The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced that it is shutting down its diversity, equity, and inclusion office, and instead focusing on ensuring a diverse community at the “local level.”
MIT President Sally Kornbluth made the announcement on May 22, noting that after conducting a review that began in January 2024, the university would “sunset the central [Institute Community and Equity Office] and the vice president role.”
However, MIT will “shift” its “focus to community building at the local level,” Kornbluth said.
“The office’s signature programs will join other MIT units where they have a natural fit: The Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty will take on the Department Support Program and the MLK Visiting Professors and Scholars Program,” she added.
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in March opened an investigation into MIT, along with 44 other universities, “for allegedly engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs.”
The move follows President Trump’s executive order on Jan. 20 looking to encourage an end to DEI in institutions of higher education.