Diversity and excellence explored at Institute summit
In 2010, faculty from all five MIT schools released an assessment of diversity in the Institute’s faculty. The report of the Initiative on Faculty Race and Diversity, issued through the Office of the Provost, found that while recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority faculty had vastly improved in recent years, the “climate” around race and inclusion — the day-to-day experience of minority groups within MIT’s culture — is “distinctly and sometimes painfully different from that of their majority peers.” In particular, the report revealed a tension at MIT between diversity and excellence: a belief, whether right or wrong, that by seeking to make its faculty more diverse, MIT sacrifices its core value of academic excellence. Last week, faculty, students and staff gathered to examine this underlying tension during the 2012 Institute Diversity Summit. During the daylong event, participants and audience members gathered in MIT’s 10-250 lecture hall for panel discussions...