on this ways we move in life – whether some of us what could ultimately be justice-generat- Faculty Newsletter is pointing you to at know it or not – I want to remind the ing words is actually the cumulative effect least some of these preceding words to powers that be that change-seeking words of so many years of so many people speak- which I keep referring. deserve more than just our thanks. ing out and making those demands before Altogether, the particular set of words I The way to thank words (along with the me – the largest proportion of them agi- want to point you to constitute 9 reports efforts to put those words together as well- tating before I was even born. Like high and 177 recommendations that have been crafted arguments, irrefutable evidence, decibels shattering glass, the frequency offered up to the Institute about the persuasive data, and stirring cris de couer) is and accumulation of these insistent words varying states of diversity, equity, and to take them seriously: listen to them, read can chip away at the structural integrity of inclusion at the Institute throughout the them, analyze them, and take them up on systemic racism, thereby exposing it for past 10 years at least. So while I take this their offer to show and tell us how to having lacked true “integrity” all along. moment and take up this space in the continued on next page

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Words + Words + Words We are all going to need MIT to value MIT has a serious problem that requires a Alexandre, from preceding page the data of words. Indeed, in the large serious solution but also to a call to action. scheme of the world’s history of justice- So let’s thank the words and their cre- become more fully realized as an institution seeking words, a collection of 9 reports ators by getting serious and staying there of higher education. After all, how much and 177 recommendations isn’t really as for posterity. Instead of evading the words higher than another’s can we claim the edu- staggering as it could be, especially if (as and their concomitant lessons, let’s cation we offer to be, if it’s not poised to the Academic Council Working Group on respect them for revealing who we are and evolve with and ahead of the times? How Community and Inclusion [ACWG] what we’ve sadly become by rote. Our and why do you get to call yourself a higher implores) MIT enlists all hands on deck to claims to being and providing higher edu- form of education if you’ve done the help implement the sum of those recom- cation depend on this kind of sustained reading but your response to it clearly sug- mendations. To conclude, I’ll riff on the moral vigilance, our will to always be and gests that you didn’t really understand its word sum. do better, and our ability to address the complexity or that you weren’t quite up for In that famous play that bears his kinds of systemic problems that would the task? Where is the virtue in claiming to namesake, Hamlet is at once sarcastic, dis- bring relief and justice to so many if those be higher if that height could be attributed, missive, and philosophical when he tenacious problems were, in fact, proac- if even just facetiously, to our sitting on a describes something he is reading as being tively stunted and stemmed. pile of insufficiently addressed reports? a bunch of discrete "words, words, words." Stem. Now there’s a word we might Why is MIT wasting its community In the title of this piece, I’ve adapted the all learn to be grateful for anew, if we members’ precious time by encouraging famous repetition of those words in order had the courage to apply its meaning as them to produce reports about systemic to remind us that words, especially plead- a verb – and not as an acronym! – to problems at MIT that MIT doesn’t, then, ing words, do indeed amount to some- our approaches to addressing social reciprocate in kind with a commensurately thing. problems. Stem patterns of racism. systemic solution to them? MIT can’t piece- They add up! In this particular case, Stem racist tendencies. Stem racism. meal itself out of systemic problems. Half- these 9 reports and 177 recommendations Sandy Alexandre is an Associate Professor in stepping just won’t do. amount not only to an understanding that the Literature Section ([email protected]).

The Case Against “#BlackLivesMatter?” J.C. Woodard

J.C. Woodard was awarded his SB degree in ence from a Black American’s eyes. to do so. Instead, I found myself tearing Mechanical Engineering in June of 2018, Who am I? I am a 20-year-old, dread- up in the soup section of the local Target. then earned an SM degree from Tsinghua headed Black male from the South Side of What reason do I have to be an emotional University as a Schwarzman Scholar, and is Chicago, currently studying at MIT. My wreck in the friendly neighborhood Target? now working as a project manager in major is Mechanical Engineering with a Picture that relative you have who was Shenzhen. The contents of this message were Chinese minor, and I hope to one day diagnosed with a malignant, incurable drafted for a social media post in 2016. receive a PhD in designing prosthetic cancer that could take their life at any time. systems, but before that can happen, Now, picture half of your family sud- THE FOLLOWING WAS PENNED for there’s this problem that has been bother- denly diagnosed with the same type of white America’s edification, so that every- ing me for the past 20 years. See, while cancer. Death will loom over their shoul- one will understand why Black Americans composing this, I should’ve been ders as regularly as the sun rises and falls. have been furiously marching in the researching a valveless pumping system, Furthermore, when they finally do die, a streets. The intention here is to offer per- but was much too emotionally ravaged by wide swath of America will stand up and spective on the Black American experi- the current state of American civil affairs continued on next page

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The Case Against “#BlackLivesMatter?” parents and their grandparents did? In her my confidence in America’s people. I was Woodard, from preceding page expression of “motherly love,” is it possi- consumed by rage – as a fellow American, ble that your mom taught you how to how could you ignore and negate our call justify their demise based on their per- look the other way? for attention to a plight affecting so many ceived history of doing cancer-causing When I was 17, I was at the front door of of us? I couldn’t stand the profound apathy activities. a peer’s house in one of Chicago’s more in the majority of people I was supposed to Living that way should be enough to affluent (read: white) neighborhoods. After call peers. How could MIT not understand drive any reasonable man to his knees. several minutes of waiting on them to #BlackLivesMatter? How could these But this thought experiment doesn’t do answer, the cops made a surprise appear- people, at the brightest Institute in the justice to explaining the constant horror ance. I was doing nothing more than world, misconstrue our cries for help as that I feel for myself and for my brothers as standing in front of a door, playing on my something malicious or racist? a Black American male, in a society which cellular while waiting for it to open. The This is the same rage that motivates vehemently tries to justify the questionable neighbors called them “because they didn’t millions of Black Americans to take up circumstances surrounding our deaths at recognize me on their friend’s porch.” I arms in the streets, metaphorically and lit- the hands of law enforcement. would’ve rather they call me a nigger up erally. It is mentally consuming and makes At an early age, my parents ensured I to no good than try and blanket their friendly people lose it in the face of blissful knew how to acquiesce to law enforce- prejudices as innocuous precautions. ignorance for the Black community’s ment if need be. “Never argue, just That’s the same kind of culturally current and long-standing crisis. Rage is comply,” my mom would tell me. She, my ingrained fear that leads to cops having an effective, accessible motivator, but not other family members, and Black America over-dramatic fight-or-flight responses to a means towards a real solution. have had such negative experiences with Black men reaching for their wallets, and America needs more empathy, which police that they all teach survival tech- now Philando Castile’s name rings out in is why I answer all questions about my niques like white parents teach manners. I the streets of every major American city, Black experience with grace. This is how was instructed to be acutely aware of the followed by an incensed crowd calling for we move away from isolated bubbles and race of those around me, because it change. In retrospect, I was lucky, but the start productive conversation, because would keep my expectations for equal next time I might not be. therein lies the solution that makes every- treatment from fellow citizens as low as Please count the number of white one happy. Without this, Black men like they needed to be for a Black boy from people on your hands who have had the me will continue to be executed, and the the South Side. The Black mother’s cops called on them for trivial reasons. cyclical pattern of police brutality, minor- version of motherly love is ensuring that Zero? If I were to do the same for Blacks, I ity outrage, and government indifference her children have the mental fortitude to would need more hands. will rage on. endure the abuses of a world built on their In December of 2014, after a grand No one should be condemned for subjugation. The reality is, fortitude jury cosigned Darren Wilson’s thinking America is post-racial, since the wouldn’t have saved me from a cop’s bullet, manslaughter of Michael Brown, people issues at play aren’t nationally visible. and since those were easy to find in my who look like me protested in Ferguson No one should be berated for, upon neighborhood, I grew up hypervigilant. and hundreds of other cities across the first examination, believing that An underrepresented white person country. My cohort live-streamed the tear #AllLivesMatter is an appropriate wouldn’t deserve to be presumed a danger- gassing of protesters in St. Louis from our response to today’s predicament. That ous villain, but that is how America stereo- dorm room, appalled at the unreasonable being said, please be informed of what types Black Americans. A Black American’s force exercised by “lawmen.” Our frustra- you’re standing for and against. My criminal record for marijuana possession is tions mounting, we printed out police American passport looks the same as used to justify their death, while white brutality posters, grabbed chalk and yours, and I aspire for the American Americans go unprosecuted for using headed to campus. By morning-time, our dream as you do, but our experiences here harder drugs in larger quantities. Does handiwork was omnipresent. I was most have been dramatically different. The case America only believe in second chances for proud of “#BlackLivesMatter” sprawled against #BlackLivesMatter is that no single those with lighter complexions? across a classroom chalkboard, and hashtag can encapsulate the decades of Has America been desensitized to the eagerly awaited the campus response to grief Black Americans have endured, nor deaths of Black Americans in the same our work. How could it be anything but can it enclose the numerous data points way that Chicagoans have? Is it possible supportive? and arguments supporting our outrage. that centuries of lynchings and unques- If seeing those posters thrown in #BlackLivesMatterAsMuchAsAllOther tioned executions of Black Americans has garbage cans felt like a kick in the face, LivesButThatsNotWhatAmericaIsShowing created a culture that averts its eyes seeing the chalkboard work replaced with Us would have been more appropriate. instinctively, because that’s what people’s #AllLivesMatter was a conclusive blow to

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Voices from the MIT Community Vigil

THE FOLLOWING FOUR MESSAGES at MIT as well as those beyond. All of the tired of thoughts and prayers.” speak to the tragic circumstances trig- messages are from the June 2nd MIT The spoken words carry these mes- gered by racism, the consequent chronic Community Vigil (either excerpted or in sages more forcefully than the text here experience of fear, and the need for our their entirety). They put forth a call to can. We encourage everyone to hear these community to recognize and address the action; not being racist isn’t enough. As and the other 12 messages presented at continuum of racially inspired situations Kendyll Hicks says in her message, “We are the Vigil: web.mit.edu/webcast/vigil/.

