Ad Hoc Committee on Arts, Culture, and DEI

Activating the Arts and Humanities

President Reif’s letter to the MIT Community on July 1, 2020 outlined the steps that MIT will take to address systemic problems regarding racial equity at the Institute. As part of the commitment to confront our history, challenge common assumptions, and incorporate previously marginalized voices, he called for an ad hoc committee to activate the arts and humanities in this effort. Then-provost Martin Schmidt appointed John Dozier, Institute Community Equity Officer, and Philip S. Khoury, Associate Provost and Ford International Professor of History, to co-chair this committee.

The Report

The Ad Hoc Committee submitted its report in April 2022, making several recommendations, some immediate and some longer term. These include:

• Creating and sustaining an arts festival,
• Increasing support for student groups in the performing and visual arts,
• Diversifying MIT’s public art collection,
• Creating a DEIA (“A” for accessibility) tour of the MIT campus, and 
• Evaluating the legacy of MIT’s third president, Francis Amasa Walker, and the building named in his honor (Building 50).

To translate this vision into action, in December 2022 Provost Cynthia Barnhart announced the creation of a DEI Arts and Culture Implementation Committee. Co-chaired by Dozier and Khoury, this committee will coordinate the efforts of four working groups: the Arts Festival Working Group, the Campus Tour Working Group, the Public Art Collection Working Group, and the Student Arts Groups Working Group. Efforts to advance a study on Amasa Walker are on a separate path, under the direction of Dozier and Professor of History Craig Wilder. 

For more information about the implementation committee’s work, you may reach the committee directly at deiarts@mit.edu.  

Recommendation 4 of the report submitted to Provost Barnhart from the Ad Hoc Committee on Arts, Culture and DEI references diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) as it applies to the creation of a tour of the MIT campus. There were robust discussions with the Ad Hoc Committee on Arts and Culture about physical accessibility—especially related to this recommendation. The final report did not fully reflect those discussions. We regret this omission and are adding this commentary to acknowledge that even though the committee’s intent was to work with a definition of accessibility that fully reflects MIT’s commitments to equity and inclusion as they specifically relate to people with disabilities, our final output fell short. In the implementation of recommendation 4 (and all other recommendations), we will be more careful and deliberate in creating a stronger sense of belonging and inclusion for all members of our community.