EDITOR’S NOTE
In light of the public response to last Friday’s guest column on MIT’s affirmative action policies, The Tech would like to take this opportunity to clarify its editorial process on the opinion pages.
First and foremost, opinions expressed in guest columns (as Brandon Briscoe’s was) or staff opinion columns do not represent the views of The Tech. We seek to encourage constructive debates on important issues of the day. To that end, we will sometimes run columns with unpopular opinions, or opinions that Tech staff may personally disagree with.
The Tech will occasionally publish its official opinion. Those pieces will be clearly labeled “editorial,” and they do represent the views of the newspaper. An editorial on the issue of affirmative action appears on page four of this paper.
The Tech welcomes a diversity of opinion. Views were sought from key stakeholders across campus in advance of Friday’s publication, and many of those are presented here. It is not always possible for a debate to play out in a single issue of The Tech.
With that in mind, we have also accepted several guest submissions from current students and alumni. We received over 12 outside submissions as of Sunday — much more than we have received over other topics — but we simply cannot print them all here. Today, we publish letters and guest columns that we determined to be representative of the arguments many contributors were making. We also refer readers to the comments section of Briscoe’s article, where arguments have been posted both in support and opposition to Briscoe’s thesis.
The Tech stands by its decision to print Briscoe’s column. We feel the issue of diversity at MIT is an important one, and we are encouraged that there has been such an energetic response.
We also take our role as a public forum and sponsor of campus debate seriously. Readers who are curious about our editorial process are welcome to email The Tech’s executive board at general@tech.mit.edu or visit our offices in W20-483. Readers are similarly welcome to provide us with feedback and suggestions for how we can do better.
—Jessica J. Pourian, Editor in Chief