Kendyll Hicks is a graduating senior in the others whose we don’t, were treated as tors, diagnostics, and pharmaceuticals. Department of Electrical Engineering and problems instead of people. Whose bodies Where is that ambition for the public Computer Science. were battered by those who were sworn to health crisis for which we gather right protect them. Who fell victim to a system now? When vicious immigration policies GREETINGS MIT FAMILY. My name is that has masterminded the murder of a threatened the safety and protection of Kendyll Hicks and I am an outgoing BSU people. We are gathered here to mourn students, MIT publicly urged the powers [Black Students Union] Co-Chair. those precious lives lost. In mourning, I that be to make a change. You’ve proved For the past week, we have watched fear for my family, my friends, loved ones, you can do something, but today you’re again and again the slow and methodical and myself – who wake up in a country missing in action. And as so many have disregard for a black man’s life. For 8 where it has always been open season on noted, to acknowledge and be informed minutes and 46 seconds Officer Derek black bodies and who look in the mirror without concrete effort is to be complicit Chauvin fearlessly stared into a camera and think “today, being black could be my and to support the police terror that’s and continued to dig his knee into George death sentence.” occurring. Stand with us. Publicly Floyd’s throat. George lost consciousness, But where do our tears go? When will demand the accountability of all officers the officer heard cries saying “you are our country stop coddling white killers? involved. Publicly support for the demon- killing him,” and he continued to dig his When will our institutions begin to truly strations and broader black liberation knee into George Floyd’s throat. feel our pain and inherit our tears? When efforts happening across the country. Do But, this isn’t about George Floyd. This will they realize that not only are we fight- something. Include us in your mandate. is about George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, ing for justice, for fair and humane treat- Accept this problem as your own. Because Dion Johnson, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony ment, but also that we are fighting for our we will never achieve an equitable and just McDade, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, lives? We are tired of thoughts and community on campus if our humanity is Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, prayers. being disregarded everywhere else. Michael Brown, Alton Sterling, Freddie With that in mind, MIT So, how do we honor the lives lost? We Gray, Atatiana Jefferson, Trayvon Martin, Administration, I would like to ask you – must listen, learn, educate, speak up, vote, and so, so many more. My heart has ached do you really care about your black stu- donate, empathize, love, and fight and my throat has tangled for too long for dents, faculty, and staff if you’re not because we are the ones we have been the families, whose black mothers, fathers, willing to use your power and resources to waiting for. brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, some protect us? When Covid-19 arrived, MIT whose names we know and countless sprung into action making masks, ventila- continued on next page

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8 MIT Faculty Newsletter May/June 2020

Voices from the MIT Community Vigil nize their fundamental worth and creativity are part of our DNA, and we continued from preceding page humanity. I am deeply disheartened must use these strengths to be part of and disappointed by the ways in which the envisioning new ways of being together Ramona Allen is the Vice President for lives of people of color have been deval- as a community. Human Resources. ued . . . over and over again. That is quite a At this particular crossroads, we must heavy burden. Black men, women, and take action, and now. FOR SOME OF US, we are at a familiar trans lives MATTER and this shouldn’t No more waiting! Educate yourself. crossroads. Familiar because, as a person have to be a point of discussion. Raise awareness. Sign petitions. Donate of color, violence has impacted our expe- Fortunately, we convene today as to bail funds. Support our activists. riences and family histories in this members of a community of teaching, Protest. Vote. We need ALL people country since its inception. Like a virus, learning and innovation. I draw strength involved, not just people of color, but ALL racism mutates and changes, but leads to from knowing that at MIT, we continue to people to fight for change. a national sickness marked by wide- be committed to educating students in If you are experiencing a new level of spread economic, political, and social ways that will “best serve the nation and consciousness, embrace it. inequalities. the world in the 21st century.” Watching We need changes in laws, behaviors, As a child growing up in segregated Commencement just a few days ago and hiring practices. We need to create Boston, I had eggs thrown at me, and my warmed my heart and left me feeling greater opportunity for people from mar- school bus was regularly stoned and shot encouraged and inspired. I am inspired by ginalized communities to access educa- at. I had no choice but to keep moving our staff and faculty who in countless tion. Finally, we need to hold each other and so these traumas were never really ways demonstrate their brilliance, accountable for that change. Ask your addressed. But these are collective, deep- thoughtfulness, and kindness. peers what they are doing to enact change. seated historical traumas that are now So I’m counting on you all; my expec- We must harness the strengths of our manifesting on the streets. It’s exhausting tations for this community are extremely diverse campus community, and in the to be a person of color in this country, and high. spirit of our mission statement, “bring quite frankly we are tired. We have the best and brightest minds knowledge to bear on one of the world’s I’m tired of imagining my husband, here. So we need to lead the country great challenges.” family, and friends, people who look like from Cambridge, just like we do in every By working together, let’s lead the way George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, facing a other way that makes MIT a place of MIT! criminal legal system that does not recog- excellence. Innovation, imagination, and

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Malick Ghachem is an Associate Professor and indeed all of us to make sacrifices of arrives to try to save Floyd. I do not know in the History Section. the kind we have been generally willing to whether overcoming police brutality make in the face of Covid-19 but seem requires the wholesale abolition of police MY NAME IS MALICK GHACHEM unwilling to make in the face of structural departments, but if we had police depart- and I am a member of the MIT History racism. And that is because policing prac- ments that acted more like fire depart- Faculty and a criminal defense lawyer who tices are so deeply embedded in our eco- ments – seeking to heal or to put out fires teaches in the area of race and criminal nomic organization, in how we think rather than to apply force and escalate justice. about cities and property, in longstanding tension – we would almost certainly be in It is profoundly discouraging to con- doctrines of criminal law and procedure, a better place. sider that who gets to breathe in America and many other factors too numerous to This past week I received an email circa 2020 is a matter of race. We have seen mention here. If you can muster the forti- from Kaijeh Johnson, a junior at the that this is true in relation to the Covid-19 tude to watch the extended video of the Peabody Institute, the music conservatory pandemic in recent months, and the murder of George Floyd, you will see that of the Johns Hopkins University. He wrote murder of George Floyd shows that it is at the very end, well after the police have as follows: “It saddens me to see the divide also true in relation to our policing prac- come on to the scene and done their between the leaders of this country, and tices, which must change in radical ways. damage, a team of emergency medical Such change will require white Americans personnel from the fire department continued on next page

9 MIT Faculty Newsletter Vol. XXXII No. 5

Voices from the MIT Community Vigil has yet developed a scientific model of the undersold the role of continuity in a revo- continued from preceding page intersecting forces that make for some- lution. Making an impact almost always thing as big as the Civil Rights revolution involves working in teams. Teamwork their citizens of color, continue to grow as of the 1950s and 1960s. Some observers of means looking for the particular gifts that weeks go by. Each day I grow more afraid the opening days, weeks, and even months different individuals bring to the table. It of the world we live in and more afraid of of the French and Haitian revolutions also means learning to rely on others the people I believe are supposed to were aware that they were living through a when your own energy and availability protect me. I believe there needs to be a very unusual time, but none of them begin to fade. A social movement of the change in the system. I believe the voices could have foreseen the scope of what was kind that Kaijeh is thinking of almost cer- of America’s black and brown citizens to come, and not all of them would have tainly needs something like a business need to be heard and their messages taken liked what they were going to see. For continuity plan. This is, arguably, what to heart. I believe it is time for a united example, the free people of color who was missing when the Arab Spring of 2011 front against the injustices that plague our mobilized for political rights at the start of faded into the Arab Winter. communities. Though I know these the Haitian Revolution were entirely Finally, I urged Kaijeh to remember the things are necessary, I have no clue where unaware that their claims would set in lessons he learned under the Covid-19 to begin.” And so he asked me: “With your motion a process that would lead to the lockdown, so that when residential uni- knowledge of the past and your knowl- abolition of slavery, a result few of them versity life and normal economic activity edge of the present, what is the most effec- sought because many of them were them- resume, he could find ways to stand up for tive way for young people in 2020 to selves slaveholders. The violent white mob these lessons when he encounters others present [a] united front and achieve that destroyed the property of the British trying to slip back into old habits and pat- results, as our ancestors did during the East India Company in Boston Harbor in terns, as they and we undoubtedly will. civil rights movement?” 1773 was unaware that it was setting in We can remember, for example, that I want to share with you a modified motion the American Revolution, which people are in fact capable of making great version of what I wrote back to Kaijeh. For upset almost every notion of law and sacrifices and undertaking great risks, but starters, I urged him to make music that order then prevalent in the British also that the distribution of sacrifice and would capture this moment and his feel- Empire. There is no catechism for revolu- risk in America is very uneven. How to ings about it. I told him that he could help tion; every large-scale change is the figure out the right mix of compassion to mobilize people of color to vote in the product of many small changes. and confrontation that will move others November elections. And that he could Looking back at the French Revolution to level the playing field before the next work to make his own institution resem- in the middle of the nineteenth century, crisis hits is a difficult balancing act, espe- ble the kind of country he wants to see. the French political philosopher Alexis de cially so for people of color. But increas- But Kaijeh was particularly interested Tocqueville wrote that he saw more conti- ingly it seems that we will need more of an in what the past could teach us. And so I nuity than change at the end of it. He appetite and tolerance for productive con- told him also that change happens on would have recognized the American frontation in this new era, and so I told both small and large scales, and that we dilemma with racism, which seems to Kaijeh to cultivate both the skill and the don’t really understand what happens on hold constant even when it is said to be art of that practice. the large scale. No historian or sociologist changing. But even Tocqueville may have continued on next page

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10 MIT Faculty Newsletter May/June 2020

Voices from the MIT Community Vigil Let that sink in. experiences with inequities in education, continued from preceding page No six-year-old should have to be con- representation, and support in the student cerned for the rest of her life about the body and faculty of MIT. As hard as it is to Corban Swain is a third-year PhD student safety of her daddy because of the color of admit, the protests on the streets in more in Bioengineering. his skin. So when we talk about injustice, than 140 cities across America and their it’s not just the system, it’s not just an inci- documented sabotage by incendiary I WAS NOT ORIGINALLY planning to dent, it’s not just a video. It’s children. It’s groups is on the continuum of the Black share about this, but early in June, I was people. It’s a lifetime of trauma and History Month installation in Lobby 7 in speaking with one of my brothers in the mindset that we, as Black people, have to 2019 and its desecration with a drawn faith, a Black man. He described to me adapt to. swastika. In the same way that survivors that his six-year-old daughter heard about There is a tendency to distance our- of assault can be triggered by seeing their what happened to George Floyd through a selves from the events going on in the perpetrator, as Black people we are trig- community conversation, and she started country. We have the ability to frame what gered and traumatized recalling the asking questions: “What is racism?” “What we see in the news as “over there,” mostly ongoing assault – devaluation and death – does it mean?” Then my friend and his separate from our personal lives “over whenever we see our perpetrator – racism wife told their daughter, answering her here.” However, today that separation is – in all of its many forms. questions as best they could. And the next not present for Black people. The things I share all of this to ask you to see with day, he asked his daughter, as he did every we see in a video are on the continuum of eyes unafraid to examine this continuum day, “What was your favorite thing about our lived experiences. in yourself and the spaces you hold. And I today?” Let’s bring this home. As hard as it is to speak with hope, knowing that recogni- And she says, “That you came home admit, the modern-day lynching of tion is the first step in the continual work safe.” George Floyd is on the continuum of our of restoration.

