Recommendations

Contents

In this section, you can find:

Please also see this page for a general record of changes made in the department, including those initiated by both the PVC and other organizations

Recommendations issued

PVC Recommendation on Supporting URM/Gender-Minority Undergraduates
Physics Values Committee
October 19, 2023

PVC Recommendation on Departmental Piazza Site
Physics Values Committee
October 19, 2023

PVC Recommendation for DEI associated Staff Member
Physics Values Committee
May 27, 2022

PVC Graduate Student Advising Report
Physics Values Committee
May 20, 2022

PVC Report to Visiting Committee 
Physics Values Committee
September 27, 2021

PVC Reccomendations on Underrepresented Minority Postdoc and Faculty Hiring
Physics Values Committee
May 15, 2021

PVC Reccomendations on Staff Inclusion and Belonging
Physics Values Committee
April 6, 2021

 

Steps Towards Diversity and Inclusion
MIT Society of Physics Students
June 18, 2020

Recommendations to the Physics Community regarding Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
MIT Physics Graduate Student Council and the Physics Working Group
July 14, 2020

Recommendations
Concerned group of graduate students, endorsed by PGSC and PhysREFS
January 25, 2021

Building off of PGSC June 2020 recommendations, called for:

  • Instituting a professional development requirement for graduate students
  • Performing a regular evaluation of each of the research areas
  • Ensuring student voices are heard in hiring and promotion cases

Recommendation Letter to Department Heads to address staff issues, April 26, 2021

 

Strike for Black Lives

Many groups in the MIT Physics Department held events during the June 10, 2020 Strike for Black Lives organized by Particles for Justice. On this page you can find information about these events, recommendations that came out of these discussions, and actions that the department or research groups ultimately took in response to the strike. 

Progress reports

Department information

Division Goals and Actions -- Center for Theoretical Physics

Division Goals and Actions -- ABCP (AMO, biophysics, condensed matter, plasma physics)

  • Division-wide actions
  • Center for Ultracold Atoms
    • "As discussed in the many CUA Town Halls during the summer of 2020, the CUA Community Service Steering Committee will be comprised of graduate student and postdoc volunteers. There will be one faculty member volunteer advisor/advocate for the group that won't necessarily be involved in the committees' more routine efforts, but will be available for advice and bureaucratic navigation. There is no limit on the number of committee volunteers. The goal of this committee is to compile opportunities for CUA members to engage in community service (very broadly defined), to create a space for this service work to be summarized and celebrated, and to feed into a collective and encouraging culture within the CUA."

Division Goals and Actions -- Laboratory for Nuclear Science 

LNS held division-wide programming on June 10. In the following weeks, groups of faculty and staff met to discuss actionable items that the division can partake in to improve the environment and opportunities available in LNS. The groups focused on graduate admissions, seminars and colloquia, as well as faculty hiring. LNS put together a draft document summarizing their findings and held a Town Hall on August 3 to discuss it. LNS then formed a BLM Task Force composed of faculty, staff, postdocs, and students (two of each) to formalize those initial suggestions and to begin implementation. The task force will next submit a progress report at the end of October 2020. 

Division Goals and Actions -- MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Science