Endorsements

We begin by reiterating our immense gratitude to all those who came before us in devising and pushing for improvements to diversity, equity, and inclusion in physics, academia, and society. We especially thank the Divisions for their enlightening discussions on June 10 and applaud the changes they have started to institute, many of which we mirror and propound for broader implementation by all Divisions. 

We strongly endorse the following sets of recommendations recently put forth by student organizations to address systemic anti-Black racism at MIT:

We commend the current collaborations between physics graduate students and Physics Department leadership to

  • Hire a Graduate Student Advocate, an initiative spearheaded by physics graduate students
  • Recruit at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), an initiative spearheaded by the Physics Working Group (PWG), a recently-formed physics graduate student organization

We applaud the ongoing efforts of the Physics Values Committee (PVC) to

  • Compile resources and create a private feedback form on the PVC website
  • Initiate a Recommendations and Actions Process within the PVC for the Department to collectively address longstanding systemic issues
  • Partner with physics departments at other universities to improve equity through APS-IDEA

We strongly commend the actions that the MIT community has taken to support our international students amidst the recent ICE policy changes, including MIT’s strong legal response and message of inclusion, as well as the amicus brief recently filed by the MIT Graduate Student Council.

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