What is an ICEO and why does MIT have one?
The Institute Community and Equity Officer (ICEO) was established in July 2014, with the appointment of Professor Edmund Bertschinger. The new position replaced the previous dual position of Associate Provosts for Faculty Equity. It is intended to help MIT to make practical progress on the subjects of community, equity, inclusion and diversity, for the entire MIT community including faculty, students, postdocs, and staff on campus and at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. The ICEO reports to the provost.
The position was created after two groups, the Committee on Race and Diversity and the Council on Staff Diversity and Inclusion, called on the newly inaugurated President Reif in October, 2013 to establish an office to help organize and coordinate campus-wide efforts and initiatives supporting the president’s vision for an inclusive community. The groups requested that this office or officer work across all levels and all areas of MIT including students, postdocs, staff and faculty. At many universities the person fulfilling this role is called Chief Diversity Officer; while the MIT role is functionally similar (albeit without any compliance functions), the ICEO title emphasizes the breadth of the role.
Matters of equity, diversity, and inclusion at MIT are distributed across many offices, including the Human Resources Department, the Division of Student Life, the offices of the Deans for Undergraduate and Graduate Education, the Ombuds Office, the undergraduate and graduate student governments, and the Postdoctoral Association. The ICEO serves as a thought leader and supporter of these distributed efforts, a focal point for organizing MIT-wide activities, and a hands-on practitioner who disseminates and supports the implementation of best practices.
The ICEO continues three activities previously undertaken by the Associate Provosts for Faculty Equity:
- Administering the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professors and Scholars Program
- Participating as equity officer in faculty annual salary review
- Representing MIT in the MIT-9 group of vice provosts for faculty equity
The ICEO consolidated the budget and oversight of several activities spread across the offices of the provost and president: the MLK breakfast celebration, MLK Leadership Awards, and funding for and reporting of the Committee on Race and Diversity.
The appointment of the ICEO came with the charge to develop and lead a strategic planning process engaging the entire MIT community, leading to a mission statement reflecting two objectives: deepening the sense of inclusion based on MIT’s shared values, and helping all members of the MIT community to appreciate and leverage its diversity of experiences and backgrounds. The plan should also articulate a set of achievable goals and the means for assessing progress toward these goals. The ICEO spent much of the first year meeting with community members to gather ideas for a report and strategic plan responding to this charge.
As a result of the ICEO listening tour and an all-campus notice about MIT’s harassment policies and complaint-handling procedures, concerns about departmental climate and abrasive conduct were heard from several groups. The ICEO advised several department heads, deans and other senior administrators on how best to address the challenges.
During the first year of the new ICEO role, MIT hosted the following Visiting Professors and Scholars:
- Prof. Modupe Akinola (Columbia University), hosted by the Sloan School of Management
- Prof. Erika Camacho and Prof. Steven Wirkus (both from Arizona State University), hosted by the Math Department
- Dr. Sophia Inunza Cisneros and Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, hosted by the Physics Department
- Ta-Nehisi Coates, hosted by the Comparative Media Studies/Writing Section
- Dr. Karilyn Crockett, hosted by the Department of Urban Studies and Planning
- Prof. Julio D’Arcy (Washington University), hosted by the Chemistry Department
- Miloon Kothari, hosted by the Department of Urban Studies and Planning
- Prof. Jason Sello (Brown University), hosted by the Biology Department
- Prof. Christopher Rose (Rutgers University), hosted by the AeroAstro Department
Each Visiting Professor or Scholar gave a public presentation and they built a lively community on campus. Ta-Nehisi Coates gave a reading of the opening chapter of this book under preparation, Between the World and Me. In 2015 this book won the National Book Award.
In addition, during FY2014 the ICEO undertook the following activities:
- Met with student survivors of sexual assault and participated in the MIT Title IX Working Group
- Advised the HR department in the creation of educational materials on presenting sexual harassment taken by all new employees
- Organized an orientation event for new academic department heads
- Trained School of Engineering search committee chairs on unconscious bias
- Served as executive sponsor of the African, Black, American and Caribbean Employee Resource Group
- Served as a cluster facilitator in MIT LeaderShape, an undergraduate leadership development week-long program, January 2014
- Spoke at the Institute Diversity Summit, January 2014
- Participated in numerous conferences and retreats on diversity, equity and inclusion at MIT and nationally
- Served as co-chair of the Committee on Race and Diversity and as a member of the Office of Minority Education Faculty Advisory Committee