News & Video:

As the Institute responds to the rapidly evolving situation, OGE has posted updates on our services.

As of September 24, 2018, graduate student petitions for late Adds, Drops or Changes in Grading Status (changes to or from graduate P/D/F, Graded, and Listener Status) have been moved online and these three types of petitions are no longer submitted via the paper Graduate Student General Petition Form. Learn more.

Would you like a little extra help in figuring out the ins and outs of your financial landscape as a grad student?  Here are a few resources:

Workshops

The OGE offers a series of workshops this fall, from “Applying for Graduate Fellowships” (its never too early to think about it!) to “Intro to Investing” and more. Free pizza! RSVPs requested.

iGrad

MIT sponsors a completely free iGrad Financial Literacy platform (offered in collaboration with the MIT Federal Credit Union). It’s customized with videos, articles, games, job board, searchable scholarship database, and interactive modules on a wide range of topics, including emergency-funding, credit card management, identity protection, spending-smarts, etc. and is a great financial literacy tool for students and the MIT community in general. Create your own profile for a tailored experience!

Other online tools

On the OGE website, we’ve added a new Financial Literacy section and have updated the fellowships section, including the “tips” content.  Check it out!

Martin J. Walsh, Mayor of the City of Boston, wrote a warm welcome this month to the international students studying here this fall:

Welcome to Boston!

As a kid growing up in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, I knew many people that had come here from all over the world for greater opportunities. My own parents were immigrants from Ireland who came to Boston for greater economic prosperity.

I am so excited that you have chosen to study in Boston, home to some of the best colleges and universities in the world. You came here because you know Boston is a place where you will have the chance to further your studies, engage with a community of fellow learners, and put yourself on a path toward lifelong success. Read more

As we look back at what we’ve gained and cultivated in the fall semester, we inevitably start to implement resolutions to do things bigger, better, and faster in the year ahead. Grad students, who already regularly question their existence, can get particularly existential when given the explicit opportunity to evaluate the past and coming years. Zoya Bylinskii, a PhD candidate in the MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, uses this opportunity to bust some myths and talk about the resolutions you don’t absolutely need to carry out in order to have a successful PhD. Read more

On November 17 and 18, 2017, the Office of Graduate Education held the twelfth annual Path of Professorship workshop. 47 graduate and 26 post-doctoral women attended the event, learning from 27 prominent female academics and discussing the myriad challenges faced by women on the path to an academic career. Attendees heard a variety of perspectives over two days via panels and workshops; topics ranged from the deeply practical (“What Type of Institution is Right for You?,” “Speeches, Presentations, and Performing”) to the more philosophical (“Finding the Time to Do it All”). Read more

On Oct. 12, Professor Julie Posselt, of the University of Southern California and author of Inside Graduate Admissions: Merit, Diversity, and Faculty Gatekeeping, tailored two powerhouse talks: one to MIT graduate students, and the other to faculty and staff. She shared firsthand observations of graduate admission committees and interviews conducted with faculty from 10 top-ranked doctoral programs in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

The sessions provided a window into the decision makers’ point of view, highlighting how disciplinary norms shape the definition of merit; how professor’s good intentions around diversity often don’t translate into results; and she provided concrete strategies to improve the admissions review process and promote transparency and accountability. Read more

Dear ROTC Community Members,

With the signing by President Donald Trump of a directive banning transgender military recruits on Friday August 25, I wanted to take this opportunity to clarify MIT’s longstanding commitment to both national service and supporting equal opportunity for all our students, including transgender students.

MIT’s tradition of national service is broad, deep, and very much in the present tense. Read more

Dozens of undergraduate students gather each year at the annual MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP) poster session to present the work they have completed over the course of the summer at MIT. This year the poster session featured research from 37 undergraduates from MSRP General, 37 undergraduates from the MSRP Bio and Neuroscience cohort, and six students from the Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems (EBICS) program. These students came from institutions around the country to pursue research and explore departments across MIT.

Marking the conclusion of an immersive research experience, the poster session showed these 80 diverse students that they have at least one thing in common: They can make an impact in their respective research areas by proposing solutions to problems that have never been solved before. Read more and watch the highlight video.

