Report on MIT’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, for review and comment

To the members of the MIT community:

I’m writing to bring to your attention a new report on MIT’s engagements with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (you can find relevant MIT News coverage here). This report was requested by President Rafael Reif on October 15, following the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two weeks earlier. President Reif asked me, in my role as associate provost for international activities, to reassess our engagements with Saudi Arabia in light of these events and their aftermath. The report describes these engagements briefly and recommends a course of action for the Institute on this matter.

I am making this report available to the MIT community for comment. If you have comments that you would like to share, please send them to comments-ksareview@mit.edu. I would appreciate receiving these by January 15. I will forward the report to President Reif together with a summary of your comments. He will then decide on a course of action for MIT.

Sincerely,

Richard Lester
Associate Provost
Japan Steel Industry Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering