These are updates as of January 2021 from the Biology (Course 7) and Biological Engineering (Course 20) departments at MIT, with regard to improving their departments’ efforts in diversity, equity, and inclusion.
General
MIT’s graduate student population demographics are available here.
- October 2020: SUBE’s exec team signs on to the RISE campaign’s petition for Course 20 to have its own departmental Diversity Equity and Inclusion Position, instead of a joint position with Courses 3 and 10.
- Summer 2020: MIT graduate students started the RISE (Reject Injustice through Student Empowerment) campaign. This campaign fights injustice as MIT and advocates for marginalized people in the MIT community.
Course 20
There are no DEI updates from Course 20 after October 2020.
- October 2020: Course 20 announces the heads of its departmental DEI task force.We will post updates to this page when more information is announced.
- October 2020: Course 20 announces its search for a shared Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Position with Courses 3 and 10 has been approved.
- October 2020: Course 20 starts a joint DEI seminar series with Courses 3 and 10. The first speaker was Angela Davis.
- August 2020: Undergraduate and graduate students form SUBE.
Course 7
To read more about Course 7’s DEI work, visit their Diversity page. Statistics on the diversity of their graduate program are available here.
- January 2021: Course 7 assembles a departmental DEI council, which consists of faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate students.
- August 2020: Undergraduate and graduate students form SUBE.
- July 2020: Course 7 assembles a DEI faculty committee for issues relevant to faculty.
- 2018: Graduate students form the Biology Diversity Committee, which supports underrepresented students in the biology community.