The ODGE is pleased to announce that Gloria Anglón has been promoted to Assistant Dean for Graduate Education, with responsibility for leading our Diversity Initiatives.

Gloria joined our office in September 2015 as Assistant Director of Diversity Initiatives and the MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP). At the time she took that position, Gloria brought more than 10 years of administrative experience in student affairs, having recently served as an Administrative Fellow and Assistant Director of Graduate Admissions and later as the Assistant Director for Diversity and Student Engagement at Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). In her role as Assistant Director at MIT, Gloria’s work focused on implementing various diversity initiatives administered by the ODGE, including our CONVERGE and MIT Summer Research Programs.  Read more

Every year, a  team of graduate students, postdocs, and the Office of the Dean for Graduate Education organize a two-day workshop called Path of Professorship (PoP) for MIT’s graduate and postdoctoral women considering careers in academia. PoP is the culmination of over six months of planning and passion for the work and the opportunity to support the community.

Held since 2006, PoP allows attendees to enjoy talks and valuable one-on-one conversations with faculty and peers, transferring knowledge and fostering supportive academic networks. Throughout the process, you get to interact with amazing people—some 30 dynamic and generous faculty members and 70 accomplished and engaging graduate and postdoctoral women. Working with Dean Blanche Staton and administrative assistant Patty Glidden is enough to inspire anyone: Blanche embodies a combination of professionalism, grace, wisdom, and genuine concern for each individual. Each year, it’s a pleasure to watch Blanche proudly introduce former students on stage. Read more at Slice.

Why do we love our grad students?  No only are they some of the most talented and accomplished people we know, but they contribute to our community in so many ways, from student government to cultural organizations and as service volunteers. What’s not to love? To honor our amazing grad students, MIT is very pleased to celebrate Graduate and Professional Students Appreciation Week during April 10 – 14, 2017.

Cynthia Smith, formerly of the Synthetic Neurobiology Group at Media Lab, starts today as ODGE Financial and Administrative Assistant, located in headquarters at 3-138. Prior to MIT, Cynthia worked eight years in the Department of Education at Simmons College, supporting office operations and faculty members. She is very excited to become part of the team. Please welcome Cynthia to the ODGE!

That awkward moment in a presentation where someone asks a really weird question. A student in class who poses an off-the-wall idea while you are presenting. Fear of what a committee member may ask in your thesis defense. Wondering how to define leadership. This improv workshop will help develop skills to respond to such situations and will also explore aspects of responding to the unexpected that come up when giving a talk.

This improv comedy exercises aims to develop a comfort with engaging others. These activities will also connect to aspects of effective leadership. Participants should expect to participate in improv comedy exercises with attendees. 20 Student Limit; Open to graduate students. Advanced Registration is requested via CareerBridge (sign-in required). This workshop is sponsored by the Graduate Student Council and MIT Global Education and Career Development (GECD). Workshop is facilitated by Jake Livengood at GECD. (If registration limit has been met, please email Jake Livengood to be added to the wait list at livngood@mit.edu). The workshop will be on Monday, January 23 from 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm at E25 – 117. Lunch will be provided at noon.

Join the MIT Office of Digital Learning for two days of feasting on learning: national thought-leaders, MIT innovators, student hackers, food, fun, and more. Experience the catalyzing power behind initiatives which transform the way we look at education and revolutionize how we teach and learn. The festival is FREE, but registration is required at all events. Chancellor Barnhart will make the opening remarks and Satya Nitta of IBM Watson will give the Keynote address. The schedule includes practice teaching sessions with the Teaching & Learning Lab and a hackathon! Registration opens early January, 2017. Click here to register and get more information on schedule, dates, and locations. If you want to showcase your teaching & learning projects with a table or poster in the Learning Expo or are interested in participating in the hackathon, please email festival-learning-2017@mit.edu. Other inquiries/questions also welcome.

