Our successes together
MIT’s partnership with the GSC and other student representatives has led to many substantive improvements for graduate students over the past five years
On April 4 and 5, some of MIT’s graduate students will participate in an National Labor Relations Board-run election to determine whether to form a union associated with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America.
Whatever the outcome of this election, all of us who lead MIT will continue to support every one of our extraordinarily talented students. Like every institution, we will always have room for improvement. Those of us who have devoted our lives to MIT and making it a place of excellence and belonging for generations of our students, are deeply aware that we must always strive to do better. We respect and admire all of our graduate students and are committed to ensuring that each of them thrives during their time here.
Indeed, it is our deep interest in our students’ work and success that has led us to embrace roles in student support and academic life, rather than focusing solely on our teaching and research. And it’s why we’re invested in strengthening MIT’s uniquely effective collaboration with its student leaders — an approach that has been advocated by the Institute’s student community, is in keeping with MIT’s spirit and values, and informs MIT’s work to create a more caring and supportive environment for everyone.
Over the past five years, our direct partnership with graduate student leaders, including the Graduate Student Council (GSC) and other representatives, has led to many substantive improvements for MIT’s graduate students, including:
Greater financial security for all students: MIT’s cost-of-living-based stipend increases — part of a process led by the GSC — have outpaced those at nearly all private universities with graduate student unions. Throughout the pandemic, MIT offered its students generous assistance with housing costs, moving expenses, and other financial burdens.
MIT has invested in students with the most pressing needs: The Institute has introduced new programs through which we have allocated approximately $1 million in grants for graduate students with families, students on short-term appointments, and doctoral students needing longer-term support.
MIT has provided enhanced health and wellness support: MIT Medical continues to offer excellent, robust health insurance options with premiums that are on par with or less expensive than our peers and has expanded copay-free access to behavioral health care outside of MIT Medical from 12 visits per year to 52.
MIT has championed its international students: In 2020, MIT joined with Harvard University in successfully filing suit against the U.S, Department of Homeland Security to rescind a federal policy that would have barred international students on F-1 visas from taking a full online course load while studying in the United States. And to help manage the challenges that the pandemic presented for its international graduate students, MIT allocated $5.8 million to facilitate roughly 1,300 remote international appointments. This ensured that students did not face interruptions to their academic and research progress, and were able to continue their studies and research from abroad.
MIT has worked to build a more inclusive, supportive, and diverse community: It has hired school-based diversity deans; increased staffing in the International Students Office, Career Advising and Professional Development, and GradSupport; added an employee to provide dedicated support for veterans and created a Grad Families Office; invested additional resources in its Violence Prevention and Response and Institute Discrimination and Harassment Response offices; refined anti-retaliation policies; provided guaranteed transitional funding for students who wish to change research advisors or groups; and offered additional mentoring and harassment-prevention training.
MIT has fostered students’ personal and professional growth: It has enhanced advising and training, offering more than 40 workshops and panels in partnership with 15 academic and administrative departments and developing more focused career fairs and networking opportunities.
As we draw closer to the election April 4–5, now is the time for graduate students to become as informed as possible on these matters. It is essential that every eligible student make it a priority to vote: This election’s outcome will be determined by a simple majority of those who vote, but will be binding on both voters and non-voters in the proposed bargaining unit.