Worth fighting for: MIT and American science, innovation and education

Dear MIT graduates and friends,

In a letter last fall, I offered fresh evidence of how MIT continues to live out its mission and values, with direct benefits to the American people. In April, I sought your help in convincing Congress that federally supported university research is crucial to the country’s health, wealth and national security.

Today, I write again to seek your help – with even greater urgency.

In the coming days – very likely before July 4th – the Senate will vote on next year’s tax bill. Like a number of other leading universities, MIT has turned generations of alumni support into a substantial endowment; we use the income from those investments overwhelmingly to support financial aid and research.

MIT now pays a 1.4% tax on that investment income. The current Senate version of the bill would hike this endowment tax rate to 8%.

To give you a sense of scale, for MIT that proposed tax hike is equivalent to our entire annual undergraduate financial aid budget, which provides aid to about 60% of our undergraduates or about 2,600 students every year.

Worse still, the rate in the House version of the bill jumps to 21% – an even more punishing blow to MIT, and to American science, innovation and education.

There’s no way to tell what the House and the Senate will agree to – but there is still time to change the outcome.

Any increase in taxes on these charitable resources would be a permanent, self-inflicted wound to the national security, health and prosperity of the American people. So I urge you to make that case now to US senators and representatives who represent you or whom you may know.

The MIT Alumni Association offers practical tools for shaping and sending a letter to representatives in the House and Senate, and you’ll find further compelling resources on our new Understanding MIT page.

As we’ve all seen, MIT and many of our peers have faced a range of recent threats. The proposed endowment tax is not the first, and – given looming cuts to next year’s agency research budgets – it won’t be the last. But in the case of MIT, it represents the most serious current threat.

If you believe MIT and America’s leadership in science, innovation and education are worth fighting for, now is the time for action.

Sincerely,

Sally Kornbluth