MIT closes the ICEO and eliminates the Vice President for Equity and Inclusion position
Kornbluth: “Community is best built locally rather than top down”
On May 22, President Kornbluth sent an email to the MIT community announcing the closure of the Institute Community & Equity Office (ICEO) and the elimination of the Vice President for Equity and Inclusion (VPEI) position. According to its website, the aim of the ICEO was to foster “inclusive excellence and community building at MIT” by promoting equity and diversity. The office offered services and programming focused on community building such as the MIT Values programs and the MLK Visiting Scholars and Professors Program, which selects 10-15 distinguished scholars a year who hold visiting appointments.
In January 2024, President Kornbluth started a working group led by then-VPEI Karl Reid ’84, SM ’85, to perform a comprehensive assessment of the ICEO and its work. About 18 months later, the working group found that the MIT community appreciated the ICEO’s programs and continued to value the “pursuit of inclusive excellence.”
However, the working group expressed interest in reconsidering how to approach this work. “A common refrain, matching what I’d heard myself, was that community is best built locally rather than top down,” Kornbluth wrote. A new Standing Institute Committee has been established to determine the best approach towards supporting the MIT community and will replace the Council on Belonging, Achievement, and Composition.
According to MIT spokesperson Kimberly Allen, the decision to close the ICEO was unrelated to the Trump administration’s crackdown on DEI in higher education or MIT’s status as one of 45 colleges investigated for potential Title VI violations. Besides MIT, other universities have closed their DEI offices, such as the University of Michigan and Purdue University. Some universities like Harvard and Northeastern have renamed their DEI offices using words like “community” and “belonging.”
Programs in the ICEO will be moved to other MIT units. For instance, the Department Support Program and the MLK Visiting Professors and Scholars Program will be under the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty.