To President Hockfield, the MIT Corporation, the MIT administration, and whomever it may concern:
We are the Campaign for Students. Today, many students feel disregarded, misled, and under-supported. Our mission is to revive student participation and to emphasize the importance of student life at MIT. We are dedicated to securing for students what MIT’s mission promises: “the support and intellectual stimulation of a diverse campus community.” Only with the support of diverse student life and traditions can MIT deliver on this promise.
Recently, MIT’s student population has noticed the growth of a disturbing trend. The administration consistently disregards student opinion. Students feel misled into believing that decision makers will use their input. In addition, the administration’s lack of internal communication impairs its ability to effectively support student life and tradition. Our website - http://www.campaignforstudents.com - documents these problems.
Student participation and culture constitute an essential part of MIT. MIT is respected not only for its excellent academics but also for producing leaders ready to change the world. How can students better humankind if they are not allowed to better student life? How can they change the world when they cannot even change MIT? MIT traditions are about pushing the envelope and attempting the impossible. How can students benefit from these traditions if they are carelessly shut down?
What do we want in the future of MIT? Does MIT want students to just accept the norm without question? Does MIT want to produce followers, or leaders? In order to restore students’ faith in MIT, we think that the following are essential:
- Any meeting affecting students must have publicly accessible notes, whether a student is present or not.
- MIT must host monthly town hall meetings with senior administrators open to the entire student body.
- Students must be full voting members in administrative committees including the Academic Council, the Corporation, and the Executive Committee.
- MIT needs a complaint registration system for students, with accountability in addressing students’ concerns.
- MIT must address the problems related to student tradition in a way which will reflect mutual trust between MIT and its students.
- The MIT Corporation must prove to students that it puts education before business.
Students choose MIT for the culture of learning by doing, not a culture of learning by accepting. At this year’s Convocation President Hockfield said, “It had long since come to [da Vinci’s] attention that people of accomplishment rarely sit back and let things happen to them. They go out and happen to things.” We have taken this to heart. It is our turn to go out, to take action, and to deliver the MIT that we were promised.
-The Campaign for Students
