Update on Grad Union Negotiations
Negotiations between MIT and the Graduate Student Union have yielded agreement on a number of contract provisions. Learn more in the update from Chancellor Melissa Nobles and Provost Cynthia Barnhart, and be sure to visit the redesigned Graduate Student Unionization website for detailed information.
Share Your Thoughts on Communications Support at MIT
MIT’s Writing and Communication Center (WCC) and English Language Studies (ELS) program invite you to take an anonymous 10- to 15-minute communications survey to help us gauge grad students’ needs with regard to communications. Participants can also enter a raffle for a chance to win one of forty $25 Amazon gift cards.
Funding Info Tile on Atlas
The MIT Atlas app now includes a funding tile that allows graduate students to see their MIT funding for the current, previous and upcoming terms and receive notifications of any changes. For each appointment or award, students may see their salary or stipend, as well as any tuition, health insurance fees, and student life fees credited directly to their student billing account. If any information is missing or incorrect, the app prompts the student to suggest corrections for review. Suggested corrections and any support questions from students will go to grad-funding-help@mit.edu.
On-Campus Housing 101
Are you interested in living on campus? If so, you can attend one of several upcoming housing webinars to learn more about MIT’s graduate housing system and the housing application process, as well as to have your questions answered by Housing & Residential Services staff. Housing selection will take place beginning April 27 for family housing and all available on-campus housing units will be open for selection beginning May 4 within the Housing Portal.
Mark Your Calendar for Graduate Student Appreciation Week
Every year, the Office of Graduate Education and other campus partners team up to host Graduate Student Appreciation Week, a celebration of our wonderful graduate students and their families. This year's festivities will be held April 3-9. Save the dates and stay tuned for more details!
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Subscribe to the Graduate Fellowships Newsletter
Searching and applying for graduate fellowships is a daunting task, and that's why the Office of Graduate Education created the Graduate Fellowships Newsletter. This monthly newsletter lists important upcoming internal and external fellowship deadlines; financial literacy workshops and seminars; interviews with external foundations; and so much more! If you would like to receive this newsletter, please subscribe.
Find a Listening Ear
Want to talk to a trained graduate student who really gets what you’re going through? Connect with a REFS member through a short survey to set up a conversation. REFS are grad students trained to provide support for their peers across the Institute. We have recently onboarded new REFS, and they are ready to listen! Interested in becoming a REFS member? Please contact refssupport@mit.edu.
Need Help With Your Taxes?
The Office of the Vice President for Finance (VPF) has a number of tax resources for foreign nationals, including tax workshops for students, faculty, and researchers on Zoom. The sessions are tailored to provide information relevant to U.S. citizens and international audiences.
Campus Residents: You Have a GradSupport Liaison!
The OGE’s GradSupport team of fantastic advisors has started a Residence Hall Liaison Program. Each residence hall’s house team is served by a GradSupport dean, so they have a consistent point of contact within the office. While you’ll likely meet your GradSupport liaison at a house event, students are still free to meet with any GradSupport dean. You can schedule an appointment by emailing gradsupport@mit.edu or calling (617) 253-4860.
Join the MIT Research Slam
Want to build your research communications skills and compete for hundreds of dollars in prizes? The third annual MIT Research Slam and Three Minute Thesis (3MT™) competition is coming up this spring! Submissions are due on Monday, March 13 at 11:00 pm EST. This year will feature MIT's first-ever live public showcase for finalists. PhDs advanced to candidacy and postdocs are eligible to participate.
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Winter Family Day
MIT Open Space Programming will host its third annual Winter Family Day on Saturday, February 25, 10 am-3 pm. The event will feature hands-on STEAM activities, live performances by local music groups, games, food trucks, and more! Activities will take place inside the MIT Welcome Center and outside in the Kendall/MIT Open Space.
