Update on the Free Expression Statement

December 23, 2022

Dear colleagues,

In September, President Reif shared the full report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Free Expression, including its proposed statement of principle.

Since then, the MIT Faculty has been engaged together in a historic process of articulating what free expression and academic freedom mean to us. Through hours of thoughtful, open debate during an unprecedented series of Institute Faculty Meetings, we have explored the core tenets of the statement, deliberated over possible edits, and incorporated revisions to the proposed text.

On December 21, by a majority vote, the Faculty adopted a revised Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom, which appears at the end of this letter and is available on the Faculty Governance website, ... Message from the Chair