MIT's president announces new steps for the university — one day after Harvard's Claudine Gay resigned
Mark Schiefelbein/ap
- MIT President Sally Kornbluth announced four "new steps" to help the university progress.
- The memo comes one day after Claudine Gay resigned as Harvard's president.
- Critics have also called for Kornbluth's resignation after other university leaders' departures.
The third university president still weathering the fallout of a December congressional hearing is speaking out.
Sally Kornbluth, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology President, sent a memo with "four immediate steps" to help the school progress this semester.
"I want to name the challenges I'm seeing and hearing about, and put us on a path to solving them together," she said in the memo.
Kornbluth's four points of progress for MIT include:
Benchmarking and improving student disciplinary processes
A shared understanding of the rights and responsibilities of free expression
Making sure its DEI programs effectively meet campus needs
Targeted questions in its campus climate survey
Kornbluth's memo comes one day after Harvard's Claudine Gay resigned from her post and weeks after Liz Magill stepped down from her presidency at the University of Pennsylvania. The three leaders had drawn criticism over their responses to congressional questioning in December over Jewish genocide as it relates to their respective codes of conduct.
Their answers elicited resignation calls from the likes of billionaire investor Bill Ackman — who turned his attention to Kornbluth following Gay's resignation.
"Et tu Sally?" Ackman said in the post.
And Republican lawmakers have also joined in on Ackman's public callout of Kornbluth.
"Two down, one to go," Rep. Byron Donalds posted on X.
"The hardest, most important work — for the administration and for everyone at MIT — is the challenge of listening seriously, rebuilding trust, and caring for our community," Kornbluth said in the memo.
"Our leadership remains focused on ensuring the work of MIT continues," an MIT spokesperson previously told Business Insider.