A Faculty Testimonial Jonathan A. King

YEARS BACK I WAS PRIVILEGED to the process of getting her appointed as an tions, and that we would lose a unique have a very talented African-American Instructor. At the levels of Department, member of our scientific and educational graduate student. She was awarded her School, and Institute I was told her staff. Even the chair of the committee PhD for a superior thesis in physical bio- appointment had to be as Technical responsible for increasing diversity chemistry. Though offered a prestigious Instructor, not Instructor, because of offered no support. Note that despite the research fellowship, she decided that the some argument that the teachers she current substantial pool of highly-trained best way to serve her community was to would be instructing weren’t MIT stu- African-American biomedical and bio- go into science education. She did a post- dents. Neither she nor I viewed that chemical scientists (some of whom have doctoral fellowship in that field, and then appointment as recognizing her substan- benefitted from Mandana Sassanfar’s wrote a proposal to the NIH for an out- tial accomplishments and professional summer programs), the MIT Biology reach program directed to high school stature. This was during a period of con- Department has no Black faculty biology and chemistry teachers, based on siderable discussion of the need to make members. Is it any wonder that Black her thesis research, to be located in the MIT friendlier and more supportive of members of the biomedical research com- Biology Department. She was awarded the scientists of color. In her experience, the munity, inside and outside of MIT, don’t grant (very few such grants were then ensuing reports turned out to be merely all view MIT as a bastion of progress? awarded by NIH) as well as full salary as public relations. Jonathan A. King is a Professor of Molecular an Instructor. I told members of the Administration Biology and Chair of the Editorial Board of the When we received the notice, I started that she wouldn’t stay under those condi- MIT Faculty Newsletter ([email protected]).

11 MIT Faculty Newsletter Vol. XXXII No. 5

CMS/W and Racial Justice: A Path Forward

WE SUPPORT BLACK LIVES MATTER benefit, their needs, their communities’ mental meeting to discuss the annual and other activists protesting racism and needs, and their careers. Our faculty and provost report on diversity presented police violence, spurred by the killing of staff must continue to work closely with annually to the MIT faculty. George Floyd. We must stand with them, students who come to study with us from In addition to student evaluations of speak out strongly, and act with determi- disadvantaged, underrepresented back- CMS/W subjects, our department should nation. grounds, to overcome barriers and chal- distribute an annual survey to graduate We believe that CMS/W (Comparative lenges facing them, and to support them students, faculty, and staff seeking views Media Studies/Writing) has a lot to con- in pursuing programs that are meaningful on accessibility to race-related resources. tribute to this cause, both through out- to them. We need to assess our progress in The faculty should strengthen our cur- reach and in elucidating the power of this regard by scrutinizing results for the riculum by revising our undergraduate media in discourse around racial justice. last five years, in order to ascertain our and graduate syllabi to reflect a greater New and emergent technologies too often successes and failures and in so doing diversity of voices. This effort is essential have served as platforms to stoke racial inform future courses of action. This to our core curriculum and extends tension and fear. Ironically, these same review should be our top priority, espe- beyond the subjects that explicitly technologies – videos and body cams dis- cially in light of a recent graduate mention race or racism in their titles. We seminated on social media – also offer evi- student’s charge of racism against the must continue to promote racial equity dence to prosecute crimes of violence and department. There is no conceivable way and diversity in our subject offerings, in racial hatred. Our faculty, uniquely quali- to understand that complaint unless we substance as well as in stated objective. fied to speak to these issues, have to some carry out a penetrating analysis to dis- Extracurricular activities constitute an degree engaged them in their work. At the cover what we as a department can learn important means to promote critical dia- same time, we recognize and acknowledge from it. Self-criticism and self-awareness logues and occasions that raise awareness challenges and problems in our own of this kind could help improve the and support for inclusive interactions. In varied disciplines. The makeup and activ- departmental atmosphere for present and particular, our department should host ities of CMS/W do not currently encom- future black students. more events that probe our racial climate. pass the total experience and interests of We must devise and implement well- For example, we could sponsor a talk and equity and justice within media studies to defined procedures for handling racial- discussion surrounding an important but the degree that they should. We must bias complaints. In particular, we need to nearly forgotten study by the former MIT ensure that our department is not only a know how the MIT Committee on Dean for Student Affairs, Shirley M. welcoming place, intolerant of racial dis- Discipline operates in resolving such McBay, entitled “The Racial Climate on crimination, but also actively works complaints for undergraduates and for the MIT Campus,” published more than toward doing away with structures that graduate students. We need to know how three decades ago. Another work, so far racially discriminate. To this end, in the faculty and administrators who are sub- little studied but deserving of concen- coming year we must intensify efforts to jected to racial tension and intimidation trated discourse, is Clarence Williams’s advance such values and goals. Charity, should respond and report. For context, Technology and the Dream: Reflections on after all, begins at home. our department should request data on the Black Experience at MIT, 1941-1999 Our faculty must continue to recruit the number, character, and disposition of (MIT Press, 2001), which consists of inter- students from diverse backgrounds and cases involving charges of racism views exposing unsettling, painful experi- create pathways of support for them not Institute-wide, as part of the provost’s ences of race and race relations at the only to participate in the department, but annual report to the faculty. Our depart- Institute. to thrive in it and to shape it to their ment should set aside part of a depart- continued on next page

12 MIT Faculty Newsletter May/June 2020

CMS/W and Racial Justice on questions of promotion and tenure, As a department, we can do certain continued from preceding page generally and in the context of particular things; as a School, other things; and as an cases. Even though the current director- Institute, still others. But we can also act as We should develop a Diversity Plan ship carries a position on Academic individuals, and as groups. Each of us, that outlines our departmental goals and Council along with other vice presidents separately and together, can continue to actions each year. We should also regularly for nonacademic affairs, the position now fight for justice. We can speak about the review our committee makeup and carries with it no tenured faculty rank at media – its uses and abuses, legal and departmental progress in action. CMS/W the senior level. But maximum force and illegal – about politicians and leaders, and should assess and discuss on an annual authority for minority promotion and about individuals and agencies that basis its progress with minority recruit- tenure reviews on Academic Council foment or perpetuate racial bias. We can ment and retention, or perhaps more demand independence of thought, of and must promote racial justice. As often at some regular departmental meet- judgment, and of influence, guaranteed thoughtful educators, we recognize covert ings. Exit interviews of faculty and staff only with tenured senior-level faculty and coded messages and practices that are who leave the Institute should be part of status. Otherwise, the Office exerts no stealthily employed to achieve racist goals. the annual review. In-depth postmortems direct formal weight in the MIT system of We must use our expertise and knowledge for failed promotion and tenure cases promotion and tenure, where faculty rank to speak out against injustice and to con- should be a standard part of our endeavor stands paramount, by the Institute’s tradi- sider our own actions critically and hon- to build a flourishing, vibrant department tions and its own policies and procedures. estly. Home, as we said, is the place where – similar to morbidity and mortality Our department should encourage the charity and action begin. (M&M) conferences incorporated in the annual evaluation by faculty and staff of medical profession across the country. performance by Institute administrators – Vivek Bald The department should demand a department heads, deans, provost and Marcia Bartusiak more serious and rigorous performance associates, and president – so that these Ian Condry from the Faculty Diversity Committee administrators can become more account- Sasha Costanza-Chock within SHASS, with a transparent able and benefit from the community’s Junot Díaz accounting of every search and every pro- reaction to their handling of racial issues. Paloma Duong motion case. An explicit statement outlin- No such formal mechanism exists to Fox Harrell ing procedures to ensure that guidelines accommodate opinions from students and Heather Hendershot and practices of equity and fairness have faculty. Related to administrative perform- Eric Klopfer been adhered to all along the way should ance is the issue of judgment about policies Helen Elaine Lee be prepared and submitted with every affecting recruitment and hiring of black Thomas Levenson promotion and tenure case. faculty. Our department should request Alan Lightman The role of Human Resources in that the Administration rescind the current Kenneth R. Manning helping or hindering progress toward policy that prevents targets-of-opportunity Seth Mnookin racial justice should be carefully evalu- minority hires by departments with a Nick Montfort ated. In particular, does Human Resources certain percentage of minorities already in James G. Paradis have a role in promotion and tenure place. We should also take every opportu- Lisa Parks processes? Is their role restricted to staff, nity to urge the Administration to recon- Justin Reich and do they exercise their role equitably sider its tight constraint on the total Paul Roquet and justly? number of faculty hires. Edward Schiappa Our department should address what While resources are scarce, our depart- T.L. Taylor happened with the Institute Community ment, the School, and the Institute must William Uricchio and Equity Office, whose status and allocate resources to expand efforts to Jing Wang authority were lessened in recent restruc- support marginalized individuals and turing within the upper administration. groups. Further, we must seek additional The mandate of the Office previously funds to carry out actions we choose required a senior faculty member with regarding diversity and inclusion at all status on Academic Council to speak out levels.

13 MIT Faculty Newsletter Vol. XXXII No. 5

Literature’s Statement of Solidarity

THE LITERATURE SECTION of the tive actions must be taken not only to and opens up spaces to consider related Massachusetts Institute of Technology make reparations for past and present injustices such as border policing and the stands against racism and the policing wrongs but also to effect transformative dispossession of indigenous land. policies that enforce it. We abhor the racial and lasting change in our own institution Literature also cultivates an imaginative profiling and the violence that have and beyond. flexibility that can expose – and prompt resulted recently in yet more murders of At the same time, as scholars of litera- efforts to undo – the workings of white Black American citizens. We support the ture, we recognize the unrivalled potency privilege; it thus helps build the stamina protesters and journalists who, calling of language and the arts to organize, to sustain a world in which we would all attention to these barbarous acts, have mobilize, inspire, and help effect such want to live, where all would be able to themselves been attacked. Our loyalty is change. Across the diaspora, Black authors thrive. with Black communities who have fought have used literature to bear witness to vio- Readers are never too young or too old ceaselessly for justice, and yet for centuries lence and injustice against communities to encounter literature that illuminates have been ignored, silenced and continu- of color in the present; to redress racist the problems we’re facing. This linked list ously subjected to state-sanctioned vio- narratives of the past; and to envision pos- of resources includes a diverse sample, lence. However, words alone cannot bring sible futures beyond white supremacy. from children’s picture books to works of about the systemic changes that will dis- Teaching and studying their texts serves a cultural analysis, from novels and poems mantle white supremacy; concrete, collec- vital role in shaping an antiracist ethos, to plays and films.

