Small interventions, big effects: Closing the MOOC achievement gap

Between 2012 and 2015, more than 25 million people enrolled in massive open online courses (MOOCs), including 39 percent from developing countries. While this democratization of educational opportunities is certainly worth celebrating, a team of researchers from MIT and Stanford University recently discovered that the benefits of MOOCs are not spread equitably across global regions.

“The central problem we have in our educational systems is inequality. There are many great learning opportunities out there, they just aren’t equitably distributed,” explains study coauthor Justin Reich, who is the executive director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab and a research scientist within the MIT Office of Digital Learning.

It’s tempting to chalk up this disparity to lack of broadband access or English-language proficiency. But the research team led by Stanford's Rene Kizilcec, Geoff Cohen, Andy Saltarelli, and MIT's Reich suggests another underappreciated cause: social identity threat.

In “Closing the Global Achievement Gaps in MOOCs,” published Jan. 20 in Science, the team defines social identity threat as a feeling of unwelcome, or a fear of being stereotyped as less capable because of one’s group. These cognitive burdens can impair working memory, learning and performance.

How can educators fight back? In two studies conducted a year apart, the team tested the theory that brief interventions, or “nudges,” can dramatically close the gap caused by social identity threat, especially when timed to accompany key moments in a class.

In the experiments, students were randomly assigned one of three interventions — in this case, writing activities — at the beginning of their MOOC. The “Value Relevance” intervention asked students to share how taking the course reflects their core values. The “Social Belonging” intervention had participants review testimonials from past students, and write advice of their own. The control intervention asked students to read and write about study skills, an activity shown to have no impact on performance. Outcomes were measured in terms of persistence, assessed by the amount of course material the three groups engaged with after the intervention.   

In both studies, the interventions had dramatic effects — in some cases doubling persistence in learners from less-developed countries, and often eliminating the global achievement gap entirely.

“Though many had inklings that the gap was there, being able to identify it consistently across so many courses and learners was profound and provided us the foundation to dig deeper and explore interventions that could address this gap at such a scale,” reports Andy Saltarelli, a co-author of the study and a senior director of teaching design and practice in the Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning at Stanford.

These encouraging results raise a number of interesting questions: What are the root causes of social identity threat in MOOCs? How do they differ from causes found in more traditional in-person classroom experiences? Will interventions help other groups who face social identity threats, such as minorities and women in traditionally male-dominated fields?

The next stage of the team’s research, currently underway at MIT, Stanford, and Harvard University, may shed light on these questions. The team will conduct larger replication studies, testing the effectiveness of “nudges” across dozens of classes and tens of thousands of students.

As leader of the research at MIT, Reich believes the experiments can help further refine educational interventions at the Institute — both for MOOCs and more traditional classes — and create new, powerful applications for “nudges” moving forward.

Says Reich: “We’re here to help every student come to class with a frame of mind that leads to success. That’s what it’s all about.”

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Research assistants at energy’s cutting edge

MIT graduate students working in energy conduct widely varied research projects — from experiments in fundamental chemistry to surveys of human behavior — but they share the common benefit of gaining hands-on work experience while helping to move the needle toward a low-carbon future.

“You learn about a lot of wonderful things in theory, in reference books, but you never really get a feel for [research] unless you’re actually involved in it,” says Srinivas Subramanyam, a PhD candidate in materials science and engineering whose work as a research assistant (RA) focuses on developing a lubricant-impregnated surface that may one day keep oil and gas pipelines free of clogs. “Having a research assistantship has been a very good experience.”

“I see this as a first step in a long-term research agenda that I hope to continue in my academic career,” says J. Cressica Brazier, a PhD candidate in urban studies and planning who is developing a mobile carbon footprinting tool to gauge personal energy consumption. Brazier says this RA work has given her a variety of skills — from statistical modeling to team building — that will help her continue to research low-carbon urban development in the years ahead.

The academic track isn’t the only option for well-trained RAs, however. Qing Liu, a PhD candidate in chemistry and a 2016-2017 Shell-MIT Energy Fellow, says he also feels qualified to work as a data scientist, energy analyst, or consultant. “I think the expertise I’ve gained from the research assistantship definitely helped broaden my career choices,” says Liu, whose research centers on a catalytic process that converts airborne pollutants to fuels.

Research assistants are paid to conduct research under the supervision of a faculty advisor, and they often pursue novel investigations of their own design — in many cases leading to doctoral theses and other peer-reviewed publications at the cutting edge of their fields. For this reason, RAs play a crucial role in moving the world toward a low-carbon energy system, says Antje Danielson, director of education at the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI).

