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4mo ago

MIT Shutters DEI Office Following 18-Month Assessment and Federal Investigation

Federal scrutiny of race-based practices prompted MIT to close its central DEI office as it prepares to decentralize support through campus community initiatives.

The Great Dome at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Thursday, October 20, 2022, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Overview

  • MIT President Sally Kornbluth announced the sunsetting of the Institute Community and Equity Office and the elimination of the vice president for equity and inclusion after a comprehensive 18-month review.
  • The university joins 44 others in a Department of Education civil rights probe into alleged race-exclusionary practices in graduate programs.
  • Federal funding cuts tied to DEI policies have cost MIT up to $35 million while the Trump administration has frozen more than $3 billion in research grants to Harvard.
  • Kornbluth says future inclusion efforts will be integrated into academic and student affairs departments and led at the campus community level.
  • The decision follows MIT’s earlier removal of diversity statements from hiring and admissions and underscores a national trend reevaluating higher education DEI initiatives.