School Spotlight
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Location:
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Type:
Private
Speech Code Rating
Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been given the speech code rating Yellow. Yellow light colleges and universities are those institutions with at least one ambiguous policy that too easily encourages administrative abuse and arbitrary application.
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MITNet Rules of Use
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: July 20, 2022Any use that might contribute to the creation of a hostile academic or work environment is prohibited … Read MoreMIT Policies & Procedures: 9.4 Policy on Harassment
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: July 20, 2022Harassment is defined as unwelcome conduct of a verbal, nonverbal or physical nature that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to create a work or academic environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile or abusive and that adversely affects an individual’s educational, work, or living envir... Read MoreMind and Hand Book: Policies Regarding Student Behavior- II (24). Sexual Misconduct
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: July 20, 2022Sexual Harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, such as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature, when: … The conduct is sufficiently severe or pervasive that a reasonable person would consider it intimidating, hostile,... Read MoreMind and Hand Book: Policies Regarding Student Behavior- II (9) Freedom of Expression
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Last updated: July 20, 2022Freedom of expression is essential to the mission of a university. So is freedom from unreasonable and disruptive offense. Members of this educational community are encouraged to avoid putting these essential elements of our university to a balancing test. Read MoreHousing & Residential Services: Mural Policy
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Posting and Distribution Policies
Last updated: July 20, 2022Unacceptable material includes images or language that is derogatory on the basis of race, color, sex, orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, ancestry, or national or ethnic origin. Read MoreMIT Policies & Procedures: 11.1 Protection of Personal Privacy
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: July 20, 2022MIT is committed to protecting the personal privacy of members of the MIT community. The mutual trust and freedom of thought and expression essential to a university rest on a confidence that privacy will be respected. Read MoreMIT Policies & Procedures: 1.1 Mission and Objectives
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: July 20, 2022The Institute seeks through research and reflection to extend the boundaries of knowledge and the horizons of the human intellect. In so doing, it aims to create an atmosphere of intellectual excitement, a climate of inquiry and innovation in which each student develops a consuming interest in understanding for its ... Read MoreMIT Policies & Procedures: 9.5.1.4 Policy on Harassment: Title IX Sexual Harassment
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: July 20, 2022Title IX Sexual Harassment means: Conduct on the basis of sex that satisfies one or more of the following: … Unwelcome conduct determined by a reasonable person to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to MIT’s education program or activity; … Read More
Policies are rated on their inclusion of 10 due process safeguards. Each policy may receive 2 points for fully including that safeguard, 1 point for partial inclusion, and 0 points for no meaningful inclusion. Most, but not all, institutions have separate policies for sexual misconduct and all other misconduct. See FIRE’s Spotlight on Due Process report for more information.
Grades
FIRE surveyed roughly 37,000 students at 154 colleges and universities about the climate for free speech at their institutions. In 2021, FIRE released rankings of those schools, based on a number of factors, including openness, tolerance, self-expression, administrative support for free speech, and campus policies, scoring overall speech climate on a scale from 0-100. See the full report on FIRE’s 2021 College Free Speech Rankings for more information.
Rankings |
|
| Overall Ranking | 76/154 |
| Ideological Diversity | 102/159 |
Overall / out of a top score of 100 |
|
| Overall Score | 59.54 |
| Openness | 10.36 |
| Tolerance (Liberals) | 10.67 |
| Tolerance (Conservatives) | 8.03 |
| Administrative Support | 5.61 |
| Comfort | 14.95 |
| Disruptive Conduct | 9.92 |
| Speech Climate | |
| Supported Scholars | |
| Sanctioned Scholars | |
| Successful Disinvitations | |
| Speech Code | YELLOW |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Students Prohibited from Asking Others to Wear Masks
March 17, 2022
On March 14, 2022, after the repeal of a local mask mandate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology told students they aren’t allowed to “request” that others wear masks. FIRE wrote to MIT March 17, requesting it rescind the requirement, as forbidding students from simply asking others to wear masks violates the university’s free speech policies. On… Read more
Wilson Report: FIRE Writes to 15 Top Schools to Express Concern About Their Press Policies
November 12, 2020
On November 10, 2020, FIRE sent letters to 15 top colleges and universities across the country to express concern regarding their restrictive press policies. These letters followed a report published by John K. Wilson of the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement (the “Wilson Report”), which gave each of these… Read more
Alumni group receives $500,000 grant to advance free expression on campus
June 15, 2022
When MIT kowtowed to a mob of students, alumni, faculty, and others — some of whom had no connection to the institution — calling for the cancellation of a speaker, the college could not have envisioned the movement that would be birthed from the disinvitation. In October of 2021, MIT rescinded its invitation to University… Read more
VICTORY! MIT drops controversial new mask policy prohibiting requests for others to mask up
March 24, 2022
After pushback from FIRE, Massachusetts Institute of Technology rescinded its controversial new mask policy that wrongly prohibited faculty, students, and staff from asking others to wear face coverings on campus. In a policy update posted yesterday to its website, MIT changed its campus mask policy, which last week banned “request[ing]” that others wear masks. The… Read more
MIT policy says students, faculty can’t ‘request’ others wear masks. (Yes, they can.)