“RAs are the worker bees of the research projects, and they are the people who produce the data and the prototypes that will then lead to discovery and innovation, so they’re very valuable members of the energy innovation ecosystem. They are the future,” says Danielson, noting that Brazier, Liu, and Subramanyam were all supported by MITEI funding. “Meanwhile, they learn lab skills, analytical skills, and if this is their thesis project, they really learn how to analyze a specific topic and write up their findings.”

Making a difference

For Brazier, Liu, and Subramanyam — just three of the more than 2,500 graduate students who work as research assistants and research trainees at MIT — making progress toward a low-carbon energy system is a significant motivator.

“The only way I get motivated is if I know this is something that has the potential to make a difference. Abstract problems don’t really drive me,” Subramanyam says. Therefore, he focuses his research on addressing the range of problems caused by the deposition of materials on surfaces — for example, ice buildup on airplane wings, wind turbine blades, overhead powerlines, etc., and scale buildup in gas pipelines, geothermal power plants, and water heaters. “Having that end goal in mind — especially being aware that this is a product that’s important to MITEI — that keeps me working on the problem.”

During his research assistantship, Subramanyam succeeded in developing a surface treatment that significantly reduces scale buildup by combining two strategies: changing the morphology of the surface material and adding a coating. The resulting lubricant-impregnated surface promises to improve efficiency in the oil and gas industry by addressing productivity losses due to scale fouling, Subramanyam says.

Improving the efficiency of existing energy systems is also central to Liu’s research, which examines the fundamental catalytic chemistry behind the production of natural gas and liquid fuels using greenhouse gases and airborne pollutants. Liu’s work holds promise for the development of more efficient Fischer-Tropsch catalysts, a critical step in the attainment of carbon neutrality. “I definitely feel I’m helping to make the planet greener,” Liu says.

Brazier takes a different approach to energy research: She explores how human behavior impacts the greenhouse gas emissions that are contributing to climate change. “We need tools to moderate or mitigate how people use the increasing convenience and comfort that comes with new technologies,” Brazier says. She says she hopes the mobile application she is developing will provide individuals with feedback that will motivate greener lifestyle choices.

Gaining practical skills

Whatever specific research RAs focus on, along the way they learn to collaborate, communicate, and persuade others about the validity of their ideas. They also learn project management and how to think systematically about open-ended problems, says Kripa Varanasi, associate professor of mechanical engineering and Subramanyam’s advisor. “They learn a lot of practicalities of how to work in the real world,” he says.

“The scientific method, you first experience it once you start working in the lab yourself, confirming and rejecting potential solutions,” Subramanyam says. “You are pushing the boundaries of knowledge, trying to do things no one has ever done.”

Teamwork is critical, says Liu, noting that his research involves complex and specialized instrumentation that is very tough to operate alone. “There are two to three people on the same machine, working very closely with each other … so it’s really important to us to have good teamwork,” he says. “That’s something I couldn’t learn from class.”

Working with diverse researchers — including faculty members, postdocs, and fellow RAs from a variety of disciplines — rounds out the RAs’ educational experience, the students say. “In terms of really applying statistical tools, I learned more from one RA than I ever did from my sequence of quantitative methods courses,” Brazier says.

Ultimately, the RA experience can be transformative. “They come out of undergrad exposed to many subjects, but they haven’t really gotten their hands wet in a lab,” Varanasi says, noting that within a few years he sees major changes. “They become professionals.”

This article appears in the Autumn 2016 issue of Energy Futures, the magazine of the MIT Energy Initiative. 

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Las bandas sonoras de la DGT

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A fair price to pay?

When you buy products online, do you imagine you could get better prices in a store? Conversely, does in-store shopping lead you to wonder whether you are missing better prices online?

Fear not.

An innovative study by an MIT economist shows that in 10 major countries, companies sell their wares at the same prices in stores and online, at the same moments, nearly three-quarters of the time. 

“We were a bit surprised by the numbers,” says Alberto Cavallo, the Douglas Drane Professor in Information Technology and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and author of a newly published paper on the subject. In his view, the level prices have a lot to do with companies wanting to seem “fair” to as many consumers as possible.

“It has a lot to do with experience,” Cavallo adds. “I think what is driving much of this is consumers don’t think it’s fair when they see a different price online.”