Every Tuesday from 8:30 a.m. to 8:50 a.m., the Chaplains at MIT invite all members of the MIT community into the Chapel for an interdenominational gathering to reflect, pray and meditate. The service, known as Tuesdays in the Chapel, features musical selections and guest speakers of all faiths. Each gathering is followed by coffee, donuts and conversation next door in W11. The theme for Spring 2017 is “How do I find balance and joy in the midst of change?” The spring schedule starts on February 14.

Spiritual but not religiously oriented, the gatherings feature different perspectives from the community and center around a broad theme. “Tuesdays in the Chapel offers people the opportunity — at the beginning of the day, early in the week — to reflect and pause,” says Robert Randolph, former Chaplain to the Institute, who has founded the weekly gathering in September 2009. “One of the things I’m aware of, having been here for a long time, is that MIT people do not pause very often, so this is an institutionalized way to do that.” Read more

Are you interested in developing professional skills that can amplify your impact in today’s high technology environments? If so, then consider investing in your future by completing the new IAP series on leadership development. Join the inaugural series of workshops designed specifically for MIT graduate students who are interested in “making a positive difference” in their chosen fields. Grounded in leadership research but experiential and engaging in delivery, these workshops will build practical skills that apply to engineering and technology environments. Students are welcome to attend some or all of these workshops. Those who attend the entire series will receive a certificate of completion from the Gordon-MIT Engineering Program. The workshop is limited to 60 participants. Advanced registration is required and contact amyshea@mit.edu to enroll. Visit the workshop website to see the schedule and get more information about the program.

The workshop instructor is David Niño. This series is sponsored by the Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program in collaboration with the Office of the Dean of Graduate Education, Graduate Women at MIT, and the Graduate Student Council.

ELS is an intensive workshop for international teaching assistants. It covers special problems in teaching when English is a second language and the USA a second culture. Practice sessions are videotaped for feedback. There are individualized programs to meet different needs. The workshop is limited to 14 students, and graduate TAs have priority.  No listeners. The instructor for the workshop is A.C. Kemp. The workshop is scheduled to run during IAP from January 23 to January 27, 2017, 4 pm to 6 pm at 14N – 225. Students are expected to attend all sessions. Questions? Email ackemp@mit.edu.

The registration for the MIT European Career Fair (ECF) 2017 is now open. This career fair will take place Saturday, February 25 in the MIT Johnson Track (W4) and provides opportunities to connect with European recruiters in the research, finance and technology sectors. You can find summer internships – entry levels and advanced advanced levels. Register now so that you can browse the job list and the recruiters can schedule meetings and interviews with you on MIT campus.  Early access jobs will be listed on January 15. Contact support_ecf2017@mit.edu for questions.

A distinctive neural signature found in the brains of people with dyslexia may explain why these individuals have difficulty learning to read, according to a new study from MIT neuroscientists. The researchers discovered that in people with dyslexia, the brain has a diminished ability to acclimate to a repeated input — a trait known as neural adaptation. For example, when dyslexic students see the same word repeatedly, brain regions involved in reading do not show the same adaptation seen in typical readers. Former MIT graduate student Tyler Perrachione, who is now an assistant professor at Boston University, is the lead author of the study, which appears in the Dec. 21 issue of Neuron. Read more at MIT News.

If you are considering exploring industry positions, you will need to have a resume that effectively positions you for this path. This workshop presented by Bob Dolan will discuss the process of converting your 4-6 page CV into a 2-page resume for industry, and creating a document that effectively targets the Hiring Manager. Can your resume survive a 15 second scan and still get into the YES pile? Discussions will surround the strategies of effective messaging and how to be “on-point” with your written communication. Actual MIT PhD/Postdoc resumes will be provided as handouts. Then workshop will be on Thursday, January 12th from 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm at 4-270. Pre-registration requested via CareerBridge.

Kick-off IAP with a joint social for grad students and post-docs! The event will be held on Wednesday, January 11 from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm at Twenty Chimneys (student center, 3rd floor). Come  Mingle with friends or meet new people! Free food, coffee, and tea will be provided. Invite your classmates, labmates, and officemates! The event is open to all MIT grad students and post-docs. Come anytime during the event period! For more information, contact gsc-coffeehour@mit.edu.