March 17, 2022
At a school with a strong free speech policy like MIT, it should be a no-brainer that students and faculty can ask simple questions. But this week, after a recent change to a local mask mandate, MIT told students they aren’t allowed to “request” that others wear masks — despite the fact that recipients of… Read more
What does MIT stand for? Faculty, alumni want answers.
December 1, 2021
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology prides itself as a hub of brilliant minds and innovation. Last year, MIT researchers filed 439 patents, and through its intellectual property enabled the creation of 25 companies. The institute is affiliated with 98 Nobel Prize laureates, 11 of whom are current faculty. But in recent years, MIT faculty and… Read more
MIT community rallies behind Chicago Statement after Dorian Abbot disinvitation
November 10, 2021
It was only about a month ago that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology made headlines for disinviting University of Chicago geophysics professor Dorian Abbot from a planned lecture due to pressure from critics who questioned Abbot’s stance on campus diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Now, multiple free speech groups and a coalition of MIT community… Read more
The threat of campus orthodoxy has been looming. Dorian Abbot’s MIT disinvitation suggests it’s arrived.
October 6, 2021
For the past decade, the annual John Carlson Lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has given the public an opportunity, free of charge, to hear “exciting new results in climate science” from prominent scholars in the field. Last year’s lecture, during the COVID-19 pandemic, didn’t happen. And there won’t be one this year either… Read more
FIRE urges 15 top colleges and universities to improve restrictive press policies
November 12, 2020
Over the summer, a report from the University of California’s National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement revealed that a majority of top colleges and universities maintain policies unfriendly to the press, including the student press. As FIRE reported at the time, UC Center fellow John K. Wilson found that these policies include requirements… Read more
FIRE Chairman Calls Out Northeast Colleges in Annual ‘Muzzle Awards’
July 6, 2015
Each summer for the past eighteen years, FIRE Co-founder and Chairman Harvey Silverglate has announced the winners of his annual “Campus Muzzle Awards”: colleges and universities in the Northeast stifling campus discourse in particularly outrageous ways. Along with myself and fellow research assistant Timothy Moore, this year, Harvey has written about incidents at Brown University,… Read more
MIT Grad Student Raises Concerns About Broad New Hazing Policy
September 5, 2014
In a guest column published in today’s edition of The Tech, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) oldest student newspaper, graduate student Brian Spatocco opens with a startling admission: “Under MIT’s recently overhauled hazing policy in the Mind and Hand Book, I am guilty of hazing students.” Is Spatocco forcing his fellow students to sizzle… Read more
FIRE President: ‘When the Artist’s Brush Catches the Censor’s Eye’
November 26, 2013
In a column published today by The Tech, an independent student newspaper at MIT, FIRE President Greg Lukianoff explores how far colleges will go to censor controversial art on campus. Titled “When the Artist’s Brush Catches the Censor’s Eye,” Greg’s column cites numerous troubling examples, including the following from MIT: MIT students recently witnessed this type of suppression… Read more
The State of Free Speech on Campus: MIT
June 8, 2009
Throughout the spring semester and into the early summer, FIRE is drawing special attention to the state of free speech at America’s top 25 national universities (as ranked by U.S. News & World Report). Today we review policies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which FIRE has given a yellow-light rating for maintaining policies… Read more