Listening

Dear members of the MIT community,

Since January, I’ve been spending much of my time on an intensive listening tour, meeting with students, staff, faculty, alumni and friends to ask what they value most about the MIT community, what we need to improve and where they hope I’ll devote my attention. In just a few months, I’ve learned so much about how MIT operates and what makes this community both special and unexpected.

I’m grateful to everyone who has shared so willingly, honestly and openly. I can’t imagine a better orientation to this incredible institution.

One of the things I’m hearing regularly is that you want more communication. You want to know not only that your inputs have been delivered but that they’ve been received and considered. As a first step in that direction, I am sharing an account of what I’m hearing on my listening tour. We haven’t posted direct quotes from individuals, but the page should give you a sense of what’s on people’s minds. For now, I’m not going to comment on or respond in a detailed way to what I’m hearing. That will come later, including at my inauguration, on May 1.

We’ll add to the page as the tour continues through the inauguration and beyond. For now, feel free to send me any reactions at president@mit.edu.

Sincerely,

Sally Kornbluth