MITxMake is MIT’s student-led makerfest to celebrate maker culture. We connect, educate and entertain attendees with a showcase of innovation, creativity and technology from MIT students, regional makers and tech companies. Showcase your project to the MIT and Boston community at MITxMake on April 16th, 2017. Apply for a booth at the MITxMake Makerfest. Deadline to apply is January 20th, 2017. Contact mitxmake@mit.edu for any queries.

Many students arrive at MIT riding on years of academic success and praise from teachers, parents, and colleagues. But what happens when you encounter uncertainty and failure? Have you been in a challenging class where you worry about how others will perceive you if don’t sound “smart” enough? When you fail to achieve a specific goal, how do you manage and overcome discouragement and self-doubt? In this course, we will examine how our own notions of potential and ability can have a fundamental impact on how we approach our work, how much we learn, and how successful we can be in achieving our goals. The course will focus on recent, evidence-based insights regarding human performance, neuroplastictiy, motivation and on how deliberately cultivating a “growth-mindset” can improve our willingness and ability to face challenges and to innovate, despite the risk of failure. This course is limited to 20 students. Please send a brief description of who you are and why you would like to take this course to Lourdes Alemán at laleman@mit.edu. You will be notified via e-mail to confirm registration. Registration is open until 1/8. For more information click here.

The ASL and Deaf Culture @ MIT is proud to announce that we will be offering a beginner’s ASL class during IAP. A series of 8 classes will be held on-campus (location TBD) on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm, starting January 9, 2017. The list of dates are: Jan. 9, Jan. 11, Jan. 16, Jan. 18, Jan. 23, Jan. 25, Jan. 30, Feb. 1.

Enrollment is limited and we are requiring that ASL students pay $20 (once) to participate in the course. If this cost prevents you from being able to join the class, please get in touch with goretkin@mit.edu. This ASL class will be taught by a Deaf instructor who has taught ASL at MIT several times in the last few years. Please sign up here. This class is sponsored by the Office of the Dean for Graduate Education.

This is an external fellowship. Each graduate program may submit one nomination and accompanying application materials to the ODGE for consideration in the internal MIT competition for the Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fund Fellowship. The ODGE will evaluate, select, and submit three applications for nomination to the Liebmann Trust on behalf of MIT.  Internal applications must be submitted as single, consolidated PDF files to Scott Tirrell (stirrell@mit.edu) by 5 pm on Monday, January 9th. Read more

Conflict Management@MIT offers a three-tiered conflict management training for all MIT affiliates throughout the year. The training is tiered at 16-hour, 28-hour, and 40-hour levels. Apply and get more information here! The deadline to apply is Friday, January 20th at midnight. The dates, times, and tier descriptions for the spring training are as follows: Read more

The Graduate Student Council (GSC) and MIT Libraries have again collaborated to provide a quiet writing space to graduate students working on their dissertations. To help you de-stress the process, we’ve reserved space in Barker Library, and will provide breakfast, lunch, and coffee to students who register! The space will be available from 9:30-5:30, Monday January 9th through Friday January 13th. Sign up here and indicate some (or all) of the days you plan to attend. Another week-long session will be held in April before the next thesis deadline.There will be a quiet space for writing, with large shared tables to spread out, an area to relax and lounge, and an area where the food will be located. There will also be resources available, including help from the writing center and tips on dealing with anxiety and stress. Please contact gsc-arc@mit.edu with any questions!

Meet a Native Speaker Lunch Series
When: Wednesdays (1/11, 1/18, 1/25, 2/1)
Time: 1:00pm – 2:30pm
Location: 14N-417
Come to this weekly lunch to meet other language enthusiasts, students taking learning languages, and native speakers of languages you’d like to practice. All MIT community members welcome! Multicultural foods will be served at each lunch. This is a great way to find a language partner!

IAP “Intro To” Language Series
Dates: Mondays/Tuesdays (to be confirmed), 3-4pm
Location: MIT One Community Room 8-219
Learn about the intracacies of a new language during these sessions! Language presentations may include Italian, Hebrew, Russian, and French. Take a break from work, enjoy some snacks, and learn about a new language!