Boston Children's Museum E-Ticket from MITAC
The Children's Museum offers e-tickets at a great discount of $9 (reg. $20). Exhibits include Arthur and Friends, Boston Black, Construction Zone, Bubbles, Explore-a-Saurus & more. Fun for the whole family!
MIT Parenting Workshops
Parenting isn't easy! MIT HR Center for WorkLife and WellBeing sponsors a wide variety of parenting workshops for the community on issues such as raising bilingual children, easy meal prep for busy parents, and how to help anxious children.
Baby-Friendly Matinees
The Capitol Theatre features a baby-friendly movie every Monday afternoon! A Baby-Friendly Matinee is not a movie for babies – it’s for the caregivers out there who want to see a movie and bring their baby with them. While patrons without infants are certainly welcome to attend, they should know that the babies are free to be babies during the show! Tickets are available in person at the box office on the day of only.
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Inside Two MIT Students’ Historic BattleBots Runs
PhD students Lucy Du ’14, SM ’16 and Ginger Schmidt are crushing the competition — and gender barriers — in the world of televised robot combat. In the last season of BattleBots, a popular, long-running show that pits 250-pound robots against each other, doctoral student Ginger Schmidt became the first female captain to win the competition.
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Exploring Morality at MIT
Eliza Wells wrestles with deep ethical questions that have implications well beyond her field. A fourth year student in MIT’s philosophy PhD program, Wells studies morality and facilitates discussions at the Institute about ethics and technology. “I believe that philosophy can change lives. I want to help people interrogate their values so that they can make their own lives and others’ better,” she says.
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Celebrating Outstanding Advising
MIT Professor Esther Duflo was recently honored as Committed to Caring for fostering graduate student skills and ambition. Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics at MIT. "When a trusting relationship is established, advising is a joy. It is truly the most important and rewarding part of my job," Duflo says.
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Learning from the Magic Bean
In this MIT Grad Blog post, Rachel S., a mechanical engineering graduate student, chronicles how she became a "full-blown coffee aficionado who knew all about the full coffee production process and cared about flavors in coffee." Experimenting with coffee also informed her own research, including how to "properly" change variables and effectively log data from experiment to experiment.
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Reframing the First Generation Academic Experience
It began with a focus group at Brown in 2012 and has morphed into an annual event bringing together hundreds of students and allies. The First Gen Summit was created as a place for first-generation students — both undergraduate and graduate — to collectively design new ways to view the first-gen label.
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MIT Change-Maker Awards Nominations
The MIT Change-Maker Awards are seeking nominations! MIT Change-Makers are individuals or student groups who challenge harmful attitudes, language, or behaviors in order to shift the culture that perpetuates sexual violence. Violence Prevention & Response and Institute Discrimination & Harassment Response Office invites you to submit a nomination to show your appreciation for those creating a healthier MIT community. The categories are:
- Undergraduate student
- Graduate student
- Employee (Faculty, Staff, or Postdocs)
- Student Club or Group
Be sure to submit a nomination by March 21!
Grants for Building Community
Do you have an idea for a project, program, or event that advances MIT's Values or Strategic Action Plan? Bring your idea to fruition by applying to The Chancellor's Special MIT Values Innovation Fund (up to $10,000) or an ICEO Grant (up to $2,500)!
MIT Awards Convocation Nominations
Nominations are being accepted until March 23 for the MIT Awards Convocation, which honors MIT students, faculty, staff, and community members who have made outstanding contributions to the shared life of the Institute. The awards recognize many of the qualities we hold dear at MIT: excellence in academics and teaching, public service, community building, diversity and inclusion, achievements in the arts and athletics, leadership, and entrepreneurship.
Language Conversation Exchange
Do you know a foreign language, or are you trying to learn one? The Language Conversation Exchange (LCE) provides opportunities to practice a language with a group of native speakers and other language learners, meet other language lovers, and learn about the LCE. In addition, LCE provides info about resources online, on and off campus, a community slack, and more.
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