Statement from MIT Anthropology

IN THE MIDST OF Covid-19’s unfold- its emphasis on underlying social relations We are dedicated to naming and fight- ing and unequal death tolls and of and the informal workings of structures, ing racism as an institutional and struc- ongoing police, state, and everyday vio- networks, and interactions that produce tural form of inequality and violence – lence against Black, Brown, Asian, and and reproduce inequality, anthropology has work we seek to do in our teaching, our Indigenous communities in the United a set of theoretical perspectives and a research, and our administrative practice. States and elsewhere, we in MIT methodological tool kit that lends itself to This is work, too, that depends upon a Anthropology stand against racist white interrogation of new forms of structural multiracial, feminist, and queer determi- supremacy, believing, with anthropologist racism and to unmasking the hidden tran- nation to support and amplify the works Leith Mullings, that scripts of the process through which differ- and voices of students, faculty, and staff of ence is transformed into inequality.” color. “[A]nthropology is uniquely positioned to make a decisive contribution to the critical – Interrogating Racism: Toward an interrogation of contemporary racism. With Antiracist Anthropology, 2005

14 MIT Faculty Newsletter May/June 2020

Statement from the Graduate Student Council (GSC)

To the Graduate Student Community, stand together. We take it as our duty – in that will not systematically burden Black fact, as core to the very mission and students. WE ARE DEEPLY ANGERED and purpose of the GSC, to represent and The GSC is committed to amplifying heartbroken by the recent killings of advocate on behalf of the interests and the voices of historically marginalized George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud concerns of all graduate student members members of our profession, and to con- Arbery, Tony McDade, as well as the of the APA – to call out this injustice. We tinually organizing in support of making countless others who have lost their lives also call for the continued care and our discipline a more genuinely inclusive due to racist violence and police brutality. support of our Black graduate students. and welcoming place for everyone, We write to you to express our unwaver- To those who are currently teaching, we regardless of race, gender identity, sexual ing solidarity in the fight against system- encourage you to create space in your orientation, creed, or class. Therefore, it is atic and structural racism, white classrooms for your students to process, especially important to affirm that Black supremacy, and the long-standing oppres- and to provide proper accommodations Lives Matter and that we have a responsi- sion faced by Black communities and for those who are hurting right now. To bility to work together for justice. We other communities of color in the United those who are taking courses, we encour- encourage those who can to be involved in States, Canada, and beyond. age you to call on your professors to their local communities and to educate We are a community that needs to provide proper accommodations in ways themselves on the issues involved.

15 MIT Faculty Newsletter Vol. XXXII No. 5

Interview with Dr. Bruce Walker these different entities that are working on Institute are some of the MIT faculty who continued from page 1 everything from epidemiology to patho- are very much engaged. All it takes is genesis to treatment to vaccines. I am co- signing up, which can be done through right now. We have an HIV vaccine in effi- leading the overall effort with Arlene our website (masscpr.hms.harvard.edu). cacy trials in South Africa, developed by Sharp at the Harvard Medical School People can participate in weekly working Dan Barouch, one of the founding [HMS], but in truth we see ourselves group calls in their areas of interest. The members of the Institute. more as facilitators, helping to convene working group calls have been extraordi- people around specific focus areas, bring- nary. There have often been 100 people I also have academic appointments at ing scientists together to have a bigger per call, and I personally have come to Harvard and at MIT. At MIT, I’m in the impact. But it’s been energizing to be know so many people in the Greater Biology Department and also in the involved with so many terrific scientists in Boston area and at the University of Institute for Medical and Engineering this unprecedented, unmatched ecosys- Massachusetts in Worcester. So for me Science. I also have an academic appoint- tem that we have here in biomedicine. personally, it’s really changed the work ment at Harvard in the Department of environment here in that I have a much Immunology. In addition, I have a clinical JAK: Regarding funding. Are most of these better sense of the extent of talent in all appointment at Mass. General Hospital, people working on their existing NIH these different areas, and it’s really where I am an MD in the infectious funding? Or did they get supplemental remarkable to be on these working group disease division. So I wear a number of funding? calls, and see the collaborations starting in different hats. real time. BW: We gave out $16.2 million in funding JAK: You do indeed. And at the Ragon that was distributed among all 15 institu- JAK: Concerning virology, 20 years ago Institute and MassCPR? tions involved in this consortium. Those Don Wiley solved the flu hemagglutinin, funds were raised from the Evergrande Jim Hogel solved the polio structure, and BW: The Ragon Institute was established Group in China and from Mark and Lisa sadly they’re no longer with us. Who is pro- to bring people together across disciplines Schwartz here in the U.S., as well as from a viding the structural virology input? to combat really important global infec- number of other donors. So, yes, we have tious disease issues. HIV and TB are two given out funding. The Ragon Institute BW: There are a couple of people who are that we were already working on when the also gives out funding. We’re funded doing structural biology. Steve Harrison Covid epidemic, soon to become pan- through a philanthropic gift from Terry at Children’s Hospital, and Aaron demic, started. We knew that we had a lot and Susan Ragon, and we also support Schmidt, who is part of the Ragon we could contribute based on our knowl- collaborative scientific projects that his- Institute, and also part of HMS, and Bing edge from HIV and TB and Zika and torically have been focused predomi- Chen, who is also at Children’s Hospital. other infectious diseases we had been nantly on TB and HIV, as well as basic Jonathan Abraham, an MD/PhD at the investigating. And so, we sought to basi- immunology to try to understand the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, also an cally use the model of the Ragon Institute intersection between the immune system infectious disease specialist, is also doing of bringing people together to see if we and various pathogens. structural work, which I see as a critical could do that on a larger scale, and we component of the MassCPR effort. teamed up with other local scientists to JAK: Faculty are not always aware of the establish the Massachusetts Consortium interests, skills, and talents of their peers, JAK: This kind of collaboration normally on Pathogen Readiness (MassCPR), especially in a big institution. And these are would be very difficult, given all the differ- which is, in a way, kind of a pop-up store. very big institutions. So if some research ent institutions. But in this period of coron- We set it up in very short order. We’ve group, let’s say the Biology Department, avirus, it sounds like you’ve managed to been able to bring together people from thinks that they have some contribution to overcome the inability of people to physi- the University of Massachusetts, MIT, make to the MassCPR effort, can they join cally travel and work together. But some of Harvard, BU, and Tufts, and all of the aca- in? What’s the path? those things still must be rate limiting. Can demic hospitals and the Department of you say a few words about some of the more Health, to organize around trying to do BW: We welcome everybody. In fact, there difficult areas of concern? something about the Covid-19 pandemic. are a number of MIT faculty that are part of the MassCPR already. MIT is very BW: Actually, there might never have JAK: How is it structured? much a part of it. Jim Collins, for been a better time to try to set something example, with his diagnostics efforts, and like this up, because on the one hand, BW: We have six different working groups Pardis Sabeti, with diagnostic efforts at the that are comprised of 500 scientists from Broad, and Michael Birnbaum at the Koch continued on next page

16 MIT Faculty Newsletter May/June 2020

Interview with Dr. Bruce Walker effective against SARS-CoV-2. Together laboration and a remarkable degree of continued from preceding page with investigators at the NEIDL, we have commitment to solving the problems set up a platform for high throughput rather than worrying about publishing most people had extra time because their drug screening and for repurposing drugs papers. labs were partially shut down. And also and testing new concepts. We’ve also been because there was no alternative other able to generate a very large cohort of JAK: That all sounds very exciting. But let than Zoom calls. This entire consortium people who have been Covid infected and me be the Devil’s advocate for a moment. got to know each other through Zoom from whom we’ve been able to get speci- You mentioned a number of really calls, and didn’t feel deprived because the mens, and that has played a really big role public/private partnerships. Historically the engagements were only electronic, but in understanding how the immune industry has been very focused on intellec- rather felt delighted to have social and intellectual interaction. So it’s a strange Diagnostics is another area where we’ve made huge dynamic that I think really contributed to progress. Jim Collins at MIT is developing a face mask the success that we’ve achieved thus far, that turns color if it’s exposed to Covid. So if you put it very open to everybody. Nobody has to on, and you’re infected, it tells you that you’re infected, travel to get to these things. They start on or tells at least the people around you that you’re time and end on time when we do a call. [LAUGHTER] infected. system functions and malfunctions and is tual property rights, and many times I’ve And people really have participated. The giving us insights that are going to be gone to a meeting and seen somebody I buy-in has been really great. And I think important for ultimately containing the know withhold data because they hadn’t yet most people would say that it’s dramati- disease and developing vaccines. filed for their patent. Or require signing cally changed the sphere of people they non-disclosure agreements by collaborators. call their colleagues now, because they’ve Diagnostics is another area where we’ve Have you run into that? Are you requiring gotten to know each other through the made huge progress. Jim Collins at MIT is non-disclosure agreements? science, and through these calls. developing a face mask that turns color if it’s exposed to Covid. So if you put it on, BW: Of course not, though our working JAK: What are some of the recent develop- and you’re infected, it tells you that you’re groups have been closed meetings and are ments that you’re most excited about? infected, or tells at least the people around not open to the public. And the IP you that you’re infected. There are others: [Intellectual Property] follows inventor- BW: I think our vaccine development Michael Springer at Harvard Medical ship in this organization, and we have not efforts are really encouraging. Moderna is School is developing a strip-based rapid had issues. In fact, everybody has been part of the MassCPR, and they have a test, and Connie Cepko is developing an really interested in solving the problem vaccine that looks like it’s getting reason- assay that turns color when Covid is and not worrying about the IP-related able responses in humans. We have present. Both are intended to become issues. Those things may come later, but as another vaccine, through Dan Barouch at point-of-care diagnostics that are going to of now, really the engagement has been the Ragon Institute and Beth Israel be really important to starting back up terrific. Deaconess Medical Center, that Jansen our normal lives. And then we’ve devel- Pharmaceuticals has picked up and has oped antibody assays that allow us to JAK: Concerning President Trump’s made a commitment to making a billion rapidly determine who’s been infected Operation Warp Speed: Are you going to be doses of the vaccine. We have animal data and who has not yet been infected, which getting direct support from Operation Warp that should be out soon in terms of pro- we see as critical to getting the whole Speed? Is there anything you can say relative tection. And so that’s on the vaccine front. economy up and running again. So those to that? are just some of the things that I think On the treatment front, Boston University have been incredibly exciting about what BW: We’ll be trying to get funding from and the National Emerging Infection people in the MassCPR have done. And it all different avenues. Initially the vaccine- Disease Laboratory, the NEIDL, has a is worth noting that, even where you related work was being funded by Mark BSL-4 high containment facility, which is might expect that all the people working and Lisa Schwartz, and is being taken required in our view in order to do exper- on diagnostics would be competing with forward with funding from Jansen iments with live virus in animal models. each other, in fact it’s just the opposite. Pharmaceuticals. So there’s a clear path to The NEIDL also has significant BSL-3 lab- They’re sharing reagents. They’re giving development there. For other things that oratories, where they are able to safely each other ideas. And they’re all pushing screen with live virus for drug compounds forward. It is a remarkable degree of col- continued on next page

