Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Website: http://www.mit.edu/
Type: Private
Federal Circuit: 1st Circuit

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. Read more here.

At present, FIRE has not been involved in any cases at this school.
Yellow Light Policies

  • Mind and Hand Book: Policies Regarding Student Behavior- II (8) Freedom of Expression

    Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
    Last updated: June 29, 2016

    Freedom 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 More

  • MIT Policies & Procedures: 9.4 Policy on Racist Behavior

    Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
    Last updated: June 29, 2016

    Harassment or discrimination against individuals on the basis of race, whether subtle or blatant, is unacceptable at MIT. It will be addressed with quick and decisive action whenever it occurs. Racism and racist behavior interfere with an individual’s growth and well-being in the academic and living environments at MIT.

    The Institute is committed to the elimination of racism and to the thorough handling of any allegation of racist behavior. In such situations, it will be the Institute’s aim to protect the rights of all individuals involved and to safeguard the welfare of everyone in the MIT community.

    » Read More

  • MIT Policies & Procedures: 9.5 Policy on Harassment

    Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
    Last updated: June 29, 2016

    Harassment is any conduct, verbal or physical, on or off campus, that has the intent or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual or group’s educational or work performance at MIT or that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational, work, or living environment.

    . . .

    Sexual harassment may take many forms. Sexual assault and requests for sexual favors that affect educational or employment decisions constitute sexual harassment. However, sexual harassment may also consist of unwanted physical contact, requests for sexual favors, visual displays of degrading sexual images, sexually suggestive conduct, or offensive remarks of a sexual nature.

    » Read More

  • MITNet Rules of Use

    Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
    Last updated: June 29, 2016

    Any use that might contribute to the creation of a hostile academic or work environment is prohibited ….

    » Read More

  • Student Sexual Harassment and Misconduct Policy

    Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
    Last updated: June 29, 2016

    Sexual Harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, such as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature, when:

    • submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a condition of an individual’s employment or academic standing; or
    • submission to, or rejection of, such conduct is used as the basis for employment decisions (such as advancement, performance evaluation, or work schedule) or academic decisions (such as grading or letters of recommendation); or
    • such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s working conditions, academic experience, or living conditions, or of creating a hostile working, academic, or living environment.

    Even one instance of sexual harassment, if severe enough, may create a hostile environment. A non-exhaustive set of examples of conduct that might constitute sexual harassment are included below.  One or more of these actions will be considered sexual harassment only when that conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with another individual’s working conditions, academic experience, or living conditions, or of creating a hostile working, academic, or living environment.

    Examples of verbal sexual harassment may include unwelcome conduct such as unwelcome sexual flirtation, advances or propositions or requests for sexual activity or dates; asking about someone else’s sexual activities, fantasies, preferences, or history; discussing one’s own sexual activities, fantasies, preferences, or history; verbal abuse of a sexual nature; suggestive comments; sexually explicit jokes; turning discussions at work or in the academic environment to sexual topics; and making offensive sounds such as smacking or licking lips, kissing sounds, or “wolf whistles.”

    Examples of nonverbal sexual harassment include unwelcome conduct such as displaying sexual objects, pictures or other images; invading a person’s personal body space, such as standing closer than appropriate or necessary or hovering; displaying or wearing objects or items of clothing which express sexually offensive comments; making sexual gestures with hands or body movements; looking at a person in a sexually suggestive or intimidating manner; or delivering unwanted letters, gifts, or other items of a sexual nature. In addition, nonconsensual sexual contact, sexual exploitation, and nonconsensual sexual penetration may constitute nonverbal instances of sexual harassment.

    Sexual harassment does not include material or discussion that is appropriately related to course subject matter or curriculum, and this policy shall not abridge academic freedom or the Institute’s educational mission.

    » Read More

Green Light Policies

  • MIT Policies & Procedures: 1.1 Mission and Objectives

    Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
    Last updated: June 29, 2016

    The 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 own sake.

    » Read More

  • MIT Policies & Procedures: 11.1 Protection of Personal Privacy

    Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
    Last updated: June 29, 2016

    MIT 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 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, SUNY Buffalo State, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Norwich University, and Harvard Law School. As always, a key theme is students’ and administrators’ desire to shield themselves from uncomfortable speech or ideas. Regarding the incident at Harvard Law School, Harvey writes: The campus “disinvitation” trend forces […]

    » 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 like bacon—or something far worse? No. But under MIT’s new hazing policy, Spatocco is guilty nonetheless. And he’s not alone. Here’s the new policy’s definition of hazing: Any action or activity that causes or intends to cause physical or mental discomfort or distress, that may […]

    » 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 when the school painted over certain murals in the Burton-Conner dormitory. Unconventional student art can be found throughout the halls of Burton-Conner. The building is filled with “lovely, quirky, bizarre, exquisitely beautiful art,” according to Anne McCants, the dormitory’s housemaster. The censored murals, however, touched upon aspects […]

    » 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 that could too easily be used to suppress free speech at the university. MIT is a private university. However, it holds itself out, through its mission and objectives, as a place where students and faculty are encouraged to engage in unfettered intellectual exploration (in contrast […]

    » Read More