The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) shuttered its “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) office, eliminated diversity statements from faculty job applications, and cut its Vice President of Equity and Inclusion position. A promising step, but don’t be fooled—DEI persists at MIT. It hasn’t been rebranded; it’s still openly embedded. Interdepartmental committees thrive, and numerous administrative roles tied to DEI remain intact. Reader, let’s dig deeper. Get ready for a masterclass in institutional shell games.
School of Engineering Faculty Gender Equity Committee: “The committee is charged with monitoring and reporting to the Dean on the status of gender equity for faculty in the School.” The committee has a representative from each of the 10 departments within the School of Engineering.
Department of Chemistry Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee: The committee believes that “diversity, including with respect to race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identities and expressions, and disabilities, is our strength. We are committed to promoting the values of inclusion and equity.” It’s also committed thoroughly to anti-racism and anti-discrimination.
The committee comprises faculty, staff, postdoctoral researchers, and students. Its responsibilities are just a tad asinine. It’s supposed to re-evaluate the department’s hiring and admissions processes, enhance cultural competence, and make chemistry more accessible for underrepresented groups. To break that down, the committee would like to reintroduce diversity statements, require implicit bias training, and replace objective, scientific learning with standards that are meager and devoid of real content. And how could I forget that it wants to hire a department equity officer?
Media Lab DEI Working Group: While not as formal as the chemistry department’s DEI committee, this group does have a DEI officer. The officer is responsible for creating DEI programs and initiatives at the Media Lab. Perhaps scientific advancements are a lower priority. Progress has surely taken on a different meaning in the era of DEI. The Media Lab is a world-renowned research facility, yet the lab insists that “diversity, equity, and inclusion are more than just words; they demand action – action that values and welcomes each community member and their unique experiences and perspectives.” Well, action really means a commitment to left-wing causes, namely social justice, the LGBT agenda, and any group remotely anti-Western.
[RELATED: MIT Still Requires DEI Essay of Grad Students After Abandoning Faculty Pledge]
Graduate Student Council Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee: This is a fun albeit amusing one to read about. A current initiative of the GSC DEI committee is to create gender-inclusive bathrooms. A previous initiative created a DEI scorecard to track the progress of DEI-related recommendations at MIT. The scorecard recommends that departments hire a diversity officer, require racial bias training, eliminate the GRE, and review and/or reform its student admissions processes. So far, and it is quite comical, most departments have not followed the recommendations.
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, & Planetary Sciences (EAPS) Diversity, Equity + Inclusion Committee: The committee evaluates the status of “belonging” in the department with input from external DEI experts. Students learn about inclusivity in Earth science and best practices on equity are used to recruit faculty. The cherry on top is that this department specifically has additional groups all committed to DEI. They are:
- EAPS QUeer ALliance (EQUAL), a self-explanatory group supporting the LGBT community.
- TIDE (Towards Inclusion and Diversity in EAPS), a group who wants to build a more diverse EAPS community. Its reading list is available here. Most of the books are about colonialism, feminism, white privilege, environmental justice, racism, and diversity.
- Women+ in Course 12 (WiXII), welcomes “all women, including cis and trans women, non-binary people, and others who are marginalized on the basis of gender. We also welcome allies, including those who do not identify as women, to join us in supporting the voices of underrepresented gender identities in the Earth and Planetary sciences.”
Beyond these committees, DEI admins remain. A senior administrative DEI position was eliminated, yes, but that was only one position. MIT’s administrative body still includes:
- Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, School of Engineering
- Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, School of Science
- Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Lincoln Laboratory
- Community Equity Officer, Department of Mechanical Engineering
- Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Human Resources
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Program Director, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
- Diversity Officer, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
MIT is not fooling anyone. Its decision to close the Institute Community and Equity office made national headlines, all the while DEI committees carried on as though it were not in violation of Trump’s EOs. And MIT’s alumni are paying close attention. The MIT Free Speech Alliance (MFSA) released a statement this week indicating “DEI still officially exists at the department level, giving proponents the opportunity to discourage open discourse and encourage self-censorship.” The remaining positions, committees, and initiatives should be eliminated. Not rebranded. Not reallocated. Eliminated.
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Image: “The Dome at MIT” by David Wiley on Flickr