Starr Forum International Film Series
Dates: Friday Jan 13, Jan 20, Jan 27
When: 12:00pm – 2:30pm
Where: E15, 070 Bartos Theater
Showing of foreign films, sponsored by the Center for International Students and MIT Center for International Studies. The LCE is co-sponsoring these events. Films include: Amour (French), Caché (French), and White Ribbon (German)

This IAP, the Libraries will be making improvements to user spaces and ease of access to materials in Hayden Library. What’s changing? The Libraries will consolidate previously fragmented collections with the goal of providing better access and navigation. What’s not changing? No collections will be removed from Hayden; Course Reserves, the Information Desk, 24/7 Study Spaces, equipment and computing We will have regular updates on our progress on our website, as well as plenty of signage to ensure users can still get to all the materials they need. If you have any comments, questions, or concerns about these changes, please contact space-lib@mit.edu.

In February, MIT libraries is partnering with the Black Women’s Alliance to read Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly.

“Imagine the first scientists and engineers trying to send rockets—and eventually people—into space. With no electronic computers, they relied on an elite group of mathematicians capable of doing the most challenging calculations by hand, calculations that would launch men into space and forever expand our knowledge of the universe. Among these “human computers” were the black women whose genius for numbers made space exploration and travel possible. They’re finally introduced to America in Margot Lee Shetterly’s Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race. It’s no surprise that this story was adapted for film even before the book was finished. It’s the inspiring yet largely unknown true story of the African-American female mathematicians at NASA whose work that helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space. Ironically, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden were responsible for some of NASA’s greatest successes at a time when Jim Crow laws ensured NASA remained segregated.”

Community discussions will be held from February 2017 – details to follow. For more information on how to get the book, visit the MIT libraries website.

MIT has converted a row of former warehouses and cracker-storage facilities into one of the densest concentrations of nuclear science instrumentation and brain power on the planet. The future of safe, clean energy (among other things) is being discovered right now on the quarter mile of Albany Street between Massachusetts Avenue and Pacific.

Brandon Sorbom and Leigh Anne Kesler, both graduate students in the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (also known as Course 22), give a rare tour of what it’s like to work inside a network of facilities and labs that, all told, mimic the footprint of a national lab. Read more and watch the video at MIT News.

The division of student life has announced enhancements to some housing policies and procedures, which will benefit current and future MIT graduate students. First, there will be a graduate housing lottery (or “allocation”) during the summer. For valid reasons, some grad students miss the fall allocation’s May deadline and must wait for Housing’s waitlist process in July. Combined with a seasonal influx of housing agreement terminations in May and June, these factors suggested the creation of another opportunity to match available space with students who want fall housing. Students who enter the third allocation will receive confirmation of their housing assignment in mid-July, much earlier than the waitlist process. Second, the the 30-day advance notice requirement and lease termination fees will be eliminated for students who are taking a leave of absence approved by the Office of the Dean for Graduate Education. We hope the change will remove a barrier for any grad student who is considering taking time away from MIT for personal, academic, or professional reasons.

This good news is the result of a partnership between the Graduate Student Council and the Division of Student Life’s housing staff. These enhancements will be implemented in the 2017-18 academic year. For more details please read this article on the DSL website. In the meantime, if you have any questions about these or other housing policies, please contact Jennifer Hapgood-White, associate director of housing assignments.

Join us for a conversation with activists who worked alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis, and other civil rights leaders in the 1960s. Dr. Janet Moses is a pediatrician who worked in MIT Medical, Topper Carew is a filmmaker and Principal Investigator in the Media Lab, and Dr. Robert Moses is founder of the Algebra Project. All were active in Freedom Summer. Come to the MIT student Center Mezzanine Lounge (W20-307) on December 14, from 11:45am to 1pm (hot lunch served starting 11:45am, program begins 12:10pm). RSVP for a special MLK Program Luncheon.

