Menu
  1. Home
  2. Updates

Fostering a culture of free expression: An update

MIT President Sally Kornbluth

This update reflects the status of our work to foster a culture of respectful free expression. We will keep the community current as these initiatives and others proceed.

Last February, I wrote you to express my own strong commitment to freedom of expression in an academic community, and to share and endorse the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. 

As I observed then, if we want this statement to truly take root in and advance the interests of our community, we can’t just post it and hope for the best. I therefore asked the chancellor, the provost and the chair of the faculty to lead us in developing a range of responses that will foster a culture of free expression at MIT. 

Thanks to their leadership, and the creativity and initiative of many other groups and individuals at MIT, we’re making good progress. Here's a snapshot of these positive efforts so far.

New Subcommittee on Academic Freedom and Campus Expression (SAFCE)

The Faculty Policy Committee (FPC) is piloting a new community resource, the FPC Subcommittee on Academic Freedom and Campus Expression (SAFCE). Its central assignment: to develop a campus expression roadmap that will propose practical steps to advance the recommendations of the report of the MIT Ad Hoc Working Group on Free Expression (FEWG). I encourage you to read the full SAFCE charge.

I’m delighted that two senior faculty have agreed to co-chair SAFCE: Anette “Peko” Hosoi, associate chair of the faculty and Pappalardo Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Michael Sipser, former dean of science and Donner Professor of Applied Mathematics. They are still assembling the full roster, which will include students and faculty as well as staff from the Office of the Provost, Division of Student Life (DSL), and Institute Community and Equity Office. SAFCE will report to and advise the FPC. 

Discussion opportunities and classes 

Last spring, as part of an effort called “Dialogues Across Difference: Building Community at MIT,” we hosted a talk by John Tomasi, president of Heterodox Academy, in conversation with John Dozier, then MIT’s Institute Community and Equity Officer (ICEO).

A second event is coming up on October 26: Professor of History Malick Ghachem will discuss “Neutrality, Diversity, and the University: The Making of the 1967 Kalven Report,” followed by a conversation moderated by interim Deputy ICEO Tracie Jones-Barrett. You may join via webcast or in person (3:30 to 4:30 pm on the 6th floor of the Samberg Conference Center). Registration is not required.

In that same spirit – and in a very welcome grassroots response – faculty and staff across the Institute are also creating a range of opportunities for members of our community to hear diverse points of view and to observe and practice the skills of constructive, respectful discourse.

  • The MIT Libraries and History Section have joined forces to launch a new speaker series called “Conversations on Academic Freedom and Expression,” or CAFE. Their first event was “Book Wars,” a discussion with Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian at Oxford University. Another speaker will soon be announced for the spring.
  • Professors Alex Byrne and Brad Skow of the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy have launched a two-year project funded by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations called “Civil Discourse in the Classroom and Beyond.” The project will feature a speaker series, beginning October 24 with a discussion of how we should respond to climate change, and a seminar designed to help students develop skills associated with civil discourse. The seminar will be offered through Concourse, a first-year advising program, by Professor of History Anne McCants, who directs Concourse, and Linda Rabieh, a senior lecturer in the program. Concourse plans to extend opportunities for civil discourse to the broader MIT student community in the spring.
  • Professor Ghachem, who was also a member of FEWG, is conducting an advising seminar for first-year undergraduates called “Free Expression, Pluralism, and the University.”

Institute postering policy

This fall, following many months of discussion, we finalized a new policy to govern the use of bulletin boards and similar postering and display spaces in our most public areas. We are now working to spread the word directly to those who most need to know about the policy, including the leaders of student groups and residential leaders.

Because this policy affects our entire community, it was shaped through extensive vetting, including review by Academic Council, the FPC, MIT Human Resources, the Undergraduate Association, the Graduate Student Council, DSL, the Association of Student Activities, the Student Policy Review Committee, our Heads of House, DormCon and the FSILG Executive Board.

The Student Belonging Coalition 

To foster a campus community in which our students feel they belong and are able to freely express themselves, DSL is launching the Student Belonging Coalition, which will:

  • Coordinate and align efforts to deliver signature and high-impact programs and events in our residence halls and student spaces that help students develop open and respectful relations with others and learn the art of navigating difficult conversations and communicating effectively
  • Develop shared language for student belonging and freedom of expression as it relates to living in community with others
  • Coordinate training and education efforts across campus, including “Sustained Dialogue,” which provides advising and support for student groups engaging in dialogue around difficult topics. Since its launch in the fall of 2022, more than 600 students have been trained, including graduate resident advisors, members of the Interfraternity and Panhellenic Councils, and other student organization leaders.