About

Mission Statement

The mission of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion working group at the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering is to facilitate reforms and provide resources that (1) increase diversity among students, staff, and faculty; (2) foster an inclusive environment that fully values all members of the department; (3) advance social equity within the department and in the broader MIT community; and (4) amplify underrepresented voices in departmental decision-making spaces.

Working Group Structure

Subcommittees




Recruiting and Admissions SC 1.1 Removing GRE as an entrance requirement for grad school
Recruiting and Admissions SC 1.2 Conduct an external review of the admissions and hiring processes in the Mechanical Engineering department
Recruiting and Admissions SC 1.3 Develop and implement programs to encourage URM candidates to apply to undergraduate and graduate school and faculty and staff positions in Mechanical Engineering
Recruiting and Admissions SC 1.4 10 year plans and challenges towards equal to population representation
Recruiting and Admissions SC 1.5 Support OEOP and other K-12 STEM outreach programs and incentivize graduate student participation in outreach
Education and support at MIT SC 2.1 Increase visibility of BIPOC and URM professionals in STEM and academia through talks, seminars, symposiums, forums, and classes.
Education and support at MIT SC 2.2 Fund research/data collection efforts into hidden inequalities we may be creating and perpetuating within the department:
Education and support at MIT SC 2.3 Develop a formalized, transparent process for reporting and addressing instances of race-based discrimination in the department.
Education and support at MIT SC 2.4 Design and implement new orientation activities to support incoming URM graduate students in Mechanical Engineering
Education and support at MIT SC 2.5 Strengthen and expand tailored resources for promoting the well-being and success of URM students
Training on DEI SC 3.1 Require diversity and implicit bias training for all members of the MIT community
Accountability on DEI issues SC 4.1 Publicly announce exactly how much money the Mechanical Engineering Department plans to spend on DEI initiatives annually.
Accountability on DEI issues SC 4.2 Require exit interviews for any graduate student leaving a lab group
Accountability on DEI issues SC 4.3 Incorporate experts with experience in changing culture around discrimination into the department Visiting Committee
Accountability on DEI issues SC 4.4 Make DEI reports public in semi-annual departmental town halls
Accountability on DEI issues SC 4.5 Organizing collaboration within the working group to activites that help the departmental task force
Resource collection SC 5.1 Combining resources to act as an information center for anyone interested in learning about DEI
Activism resources SC 6.1 Developing tools and resources to assist organizing efforts
Activism resources SC 6.2 Enhancing undergraduate participation within the WG and enhancing undergraduate participation on DEI issues
DEI WG Internal Org SC 7.1 Workshop for conversations with faculty and people outside the group
DEI WG Internal Org SC 7.2 Orientation folder and onboarding process for people interest in the DEI WG and learning about DEI (will pull from SC 5.1 and Mission)
DEI WG Internal Org SC 7.3 Developing reporting structure and transparent communication within WG and interfacing sub-com outcomes with WG mission

Contact

Please reach out to us at mit.meche.dei@gmail.com

Join the Working Group

Let us know if there's a particular subcommittee (or multiple) that you're interested in working on, or feel free to share what you'd like to get involved in!