17 MIT Faculty Newsletter Vol. XXXII No. 5

Interview with Dr. Bruce Walker continued from preceding page we’re working on, we’ll hope to get and they shared it. How do you feel about because they can’t mutate, so the virus funding from additional sources. the Trump Administration’s charges that falls apart. We published a paper in Science Including Warp Speed. the Chinese are trying to steal U.S. intellec- last year showing that concept actually tual biomedical property? And does that identified residues in HIV that when tar- JAK: Again about the Warp Speed: Do you impact on your collaborative work with the geted by the immune system caused the have any sense of how long it might take for Chinese groups? virus to become crippled if it mutated to any vaccines or treatment? Any level of it try and escape. And it turned out that from your point of view rather than a polit- BW: I feel this is a global problem, and there are individuals who target those spe- ical point of view? we’re trying to come up with global solu- cific highly networked residues. So it kind tions. The discussions with the Chinese of makes sense, and I can’t stress enough BW: I can tell you that the vaccine that that we’ve had have been extremely how important the crystal structural data we’re developing at the Ragon Institute helpful, because they are ahead of us in have been for allowing those experiments and BIDMC will go into people in August terms of the wave of this pandemic. So, to be done. or September, or perhaps even sooner. they were able to start studying it sooner. And larger trials will be done in the fall, And I think that their sharing of that JAK: Thank you so much for your time, Dr. with the hope that by early 2021 we’ll have information has been very helpful, includ- Walker. This has really been most illumi- a vaccine that can be ramped up and ing sharing of the sequence that allowed nating. deployed. The important issues to under- everybody in the world to get started on stand here include that it takes a while and this. So I hope that we can find in our BW: You’re most welcomed. an enormous capacity to be able to make response to this pandemic a sense of the billions of doses that are going to be global cooperation that is really necessary required. There are seven billion people in for us to effectively combat it. Jonathan Alan King is a long-time the world, and if all of them need to be Professor of Molecular Biology at MIT. immunized, then we’ve got a huge chal- JAK: I come from the biophysical side, His research group worked out the major lenge in front of us. Now, we know that it’s former president of the Biophysical Society, steps in the assembly of double stranded reasonable to think that an adenovirus- and I work with structural virologists. I’m DNA phages and viruses, including iden- based vaccine, which is what we’re doing going to ask you to comment on the impor- tification of the procapsid precursor in with Jansen Pharmaceuticals, can be tance of key publicly-funded resources DNA packaging, and the critical role of scaled to that level. What’s less clear is the including the Protein Data bank, and recycling scaffolding proteins in virus mRNA vectors and how you get to scale Genbank. capsid assembly. He currently chairs the with those to be able to provide enough Editorial Board of the MIT Faculty doses. But knowing that’s the target, and BW: These are critical. In fact, we’re devel- Newsletter. A former President of the acting on that now to build capacity is oping a T-cell-based vaccine that starts Biophysical Society, Prof. King sits on the how this is being approached, and that’s with structure and by applying network Society’s Public Affairs Committee, which really important. theory to crystal structures. Gaurav Gaiha has produced recommendations for coro- at the Ragon Institute developed an algo- navirus research as well as popular coron- JAK: All the efforts around the world were rithm that allows us to identify highly net- avirus exposition. kind of launched when the Chinese groups worked amino acid residues that are key completed the sequences, the RNA sequence, targets for effective immune pressure,

18 MIT Faculty Newsletter May/June 2020

Ramping Up On-Campus Research at MIT Maria T. Zuber Tyler E. Jacks

AFTER TWO MONTHS OF sequester- subset of these DLC Heads and additional would be great cost in shutting down, ing researchers from campus to address faculty and senior staff to develop a restart final experiments needed to complete health concerns for our community as the report. The Committee’s draft report was theses, and Covid-19 work whose world battled the effects of the Covid-19 circulated to MIT PIs for comment. The outcome could address the current public pandemic, plans are underway to restart Lightning Committee incorporated the health crisis. The Provost and VPR made campus research operations. As the feedback into a final report discussed final decisions as to which projects were Commonwealth of Massachusetts below. The Offices of the VPR and Deputy the highest priority, based on recommen- emerges from what is hopefully the most Executive Vice President are now working dations from Department Heads and serious stage of the pandemic, MIT is with a subgroup of the Lightning Deans. As is usually the case in choosing undertaking intensive planning and an Committee and other senior leaders and among proposed research in internal ongoing operational pilot aimed at staff to develop an operational plan to competitions, it was extremely difficult to ramping up on-campus research in a manner that prioritizes the safety of the Based on the recommendation of the Lightning MIT and surrounding community. The Committee Report, the fundamental tenet of MIT’s health and safety of the MIT community ramp-up plan is PI empowerment. PIs are empowered to are our dominant concerns as MIT seeks to safely and equitably restore its research structure their research activities as they see fit to operations. accommodate prescribed daily occupancy and density The planned scale-up of on-campus levels detailed in guidelines from the Centers for Disease research has been a faculty-driven process Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Commonwealth of overseen by the Senior Team and the Massachusetts. Legal, Ethical and Equity (LEE) Committee1. The LEE Committee was implement the research ramp up (RR) prioritize given the many worthy projects formed to ensure that new protocols are according to the guidance contained put forth. reviewed by a community group to ensure within the Lighting Committee Report. that we are complying with our laws, poli- The ramp-down of on-campus Developing a Research Ramp-up Plan cies, and, most importantly that the research was a rapid and painful process The research ramp-up presented the guiding principles are consistent with our that necessitated prioritizing “critical opportunity to operate differently. Based values and standards. To begin, the Vice research” that could be performed on on the recommendation of the Lightning President for Research (VPR) convened campus during the stay-at-home advi- Committee Report, the fundamental tenet over 20 Department, Lab, and Center sory. Prioritized were long-running proj- of MIT’s ramp-up plan is PI empower- (DLC) directors to obtain input on the ects, studies that made use of specialized ment. PIs are empowered to structure factors of greatest importance to them animals or equipment for which there their research activities as they see fit to about restarting on-campus research. The accommodate prescribed daily occupancy VPR then appointed the Research Ramp DiBerardinis, Vladimir Bulovic, James and density levels detailed in guidelines Up Lightning Committee2 that included a DiCarlo, John Donnelly, Tolga Durak, Elazer from the Centers for Disease Control Edelman, Sarah Farrington, Peter Fisher, and Prevention (CDC) and the 1 James Fox, Leny Gocheva, Ronald The Legal, Ethical, and Equity (LEE) Hasseltine, Tyler Jacks, Timothy Jamison, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Committee consists of two faculty members Jacqueline Lees, Colleen Leslie, Aude Oliva, and the Chief Counsel, with additional repre- Criteria such as prioritizing projects with Nicholas Roy, Daniela Rus, and Dennis major deliverables on key grants and con- sentation of staff, graduate, and undergradu- Whyte. This membership represents the orig- ate students. inal Lightning Committee plus members continued on next page 2 Marc Baldo, Suzanne Blake, Lou added to consider implementation. 19 MIT Faculty Newsletter Vol. XXXII No. 5

Ramping Up On-Campus Research campus research activity. However, Operationalizing the Plan: RR Pilot Zuber and Jacks, from preceding page depending on Covid-19 conditions, it As of May 18, as the Commonwealth’s could still be affected by limitations on the stay-at-home advisory was slowly being tracts, or accelerating progress for gradu- use of research spaces as mandated by the lifted, MIT began to pilot new procedures ate students or postdoctoral scholars were CDC and Commonwealth guidance that to prepare the campus for a return to offered as possibilities, but ultimately will inform MIT guidelines and policies. research using the personnel already des- decisions rest with the PI. The Lightning Committee has devel- ignated to perform critical research in The figure below is a relative timeline oped detailed guidelines to direct the those buildings. During this pilot, the that summarizes MIT’s ramp-down and ramp-up. Each DLC was asked to make a number of individuals approved to access ramp-up of on-campus research. list of all PIs, and to deliver floor plans and campus did not increase. The pilot fea- In the pre-Covid-19 era, a PI’s research instructions for planning to those PIs. PIs tured Buildings 76, E17/E18/E19/E25, and effort consisted of two components: were assigned two exercises; the first was 68, which were chosen for controlled research that required on-campus access to develop a space layout consistent with access and suitable lobby space. and that which could be done remotely Covid-19 safety guidelines. All spaces Individuals enter the building through a (“virtualizable” research). In response to need to adhere to a maximum personal single, first-floor entry. They are expected the Covid-19 pandemic, MIT rapidly and density and spacing at all times. The to wear a mask3 and maintain appropriate significantly scaled back on-campus second deliverable from each PI was a social distance in the unlikely event there research activity, resulting in an approxi- group plan for on-campus research. is a queue. When entering the building, mately 90% reduction in the research Researchers eligible to participate in on- individuals swipe their IDs to verify that capacity and population on campus and campus research are required to fill out an they have permission to enter. Signage is concentrating PI effort on their “virtualiz- acknowledgment form developed by the being posted to summarize guidance for

Plan for ramping up on-campus research at MIT able” research. The ramp-up concentrates LEE Committee. That form attests to their building use. In the second part of the on addressing a phased approach to willingness to participate in on-campus pilot, approximately a week later, partici- repopulating the on-campus research research. The PIs will receive a list of eligi- pants will be asked to complete the activity needed. ble individuals but are not given informa- acknowledgment form indicating volun- During Phase 1, each PI’s on-campus tion on why an individual is not on the tary participation, completion of an research activity will be capped at 25% of list, nor should they ask the individual Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) full capacity. Following successful com- directly. MIT has an anonymous hotline training specific to Covid-19 protocols, pletion of Phase 1, RR Phase 2 will allow that connects to a third party for anyone and complete a daily health attestation PIs to have up to 50% of full capacity on who wishes to express a concern. In questionnaire, which will indicate either campus. No specific time is set for the receiving input from the community, the that a researcher is cleared to come to transition to Phase 2, but Phase 1 is most frequent issue raised was the need to campus or should quarantine at home expected to last at least several weeks. maintain safe working conditions. Access and wait to be contacted by MIT Medical. Here, the continued health of personnel to child care and commuting are also fre- Researchers agree to frequent hand will be highly influential in determining quently mentioned and are among the continued on next page the rate at which on-campus activity can factors that contribute to an individual’s progress to a higher capacity. RR Phase 3 decision of whether to return to campus 3 MIT has a policy on Personal Protective will not have a prescribed cap for on- at a given time. Equipment and will provide masks if needed during the ramp-up. 20 MIT Faculty Newsletter May/June 2020