The Novartis Open Framework symposia are designed to stimulate discussions within the Boston community about the academia- industry interface, and how to optimize interactions between these environments in order to advance science and impact health. This session will focus on the Role of Academia-Industry Partnerships in Fostering Innovation. The speakers will be Jay Bradner, President of the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Robert Urban, Global Head, Johnson & Johnson Innovation Boston Innovation Center, and Randy King, Harry C. McKenzie Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School. The speakers will draw upon their own experiences in academia-industry partnerships to highlight how these interactions can promote scientific breakthroughs. This event, which is open to the public and free, includes presentations starting at 2 pm, a panel at 3:40 pm, followed by a reception. Space is limited, and registration is required.

Interested in starting your own business in the U.S.? Have you already started a start-up? Come and hear immigration attorney Elizabeth Goss, of Goss Associates in Boston, discuss visa options and considerations available to entrepreneurs. This presentation will be on Wednesday, December 7, 2016 from 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm in 34-101.

Rafael and Chris Reif invite members of the MIT community to Winterfest 2016. As the holiday season begins and fall classes near their end, please come celebrate Winterfest with cocoa, cider, and seasonal sweets on Tuesday, December 6 from noon to 1:30 pm at Morss Hall, Walker Memorial, Building 50.

You are invited to join the ISO in E18-219 for the first three weeks in December for hot cider and treats! We hope you will find the ISO office a welcoming and relaxing space; come hang out for as long as you would like, as often as you wish! The open house will be at 10 am to 3 pm from Monday, December 5 to Thursday, December 22.

SP-CoSI is pleased to invite you to “Ultra-Low Power, the Internet of Things, and Heading the World’s Top EECS Program,” an evening with Professor Anantha Chandrakasan, on Tuesday, November 29 at 6:00 pm at MIT Sidney-Pacific Graduate Residence, 70 Pacific Street, Cambridge, MA. RSVP is required, and you can register here.

Anantha P. Chandrakasan is currently the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His research interests include ultra-low-power circuit and system design, energy harvesting, energy efficient RF circuits, and hardware security. He received the 2009 Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) University Researcher Award and the 2013 IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid State Circuits. In 2015 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Professor Chandrakasan is an IEEE Fellow. He has served in various roles for the IEEE ISSCC including Program Chair, Signal Processing Sub-committee Chair, and Technology Directions Sub-committee Chair. He has been the Conference Chair of ISSCC since 2010. He was the Director of the MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories from 2006 to 2011. Since July 2011, he is the Head of the MIT EECS Department.

MIT will be forming four ad hoc working groups related to MIT’s recent launch of The Engine, as streamlining MIT policies and procedures in these areas will be critical to The Engine’s success.

Access to MIT equipment and facilities:
Building on the MIT Mobius platform, we are launching the Engine Room to enable the Institute and the surrounding regional entities to make space, equipment and specialized expertise available to local entrepreneurs, with the goal of drastically improving access for early-stage endeavors. The Engine will work with partners/hosts to establish terms of access as opposed to each startup needing to negotiate individual terms. The Facilities Access Working Group will work through issues surrounding access to specialized equipment and services at MIT. These may include establishing a system to certify that startup personnel have the qualifications and training needed to use requested equipment; determining how startup use of equipment is prioritized among internal MIT needs; reviewing fee structures for outside usage in comparison to internal users; and considering questions surrounding intellectual property. This may also include evaluation of opportunities to create an open access consortium, similar to the one created at Western University, for participating universities. Read more

The Professional Development Exploration (PDE) Grant is designed to support MIT graduate students from all schools and departments in their pursuit of local professional development opportunities outside their area of study or research. Specifically, this fund is allocated to cover registration fees that are not currently funded by the student’s advisor or other funding sources. Registration would be covered, up to the $200 cap, for professional development activities including but not limited to seminars, workshops, conferences, and meetings.We hope to facilitate your exploration of alternative career options beyond what MIT currently offers! For more information and to submit an application, visit the PDE grant website. Contact us with questions or concerns at gsc-prof-devel@mit.edu.

