From the River to the Sea to Every Mountain Top
Some of my fellow MIT students take issue with the chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” But do you know what actually exists from the river to the sea? A fractured patchwork of different political jurisdictions, within which about seven million Palestinians live without the same basic rights as seven million Jews.
A Bavarian MIT?
Despite its size, with over 45,000 students as of 2023, making it the largest technical university in Germany, TUM's demonstration is that even the biggest "tankers" in the higher education sector can navigate swiftly.
MLK Jr. Gala Action & Remarks
Let us remember the words of Dr. King: “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
Growing concerns about the safety of the MIT community
We have watched with disappointment and unease over the past weeks as the Institute has reacted disproportionately to student activists, as it stifled the voices of our student community members, and as the Coalition Against Apartheid’s guest posts on the MIT Student Life Instagram page led to the page being shut down within hours, all despite Israeli flags lining the windows of the Engineering Building along Massachusetts Avenue for weeks before they were removed.
A Bavarian MIT?
In Fall 2023, Bavaria attracted over 7.2 million visitors, solidifying its status as a dream destination. These figures set a new milestone for the Munich Wiesn, the internationally acclaimed Oktoberfest. Equally record-breaking, and a hot topic for study abroad programs, is the ascendance of Bavaria's Technical University of Munich (TUM). For several years, TUM has been heralded as Germany's leading university, consistently securing top spots in the Shanghai Ranking, QS, and THE, with its graduates being ranked 13th worldwide in employer esteem. Despite Germany's innovation economy having a hard time, TUM students have consistently produced successful high-growth startups, prompting a question: What's going on in the land of Dirndl, Lederhosen, and why does it matter to MIT?
DEI Bureaucracy Fails the Stress Test
Before we create another misguided bureaucracy—and particularly before we select the next Institute Community and Equity Officer, this failure of the existing administrative offices should be recognized by an immediate hiring freeze and a thorough examination of these programs by an objective outside party.
The ASA Should De-Recognize Groups that Deliberately Violate MIT’s Content-Neutral Policies
The resulting course of action that the ASA Board must take is clear: investigation and, if (presumably) appropriate, de-recognition of the CAA.
Speaking out Against Genocide in Palestine and Repression of Free Speech on MIT’s Campus
We join our voices to those of our campus colleagues to demand that MIT stop repressing members of the community who are bravely giving their time and energy to advocate for an end to the violence in occupied Palestine. An institution of MIT’s caliber deserves better leadership.
Calls for ‘Intifada’ Are Traumatizing MIT’s Jewish Community
In the hours after the intifada rally, President Kornbluth released a lukewarm statement in which she denounced all forms of hate without mentioning the CAA by name or making note of their calls to violence. We call on President Kornbluth to use her presidential voice to directly condemn these calls for violent intifada against Jews.
Smartphones and Cigarettes Go Hand in Hand
Using smartphones is very different from smoking as one consists of using a handheld device while the other directly causes lung cancer and air pollution, but they are fundamentally not that distinct from a behavioral point of view.
Clarity from Christians at MIT
Christian groups on campus have a history of coldness and outright discrimination of our queer community members. This piece highlights the mixed progress we’ve made towards an inclusive campus and calls for all groups to make clear their support or lack thereof for proud, queer Christians.
The Tech’s Existential Crisis Is Your Existential Opportunity
This newspaper is undergoing an existential crisis. There are not enough staff members and not enough money for it to continue to exist. The money problem can be fixed with help from its 1,200 alumni. But they can’t come back and put out the paper and maintain the website. That requires student staff.
Problematic Postering: Why You Need to Care About Policies, Practices, and People
I understand that not everyone will agree with the message or method of the postering campaign, and I accept this fact and respect it. Despite the controversy behind the postering campaign, I remain supportive of its intentions.
The Boston Marathon Bombings, ten years later
Through this tragedy, the city revealed its true character that has manifested itself time and time again: a place of adaptability, resilience, and heart.
Vote ‘yes’ on recall, and other thoughts about student advocacy
The amount of active harm Spicer has done in the process of trying to accomplish his goals on the freedom of expression massively outweighs any benefit which could have been gained by students.
MIT Reflections: Does MIT fulfill the values it claims?
Black students entered the event to demonstrate that we will not be silenced and to ensure our experiences are not sanitized for the comfort of others. This effort was organized in response to malicious events that occurred during the first week of classes, but Black people on campus deal with nearly constant affronts that spur our organizing including daily racial aggressions, traumatizing encounters with MIT police, and years-long deferrals on meaningful action to address our needs. What happened the first week of classes, detailed below, is both symbolic and symptomatic of larger issues of anti-Blackness within the Institute.
Student leaders call for real recourse NOW!
To deal with incidents of harassment and discrimination like this, the institute currently presents Institute Harassment and Discrimination Response (IDHR) as the only path for recourse, stating that it is indeed trusted by the grad population. How can this be the case when a survey run by the Association of American Universities reports that 39.4% of grad students reported experiencing harassing behavior, yet less than 1% utilized IDHR?
Posters protesting problematic protection of free expression miss the point
Apparently a very small number of advocates, upset with last year’s Report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Freedom of Expression and the passage of the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom in December, put up posters on campus to protest what they saw was problematic protection of free expression. Their efforts were, no doubt, well-intentioned, but they were, shall we say, strategically questionable.
MIT, it’s time to support your police officers
Since November, the MIT Police Association has distributed more than 6,000 flyers[1] to students and faculty. Standing outside campus interrupting you as you make your way to class is not something we want to do. But unfortunately, it has become our reality. The response from faculty and students has been overwhelming — thank you! However, the school and Chief DiFava continue to show zero respect or support to rank-and-file officers.
MIT GSU’s proposed grievance procedure offers solution to broken advising system
The following stories were collected from seven Master’s and/or PhD program alumni who endured severe and prolonged bullying from the same advisor at MIT. Their experiences span 14 years, from when the first of them joined the group to when the last left. All of them suffered deep injury to not only their careers and wellbeing, but also the scientific rigor of their research. By silencing dissent, shutting down inquiry, and demanding that data be massaged to fit pre-existing theories, this advisor and his unchecked abuse directly threaten MIT’s fundamental mission and its reputation for expanding the bounds of human knowledge. These alumni do not share their stories to disparage the Institute, but rather to highlight the failures of current policies in responding to cases of advisor abuse. They implore the MIT administration to listen to grad workers and accept the MIT GSU’s proposed grievance procedure for harassment, discrimination, and bullying. This change would offer grad workers suffering advisor abuse real protection and recourse, thus making MIT a better place for both researchers and research.