Ramping Up On-Campus Research Although the guidance given to this at a later time to the vulnerable (children, Zuber and Jacks, from preceding page point focuses on research labs, which those with cognitive impairments, etc.). overwhelmingly represent the greatest Not until a later stage would those at washing, and SARS-CoV-2 virus testing, fraction of research that must be done on highest risk (over 65, chronic heart and which will also be required of all returning campus, projects that require space on lung disease, etc.) be allowed on campus. personnel. The pilot will also feature campus other than labs can be submitted COUHES is developing a web-based tool enhanced cleaning of exposed surfaces to DLC heads for consideration. Indeed, a to facilitate the approval process. Human and guidelines for use of common spaces number of projects in SHASS were subject research that requires fieldwork outside labs (e.g., elevators, lounges). deemed a high priority and received will be considered on a case-by-case basis, These elements of the pilot will be campus access during the stay-at-home given the greatly varying public health instructive as to how to ramp-up research period. A separate faculty and staff group state of regions across the globe. activities in other campus buildings. from the School of Humanities, Arts and In summary, the ramping up of Social Sciences (SHASS), the Sloan research activities on the MIT campus will Additional Considerations School, the School of Architecture and feature a methodical, measured, and As part of the research ramp-up plan, Planning (SAP), and the Libraries is being phased approach. Safety of MIT and the many of MIT’s core facilities, shared convened to address issues specific to surrounding community is paramount. resources, other central services as well as repopulating campus researchers in these The ongoing feedback of the MIT com- animal facilities are being made available disciplines. munity will be critical to ensure that the to facilitate research activities across The Committee on the Use of Humans process meets the needs of our faculty, campus. However, it is essential that they as Experimental Subjects (COUHES) is research staff, and students as we balance can function safely and within the policies also developing guidance regarding the desire to expand on-campus research regarding safe workplace practices and, in human subject research and recommends operations with ongoing health and safety some cases, with reduced staffing. For this a two-step process. First, PIs will need to concerns. reason, PI research plans were required to complete a brief application to restart Maria T. Zuber is the E.A. Griswold Professor include a prioritized list of core facilities human subjects research; and second, for of Geophysics and Vice President for Research needed. Time spent in core facilities, approved projects, subjects will need to be ([email protected]); animal facilities, and other shared facili- screened before coming to campus for Tyler E. Jacks is the David H. Koch Professor of Biology, Director, Koch Institute for Integrative ties needed to be included in the calcula- their Covid exposure and/or symptoms Cancer and Chair, MIT Research Ramp Up tion of allowable per-week, on-campus status. Lightning Committee ([email protected]). time for these additional facilities and At the outset, research should be services. limited to healthy adults and will proceed

21 MIT Faculty Newsletter Vol. XXXII No. 5

From The Faculty Chair Rick L. Danheiser “May You Live in Interesting Times”: The Year in Review

MY TERM AS CHAIR of the MIT Faculty have written about these findings in my and the MIT Corporation? What should be began on July 1, 2019. To say that it has been January/February FNL column “Epstein and the role of faculty governance and how can an interesting year would be something of an MIT: The Unanswered Questions.” our current system of governance be understatement. Revelations about Jeffrey In August, soon after the first revelations improved? Are there alternative systems of Epstein’s connections to the Media Lab began about Jeffrey Epstein’s donations to the governance that would better serve the to emerge in August, setting in motion an Institute, I suggested to my fellow faculty offi- Institute? The overarching goal in these dis- often emotionally charged examination of cers and to Provost Marty Schmidt that I cussions is to make our system of faculty gov- Epstein’s relationship with MIT, as well as a believed that MIT needed a group to develop ernance more democratic, ensuring that a highly critical appraisal of how the Institute principles and improved processes to define full range and diversity of views are repre- evaluates potential sources of funding. It what were and were not acceptable outside sented in the discussion of issues and in deci- would not be until the early months of 2020 engagements. Concurrent with these discus- sion-making. I have previously outlined our that the intensity of these discussions began sions, President Reif asked Provost Schmidt aims in my November/December FNL to diminish, at which point the sudden to convene a committee to review MIT gift column “A Peculiar MIT Concoction”: Our advent of the Covid-19 global pandemic processes. After discussions at several meet- System of Faculty Governance. Our turned our world upside down. An interest- ings of the Faculty Policy Committee (FPC), progress this past year toward achieving these ing year indeed. and after consultation with other key faculty goals are outlined below. In this brief column, I thought I would including several former Faculty Chairs, I outline just some of the issues that have decided to convene an Ad Hoc Faculty The Committee on Nominations. As I dis- received significant attention from Faculty Committee on Guidelines for Outside cussed in the above-referenced FNL column, Governance during the past year, with partic- Engagements. The charge to this committee the Faculty Officers and the Faculty Policy ular emphasis on matters of continuing has been to define a set of values and princi- Committee urged that changes be considered interest that are likely to receive further major ples, consistent with MIT’s mission, to guide in the way that the key Committee on attention in the coming year. the assessment of outside engagements, Nominations is appointed. In contrast to the where outside engagements include grants, manner in which candidates for the other 10 The Epstein Affair and Outside gifts, and any other associations and collabo- Standing Committees of the Faculty are Engagements rations involving MIT with governments, chosen, Rules and Regulations of the Faculty On January 10 the Executive Committee of corporations, foundations, or private indi- called for the members of the Committee on the MIT Corporation released the long- viduals, domestic or foreign. The report by Nominations to be appointed by the awaited report by the law firm of Goodwin this “principles committee” (chaired by President, who also selected the Chair of the Procter titled “Concerning Jeffrey Epstein’s Professor Tavneet Suri) was originally due by committee. If nothing else, this encouraged a Interactions with the Massachusetts Institute June 1, but regrettably has been delayed by perception that the Administration exercised of Technology.” Included in the charge given the emergency due to the coronavirus. significant influence over the membership of to Goodwin Procter (GP) was the question of Nonetheless Professor Suri, together with the committees of faculty governance. At the who among MIT’s senior leadership was several committee members, presented a March Institute Faculty Meeting, I introduced aware of the donations from Epstein and briefing on the conclusions of the committee a motion on behalf of the FPC for amending approved their acceptance. In the early fall I at a Community Forum on May 21, and their Rules and Regulations so that the membership obtained agreement from the Chair of the final draft report will be posted for commu- of the Committee on Nominations would be MIT Executive Committee for a group of 12 nity comment within the next several weeks. elected by the Faculty, with the candidates for current and former officers of the faculty to the election suggested by the elected Officers meet with representatives of GP with any Faculty Governance of the Faculty with allowance for additional questions we might have following our Governance has been a major focus of atten- candidates to be nominated by the usual review of the report. The meeting with the tion by the Faculty Officers and the Faculty process by the Faculty-at-large. This motion GP lawyers took place on January 13 and Policy Committee this past year. Questions was overwhelmingly passed at the April lasted four hours; a summary of our findings include: What is the role of faculty gover- Meeting of the Faculty. was sent to the faculty on January 21 and I nance vis-á-vis that of the Administration continued on next page

22 MIT Faculty Newsletter May/June 2020

“May You Live in Interesting Times” “community brainstorming session” to con- emerged as a result of the Covid-19 emer- Danheiser, from preceding page sider ways in which the shared governance gency. And I would be remiss if I did not system of the Institute might be improved. mention also the recent increased focus by The Application of Electronic Technology. In This discussion continued at the Institute the MIT community on equity, diversity, and my November/December FNL column I sug- Faculty Meeting on February 19 and resulted inclusion in the aftermath of the killing of gested that the election of the faculty officers in an agreement to establish a Working George Floyd. It is earnestly hoped that this and perhaps members of the faculty commit- Group on the Faculty and MIT Corporation. increased attention will continue into the tees could be carried out more democrati- I began discussions to set up this working coming year and be accompanied by positive cally through online voting rather than by a group with Corporation Chair Bob Millard change. show of hands at the usually sparsely shortly thereafter, but these were suspended attended May Institute Faculty Meeting. This in March with the advent of the Covid-19 On the Horizon was discussed extensively at meetings of the emergency. A side note: One of the concerns • In the arena of education, one focus will Faculty Policy Committee this year, along raised by faculty in the above discussions was be on subject evaluations. In early March the with related proposals calling for voting on the fact that the Corporation includes rela- FPC called on the Faculty Officers to collabo- motions to be carried out online rather than tively few members with academic back- rate with the Office of the Vice Chancellor in at faculty meetings. The aim of these changes grounds. A positive development in that appointing an Ad Hoc Committee on would be to enable wider participation of the regard was the election to the MIT Teaching and Mentoring Assessment. faculty in elections and decision-making. As Corporation in June of former Harvard • The FPC discussed the high cost of grad- it turned out, the Covid-19 emergency expe- President Drew Faust and former MIT uate tuition at several meetings this past year dited the implementation of these proposals Professor and Provost, and Washington and in response the Provost and Deans as it became necessary to convene the last University Chancellor Mark Wrighton. Group of Academic Council began delibera- three Institute Faculty Meetings of the year tions to address this problem. virtually using Zoom technology. The results Promotion and Tenure • With regard to faculty benefits, on the exceeded our expectations, as each meeting MIT’s promotion and tenure processes were list for attention are the availability and cost attracted several hundred attendees, and the focus of discussions at several meetings of of childcare and the availability of convenient votes on several motions and on the election the Faculty Policy Committee this past year. and affordable housing for faculty. Analysis of the new faculty committee members were These conversations in fact constitute a con- of the results of the recently released results held electronically at the April and May tinuation of a review initiated by then Faculty of the 2020 Quality of Life Survey will also meetings. The online voting employed a plat- Chair Bish Sanyal in 2009, which led to a receive attention in the coming year. form developed by FPC members Professors report of a special ad hoc faculty committee • Climate action is another area for atten- Ike Chuang and Duane Boning, and their chaired by Tom Kochan and Bob Silbey. tion in the coming year, and this is particu- system functioned very smoothly and effi- Discussions on promotion and tenure will larly important with the approaching end of ciently. It is clear that the application of elec- continue at FPC in the fall, and I tentatively the five-year “Plan for Action on Climate tronic technology in faculty meetings will plan to devote my first FNL column to this Change” which was released in October 2015. continue and see further development and subject. Under consideration are improve- expansion in the coming academic year. ments in the communication of expectations In closing, I want to express my sincere concerning promotion processes to pre- gratitude to my fellow Faculty Officers Shared Governance. MIT operates with a tenure faculty, the mentoring of junior col- Duane Boning and David Singer for their system of “shared governance” under which leagues, and in particular, the current wisdom and counsel. Both have significant the Faculty, the Administration, and the promotion process that involves three stages other responsibilities (Professor Singer is Corporation all have roles in plotting the (AWOT, AWIT, and Full Professor) with Head of Political Science!) but have been direction of the Institute and the manage- external reviews required at each stage. The unstinting in their effort and dedication ment of its day-to-day affairs. In the wake of Faculty Officers support a proposal to sim- throughout this eventful year. And special the revelations concerning Jeffrey Epstein’s plify this process by allowing either the thanks to Dr. Tami Kaplan, Faculty interactions with MIT, the Faculty Officers AWOT or Full Professor promotion to be Governance Administrator extraordinaire, heard calls from a number of quarters sug- carried out with internal letters only, with the whose familiarity with all aspects of Institute gesting that the role of the Faculty in the gov- choice being made on a School-by-School governance, command of MIT’s myriad poli- ernance of the Institute should be basis. cies and regulations, wisdom and common re-evaluated with the aim of “re-balancing” sense, and remarkable dedication is beyond the faculty’s role relative to the Corporation Two Current Crises compare. and the Administration. Toward this end, a Space constraints do not permit me to Rick L. Danheiser is the Arthur C. Cope Faculty Town Hall meeting was convened on discuss the role of faculty governance in Professor of Chemistry and Chair of the Faculty February 5 to engage the MIT faculty in a addressing the many issues that have ([email protected]).

