Report outlines path to greater campus inclusiveness
In 2013, MIT President L. Rafael Reif appointed Professor Edmund Bertschinger, who was then the head of the Department of Physics, to the newly created post of Institute Community and Equity Officer (ICEO). In this role, Bertschinger was charged with developing a strategic plan that would advance Reif’s vision of “a caring community focused on MIT's shared values of excellence, meritocracy, openness, integrity and mutual respect … [and drawing] strength and energy from our extraordinary diversity of experiences and backgrounds.” The goal, Reif explained: “for everyone here to feel, as so many of us already do, that MIT is home.” Today — after interviewing hundreds of faculty, staff, students, postdocs, and alumni, as well as conducting extensive research on practices both at MIT and at its peer institutions — Bertschinger has released a 132-page report that includes a wide array of recommendations for ways to increase the sense of collegiality and inclusion...