Last month the Ad Hoc Task Force on the Future of Libraries released its preliminary report, which includes a set of 10 recommendations that outline a comprehensive vision for the Libraries in the coming decades. Just as collecting broad input from the MIT faculty, staff, and students was a key part of our initial process, we encourage feedback from the entire community on the vision laid out in the preliminary report. You are invited to attend an upcoming forum with members of the Task Force so you can share your thoughts. The forum will be on Tuesday, November 22, from 1 pm to 2:30 pm at 4-163. Register here (while registration is encouraged to ensure adequate room size, walk-in participation will be welcomed depending on space constraints.) If you are not able to attend, we still encourage you to share your feedback on the preliminary report by emailing the Task Force at future-lib@mit.edu or by joining the discussion on PubPub, a new publishing platform from the MIT Media Lab. Thank you, and we hope to see you on November 22.

iREFS is a low barrier, informal, confidential peer-support group for graduate students across the Institute. iREFS are available to their fellows to support, informally mentor, and mediate during times of uncertainty, stress or conflict. Applications for iREFS to join can be found here and are due by November 27th. Successful applicants will receive a free 40 hour training in conflict management. Get more information about the program.

The MIT Libraries, in collaboration with GSC and the UA are organizing an election debrief panel on Friday, November 18 at 4 pm at 32-123. The event will be moderated by Prof. Bertschinger, the Institute Community and Equity Officer. The panel will include:

Ceasar McDowell, Professor of the Practice of Community Development
Amy Glasmeier, Professor of Economic Geography and Regional Planning
Ariel White, Assistant Professor of Political Science
Ken Oye, Associate Professor of Political Science and Engineering Systems
David Elwell, Associate Dean and Director, International Students Office

The Office of Multicultural Programs is proud to announce that we will be holding our 4th Annual event, THE FEAST, on November 22, 2016 from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM in Morss Hall (Walker Memorial). Join us as we celebrate the diverse backgrounds found in the MIT community over cultural food, performances by Sakata and Casino Rueda, and great raffle prizes. Feel free to stay for the entire time or drop in as you can!

The User-friendly Classroom, a free, video-based resource for TA training, is now available online on MIT’s OpenCourseWare site. These videos are used in the subjects 21G.217 (Workshop in Strategies for Effective Teaching/ELS) and 21G.232 (Advanced Speaking and Critical Listening Skills/ELS), both of which help International Teaching Assistants to succeed at MIT. Designed for International Teaching Assistants, they can be useful to all TAs. The five videos include advice from MIT undergraduates and experienced International TAs, as well as examples of those TAs teaching classes, all with interactive transcripts:

• Expectations
• Phase diagram class
• Lift class
• The First Day
• Introductions

The site also includes assignments for the videos and suggestions for teacher trainers. Questions or comments? Please write to ackemp@mit.edu.

We may have the best of intentions when we want to work for a better world and undertake projects that will have a positive social impact, but what does it take to actually work wisely, effectively, and ethically when doing community-based research? In this session we’ll cover theory of change, visualizing how innovations fit into complex contexts, and hands-on stakeholder analysis tools.This session will be held at MIT D-lab (N51-310) on Friday, November 18 from 12 pm to 2 pm. Lunch will be served!  RSVP is required.

Dr. Sonal Jhaveri’s talk on “Basics of Grant Writing” will focus on NIH applications, but the basic principles she emphasizes are applicable to all types of grant writing. The talk will be on Wednesday, November 16, 2016, from 3:00 to 4:30 pm at the Singleton Auditorium, Building 46-3002. Register for the talk here. Dr. Jhaveri is an MIT alumna (BS, MS). She received her PhD from Harvard University, has been Principal Investigator on a number of grants from NIH, NSF and other private foundations, has co-authored 60 professional articles, and has consulted on a number of science and medical writing projects. She teaches Science Communication and Language Skills to graduate and medical students as well as to postdocs at MIT and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

As you may have read, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), in a case involving Columbia University, has determined that students holding appointments as teaching and research assistants are eligible to organize under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).  This reversed a long standing decision involving Brown University where the NLRB determined student assistants were not employees under the NLRA, but were students.  The NLRB in the Columbia case determined that student assistants could be both students and employees. As a result of this decision, we provide the following Frequently Asked Questions to provide answers to questions the community may have in light of this new decision.