23 MIT Faculty Newsletter Vol. XXXII No. 5

On the Risks and Benefits Richard Lester of New International Engagements

I WRITE TO REPORT ON how the at our student body, which today So which risks must be considered Faculty and Administration have together includes 3400 undergraduate and gradu- when new international engagements are been evaluating the risks of new interna- ate students from 119 foreign countries. proposed? tional engagements – and strengthening As President Reif observed recently, our Some risks can arise in any external our processes for doing so – in the event- international students are a kind of engagement, whether domestic or inter- ful months since my last report on this oxygen for us, with each fresh wave ener- national. In both cases, safeguards must subject in the Faculty Newsletter in the gizing our community as a whole. be in place against anything that could fall of 2018. This report also draws on But if international engagement is part compromise the integrity and objectivity more than four years of observations in of MIT’s DNA, it is very likely that much of our academic work – for example, pres- my current role overseeing the interna- of what we have been accustomed to sure on the intellectual independence of tional activities of the Institute, and more doing around the world will be more chal- the researcher, or attempts to restrict the than four decades of service on this lenging after the pandemic is over, at least publication of research results, or poten- remarkable faculty. for a time. International travel restric- tial conflicts of interest and commitment. Although my report is mainly about tions, health concerns, worldwide eco- Other risks include the potential misuse the management of risk, I begin with a nomic deprivation, and social and of intellectual property, know-how, and larger point about the importance to MIT political unrest will all create new obsta- data; the misuse of MIT’s name; the possi- of international cooperation in research cles. And as the world begins its recovery, bility of unwanted associations with and education. Emphasizing the value of it will no longer be looking to the U.S. for unethical or illegal behavior by benefac- international scientific cooperation seems leadership. America’s diminished reputa- tors; or the undermining of MIT’s especially important today, with the world tion in the world, and the long and painful campus culture and core values. And the locked in a mortal struggle against a virus period of economic and social recon- safety and security of our students, staff, that is heedless of national borders. struction that awaits us at home, will likely and faculty is obviously of the greatest Though many governments today seem narrow some of our traditional avenues of importance. more inclined to turn inwards, close their international engagement. None of these risks is limited to inter- borders, and go it alone, there could be no Despite these headwinds, I fully expect national engagements, but other risks are. clearer truth than that workable solutions that our faculty and students will remain For example, when we work in or with to the pandemic must be science-based, strongly committed to learning about the certain foreign countries, we may need to international solutions. world, to helping solve the world’s greatest consider whether our work could con- Of course, at MIT we didn’t need the problems, and to working with interna- tribute to the infringement of political, current crisis to demonstrate the value of tional collaborators who share our intellec- human, or civil rights, or whether it might international engagement. We could tual curiosity and commitment to rigorous indirectly promote or legitimize actions simply have looked at what our faculty scientific inquiry. I further expect that our by the country’s government (or by were doing when the pandemic struck. more than 30,000 international alumni/ae, others) that would conflict with the core As of March 1, they were leading or co- hailing from 170 countries, will continue to values of the MIT community. (These leading about 2000 internationally-spon- be important partners in these activities, as concerns may arise in our own country sored projects, involving 72 countries. they have been so often in the past. And so, too. One difference is that, as an American (This total does not include the many even though this article is about how we institution staffed primarily by American other international activities that are are managing risk, the main work of my citizens, we have various ways to influence supported by gifts from overseas, or by office will continue to be to help our com- outcomes at home.) U.S. sponsors, or that have no external munity pursue new international opportu- sponsors at all.) Or we could have looked nities in support of MIT’s mission. continued on next page

24 MIT Faculty Newsletter May/June 2020

On the Risks and Benefits of New harm to us or harm to our culture of Fourth, the process should recognize International Engagements openness and free intellectual exchange. the Faculty’s stake in the reputation of the Lester, from preceding page Finally, in addition to this long list of Institute, and that faculty perspectives Another important consideration spe- risks, we must also consider the risks – to don’t always coincide with those of the cific to international projects is whether our students, our faculty, and our institu- Administration. Faculty representation in they could adversely affect the national tion – of not undertaking proposed new risk review is therefore essential. Of security or economic security of the international engagements. What learning course, almost nobody wants a situation United States. These are not new issues, opportunities will our students miss out in which a few members of the faculty but in recent years they have become on? What avenues of inquiry will be closed with strongly held views can dictate the more prominent because of the closer off? What benefits of these engagements intellectual trajectory of another faculty integration of military and civilian tech- will we be unable to deliver to our part- colleague. On the other hand, even a nologies in many fields, and because ners, and unable to receive from them? single member of the community can global economic competition increasingly make a constructive difference, as hap- centers on the kinds of knowledge-inten- * * * * * * * pened last year when an undergraduate sive industries and activities that are often student – possibly the only ethnic Uighur tied to university research. The need to Assessing Risk at MIT – organized a workshop that consider economic security is all the The process for assessing these risks for brought several expert researchers to the greater because American research uni- particular projects must satisfy several Institute to share their knowledge and versities now routinely engage in applied requirements. First, since most of our insights into the current situation in and translational research, participate in international activities are initiated and Xinjiang province in Western China. This innovation and entrepreneurship, collab- implemented by individual faculty raised awareness at MIT of Chinese gov- orate with industry, and generally play – members, the review process should ernment repression of the Uighurs and and are expected to play – a more active provide support to them so they don’t other ethnic groups in Xinjiang and had a role as engines of economic growth. have to think through these complex significant impact. Our community is Adding to these concerns is the shift in issues on their own. knowledgeable, well-connected, and U.S. foreign policy towards a narrower Second, these reviews should be nothing if not curious. Faculty participa- conception of the national interest, and guided by clearly-articulated values and tion in risk review should reflect those away from the post-Cold War focus on principles that the MIT community seeks assets, but also the practical limits on promoting international flows of trade, to live by. Of course, a statement of values faculty time. knowledge, ideas, and people and sup- is just the beginning, not an end in itself. Fifth, the process must treat our porting the global institutions that under- In actual situations these values are some- prospective sponsors and donors (who pin the international order. As the U.S. times in conflict with each other, and even may also be our existing sponsors and retreats from some of its international within close-knit organizations different donors) with respect and consideration. commitments and aspirations, and as sus- people prioritize the same values differ- Very few of them deserve anything less. picion of an interconnected world grows ently. Some internal disagreement is Finally, the process should be readily in Washington, new questions are being therefore likely whatever the chosen comprehensible not only to the MIT com- raised about academic globalism. Is it safe course of action. That is why it is essential munity but also to our external stakehold- for so many foreign students to be coming to have thoughtful, well-designed, system- ers, including the U.S. government to the United States? What will they take atic processes that instill confidence that research agencies with whom we work as with them when they leave? Will they take different points of view will be considered well as their overseers in Congress. They American jobs if they stay? What are carefully in each case, even though not must recognize that we are taking their American universities giving away when everyone will agree with every outcome. concerns seriously. they work overseas? What are foreign gov- Process should never override principle, ernments and companies really buying but principle without process is a recipe * * * * * * * when they fund university research and for paralysis. educational programs here at home? How This is related to a third important Review and Decision Process susceptible are U.S. universities to foreign requirement: the process should be effi- We have been working to strengthen our government influence and interference? cient enough to avoid unreasonable delays review and decision process since the Such questions are fueling another for our faculty investigators, who are publication in 2017 of A Global Strategy kind of risk associated with our interna- properly impatient to get on with their for MIT, which called for the upgrading tional engagements – the risk of triggering work and who are very often in direct of the International Advisory Committee actions by our own government that competition with rivals at other institu- would cause reputational or financial tions for access and resources. continued on next page

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On the Risks and Benefits of New the PI – although, as we’ll see, not all proj- specialist advice; and occasionally also International Engagements ects are considered by each committee from ad hoc faculty committees that may Lester, from preceding page (see Figure 1, below). be convened for advice on particularly (IAC) as one of its recommendations. The • The International Coordinating challenging issues. A key aspect of the IAC had been created a decade earlier as Committee (ICC) consists of senior process is to raise PI awareness of risks and an ad hoc committee of faculty and administrative staff with deep experience to work with the PIs to develop informa- administrators to evaluate the risks of a in handling international projects from tion and approaches that may be helpful specific international project that MIT legal, financial, contractual, export for risk management. The main questions was then considering, but over time the control, and other administrative per- that are covered in the reviews are summa- committee lost effectiveness. In 2017, it spectives. rized in the Table (page 28).2 was reconstituted as a Standing Committee of the Institute, charged with providing an independent faculty voice in advising the Administration on major, institution-scale international engage- ments and policies. In 2018, as China continued to move to the center of foreign policy debate in Washington and new MIT engagements in China were raising complicated ques- tions of national security, economic competitiveness, and human rights, it was becoming clear that we needed to further strengthen MIT’s capabilities for thoughtful, systematic evaluation of our international projects. This conclusion was reinforced by the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi that October and President Reif’s subsequent call for a review of all of MIT’s Saudi relationships. In January 2019 we introduced a new Figure 1 and more rigorous process for evaluating • The faculty International Advisory In the first 12 months following the engagements that might pose elevated risks Committee (IAC), currently chaired by introduction of the new process in early for MIT. For now, all engagements involv- Professor Rohan Abeyaratne, as just noted 2019, 154 projects with Chinese, Russian, ing China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia are is mainly concerned with larger, institu- or Saudi involvement were proposed, covered by this process, as are certain other tion-scale projects, and is particularly most of them from China or Hong Kong projects that may also pose special risks.1 focused on ensuring that such projects (see Figure 2, next page). Most were spon- Briefly, here is how the process works. enhance and do not divert from MIT’s sored projects, and the great majority For any proposed sponsored research core mission of education and research. involved just one or two PIs. All were ini- project, including projects involving these Its purview is all countries, not just China, tially reviewed by the ICC. Of these, 28 of three countries, much of the work of Russia, and Saudi Arabia. the more complicated projects from a risk assessing and managing risk is still • The Senior Risk Group (SRG), consist- perspective were referred to the Senior handled routinely by our sponsored pro- ing of the Vice President for Research, the Risk Group, where 16 were approved grams staff (now part of OSATT), Vice President and General Counsel, and (sometimes with recommended modifi- working with the PI and the sponsor. the Associate Provost for International cations), nine were declined, and three However, when sponsored projects as well Activities, considers projects that are continued on next page as gifts from the three countries come up, judged by the ICC to require additional the review process now also involves three review by the senior administration. 2 Following the Epstein revelations, a sepa- separate committees, each working with Other important inputs to these reviews rate committee of administrators, the Interim come from MIT’s Washington Office; from Gift Advisory Committee, was created specif- country and regional experts both here at ically to review gifts from other countries and 1 China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia together also from U.S. sources. It is concerned with account for about 12% of our active interna- MIT and elsewhere who are consulted for the risks of association with individual bene- tional projects. factors. 26 MIT Faculty Newsletter May/June 2020

On the Risks and Benefits of New cers to develop such guidance was dis- judgments in real time, about which dif- International Engagements solved before its work got started. This ferent people often have different views. Lester, from preceding page responsibility is now vested in the Ad Hoc Did the process work in the Aramco were still under consideration at the end Committee on Guidelines for Outside case? It has certainly enabled broad and of the year. The IAC reviewed three of Engagements chaired by Professor thoughtful faculty input, but in another these cases (along with several from other Tavneet Suri, which was created last fall in respect it has surely failed. Whatever the parts of the world.) Most cases were dis- the aftermath of the Epstein disclosures eventual outcome of the Aramco case, it patched in 4-6 weeks or less, and since and is expected to report this summer.) will have taken MIT almost two years to parallel processing is usually possible the The IAC’s moratorium recommenda- decide. Admittedly this is partly (though time actually added to the project devel- tion was accepted by the Senior Risk not entirely) the result of the Epstein rev- opment schedule by the new process was Group (SRG) in July 2019, and Aramco’s elations and the need to work out an insti- typically much shorter. Saudi Aramco. A notable outlier was the proposed renewal of Saudi Aramco’s founding membership in the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) for another five years. I would like to provide some background on this case, partly because some of the reporting and commentary about it has been inaccurate. Aramco’s first member- ship term at MITEI had expired in late 2018, and the renewal was put on hold pending the comprehensive review of MIT’s relationships with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that fall. President Reif’s announcement of the results of that review in February 2019 included two key conclusions. First, existing Saudi engage- ments could continue provided the faculty PIs were willing to proceed (and if they weren’t, MIT would assist with the transition). But second, all new Saudi projects, as well as renewals of existing Figure 2 projects, would need to be considered by the more rigorous review process that had membership remained in suspension tutional response to them. Regardless, in just been introduced. In preparation for through last fall. In February the SRG the future we must be able to move with these and other decisions, President Reif acceded to a request by Professor Suri’s much greater speed as well as all due requested faculty guidance on relevant committee to continue the moratorium deliberation. On these subjects we look general principles for MIT’s future inter- until that committee’s work is completed forward to the recommendations of national engagements. this summer. So Saudi Aramco is not now Professor Suri’s guidelines committee and The renewal of Aramco’s MITEI mem- part of the MITEI membership consor- the companion committee on MIT’s gift bership was the first Saudi-related deci- tium, and hasn’t been for more than 18 processes chaired by Professor Peter sion to come up. The matter was months. The renewal question is likely to Fisher. Much is riding on their ability to considered at length by the IAC – the come up again after the Suri committee craft an approach that corrects the prob- faculty committee – throughout the has reported. lems revealed by the Epstein debacle, spring of 2019, and in June, after extensive The Aramco case is still open, but one while simultaneously meeting the six consultations with the PIs and other lesson from the work of these review com- requirements for effective management of faculty and members of the community, mittees is clear. No two situations are our international risks that I have the IAC recommended a moratorium on identical. Each needs to be considered on sketched on the next page. the Aramco renewal, at least until further its own merits, taking all relevant factors And as important as these questions faculty guidance was forthcoming on into account, making often-fine distinc- are for MIT’s international activities, diffi- principles of engagement. (The commit- tions that usually couldn’t have been pre- tee originally charged by the faculty offi- dicted in advance, and requiring complex continued on next page

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On the Risks and Benefits of New to be of increasing interest to our faculty campus, while fending off attempts to International Engagements and students and increasing strategic close us off from the world, and when Lester, from preceding page importance to the Institute? America’s global leadership threatens to cult new questions will need to be faced be replaced by mutual distrust and once the pandemic is in check. For • How will the world’s increased rupture in international relations? example: dependence on the digital infrastructure during the pandemic affect the future In the international arena, as in so • How will we work with Chinese delivery of services, including education, much else, MIT will face great chal- researchers and students, both in China and what should be MIT’s role during lenges after the pandemic has receded. and on the MIT campus, during what will what may be a tumultuous period of But I am confident that, drawing on the likely be a protracted period of strategic restructuring and experimentation in collective wisdom of our faculty, we will confrontation between China and the global higher education? find the best way forward. As always, I United States? welcome feedback and input from the • And how will we achieve our goals for community. • How will we build new educational global scientific collaboration, education, Richard Lester is the Japan Steel Industry and research partnerships in other parts and problem-solving, and for bringing the Professor and Associate Provost for of the world, such as Africa, that are likely world’s most talented students to our International Activities ([email protected]).

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Anonymity, Liquidity, and Mobility: Kenneth R. Manning A Quandary Lisa Parks

SINCE LAST FALL, WE and many process. At MIT the weight given varies funds, grantee’s relationship to donor, others at MIT have been thinking about from department to department and donor’s standing as a grant-giving agency the question of fundraising – grants and across disciplines. Many factors emerge or as a bona fide philanthropist, and other gifts – and the circumstances surrounding when considering grants and gifts as part vital information. It seems to us that the them. We also have mulled over the use of of a promotion or tenure case. Funding Institute needs clarification on whether fundraising in promotion and tenure perceived as a positive result in one junior faculty should be encouraged (or review, and the role and relative weight context might be thought of as negative in permitted) to receive and present anony- that money plays in these cases. One issue another. There is never, nor should there mous funding for consideration in pro- we are concerned about is the role of be, a universal view about how funding motion and tenure cases without better anonymous gifts and grants, and whether should be regarded in a personnel review. guidelines. Lack of transparency about the and how these should factor in promotion In evaluating a grant or gift, one looks at source, along with a vacuum of informa- and tenure decisions. As the Coronavirus pandemic continues, with funding sources growing scarcer, the Institute will Fundraising has traditionally been encouraged and need clear and transparent policies to help guide us through economically uncertain rewarded, viewed as an important aspect of junior times. The pressure to skirt or relax ethical faculty profiles in promotion and tenure cases. standards and to compromise longstand- ing values in the interest of financial sta- bility will, inevitably, intensify in these the source and amount of funding, the tion regarding terms of the gift and troubled times. range of competition for it, the impor- related matters as delineated in the gift Financial support has always been vital tance and quality of the work funded, and, agreement and elsewhere, make it difficult to advancing and sustaining careers in last but not least, whether the grant’s goals if not impossible to evaluate an anony- science, engineering, and (less so) the have been met beyond the minimal mous gift as an accomplishment appro- humanities and social sciences. expectations of an annual or final report. priate for promotion or tenure Fundraising presents challenges all along Whether or not one supports using grants evaluation. the pipeline, from the highest to the and gifts as factors in promotion and Though these issues are vital in all lowest faculty ranks, and from discipline tenure cases, these are all things that can faculty reviews, they are particularly to discipline. The focus of our present be observed, measured, determined, and important in junior faculty cases concern is the role that fundraising plays discussed before conclusions are drawn because the tenure process functions as a in career advancement for junior faculty and a decision is made. crucial phase of academic socialization. from first promotion to tenure. But such is not the case with funding What happens during the early years of Fundraising has traditionally been given as “anonymous.” Though some one’s academic career – what is valued encouraged and rewarded, viewed as an junior candidates indicate on their profes- and not valued, what is allowed and not important aspect of junior faculty profiles sional statements and CVs that an anony- allowed – ends up making a deep imprint in promotion and tenure cases. Grants mous grant has been “vetted,” such a term on the mindset of that faculty member and gifts, the bigger the better as often has no substantive meaning to anyone and will inevitably shape and inform thought, are itemized on candidates’ CVs outside the central administration. his/her/their future decision-making and and professional statements, and dis- Nothing is revealed to faculty reviewers practice with regard to fundraising efforts, cussed and evaluated as part of the and external reviewers about the source of continued on next page

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Anonymity, Liquidity, and Mobility sify and publicize some of the gift or grant moral objections to particular kinds of Manning and Parks, from preceding page attributes. This might include, for funding streams, and should have the example, donor type (e.g., self, individual, knowledge and right to be able to navigate decisions on other colleagues’ cases, and foundation, company), reason(s) for the those waters accordingly in the aca- graduate mentoring. Graduate students anonymous designation (e.g., donor demic work environment. closely monitor what is happening with faculty members’ careers, including which parts of the research and fundraising records are celebrated and valued. Establishing guidelines related to anony- We believe full transparency of information regarding mous fundraising reporting could have grants and gifts at MIT is preferable. We should know long-term, generational effects. where monies that flow into MIT are coming from. Such If MIT continues to sanction anony- transparency enables faculty, staff, and students – as mous grants and gifts as part of the individuals – to make ethical decisions about what units, promotion and tenure process, accompa- nying gift agreements and related docu- projects, or faculty they want to ally with and which they ments should be made accessible to may want to avoid. faculty and external reviewers so that they can evaluate pertinent issues. Potential concerns include, but are not limited to, reputation and motive of donor, relation- privacy, project sensitivity, political protec- Attention to these matters is critical, ship of donor to recipient, and donor’s tion), and scope and purpose (e.g., research particularly in light of the Institute’s past history of giving. Criteria clear for topic, curriculum development, lab recent regrettable history with anony- everyone need to be developed. While support). Establishing such categories would mous gifts across multiple departments, transparency may not eliminate inherent require rigorous and inclusive discussion. where faculty were allowed, even encour- inequities in the system, it would at least We believe full transparency of infor- aged, to seek funds from Jeffrey Epstein lessen, or draw context around, the advan- mation regarding grants and gifts at MIT under the guise of anonymity. tage and privilege that certain candidates is preferable. We should know where Kenneth R. Manning is the Thomas Meloy might enjoy because of wealthy friends monies that flow into MIT are coming Professor of Rhetoric and of the History of and associates able and willing to support from. Such transparency enables faculty, Science ([email protected]); them with strategic gifts. staff, and students – as individuals – to Lisa Parks is Professor of Comparative Media At a minimum, if an “anonymous” gift make ethical decisions about what units, Studies and Science, Technology, and Society ([email protected]). or grant is allowed to appear on a projects, or faculty they want to ally with CV, MIT should establish an official and which they may want to avoid. Many framework that would generically clas- people have strong political, ethical, or

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