Online shopping accounted for fewer than 10 percent of all retail transactions in the U.S. as of 2014, and researchers are still examining many of the shifting contours of online retail. 

Cavallo’s study also contains other revealing data about the dynamics of online prices, including an explanation for some of the discrepancies in offline and online prices that exist among retail sectors.

Where in-store prices tend to diverge from online prices, it is often in business sectors with a premium on immediate convenience, including drug stores. If you need an item within an hour or two — some aspirin or band-aids, for instance — you are more likely to pay more in person.

On the other hand, retailers in electronics or apparel, whose products are often associated with less urgency, tended to have in-store and online prices that matched more closely. 

The paper, “Are Offline and Online Prices Similar? Evidence from Large Multi-Channel Retailers,” appears in the January issue of the American Economic Review.

The cost of convenience

Cavallo’s paper grew out of MIT’s Billion Prices Project, an ongoing effort to track online prices, founded in 2008. To conduct the study, Cavallo recruited 323 workers to scan prices from stores in 10 countries, and compared these prices to the online data available for the same products, at the same time, from the same retailers.

All told, the study examined about 38,000 prices for roughly 24,000 products in those 10 countries, from December 2014 through March 2016. On aggregate, prices were the same 72 percent of the time.

In the U.S., products had the same prices about 69 percent of the time; that figure was as low as 42 percent in Brazil and as high as 91 percent in Britain. 

Those numbers help bring clarity to a matter where subjective impressions can vary widely — although with good reason, perhaps.

“If you ask someone are the prices you get online the same as what you get in the store, they have different views, depending on where they shop or live,” Cavallo says.

The study shows that apparel prices are the same, online and in stores, about 92 percent of the time; for electronics, that figure is 83 percent. But for drugstores, prices are identical just 38 percent of the time.

Cavallo thinks the differences among sectors “make intuitive sense. In electronics and apparel, the online and offline markets are very integrated and people are used to doing some research online even if they’re going to buy offline.”

By contrast, he says, “Now you go to a drugstore. There we found that in-store prices are higher. It makes sense. When you go to CVS or Walgreens, you need the product immediately, and you are willing to pay for that convenience.”

Office supply stores had an even lower convergence of prices, which were identical just 25 percent of the time, although a ready explanation for that is not at hand. As Cavallo notes in the paper, office-supply prices “are sometimes higher and sometimes lower online, without any clear patterns.”

Winners and losers

Economists who have read the paper say it is a valuable addition to the literature about online prices.

For his part, Cavallo recognizes that there is considerable room for more research about online prices and suggests it would be valuable to conduct this kind of study at different points in time, to see if there are shifting trends in this area.

As he also notes, the study shows that prices tend to flatten out across U.S. regions, probably due to the transparency of online prices. Whether that means prices tend to rise in unison or settle at lower levels is an important one to study in further detail, Cavallo observes, since it affects the cost of living and purchasing power from place to place.

“That has implications for economies and how it affects welfare,” Cavallo says. “Some people will win, some people will lose. … Hopefully we can continue doing this and see how things change over time.”

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Adding hands-on practice to science and engineering classes

On a cold, drizzly December afternoon, a few dozen freshmen assembled in a large classroom in Building 34 to demonstrate their final projects for the semester. There was a levitating droplet fountain, motorized skates, and a Rubik’s Cube solving machine, to name a few. One student, Lujing Cen, issued a command to his digital automaton: “Draw the weather.” The automaton, a robotic arm perched over a whiteboard and holding a marker, was still for a few seconds. After searching the internet and retrieving an image — in this case, a conventional weather icon — it drew an amorphous cloud with a few raindrops.

The display of innovative contraptions marked the culmination of 6.A01 (Mens et Manus: Building on the Science Core), a new freshman advising seminar. The class is one of 54 advising seminars offered each fall as an alternative to traditional freshman advising. Seminars allow a small group of students to get to know their advisor while learning about a topic of interest to them — from nucleic acids, operations research, and the solar system to blacksmithing, leadership development, and the arts at MIT.

What sets 6.A01 apart is the emphasis on hands-on learning — with a healthy dose of making — that relates directly to concepts freshmen learn in their science General Institute Requirements courses (GIRs). Three class projects — a simple loudspeaker, a brushless motor, and the final independent project — provide real-world context for the material students learn in the seminar.

Ampere’s Law in 10 different ways

Each project acts as a medium in which to gain a deeper understanding of principles covered in the science GIRs. “For us, it’s about giving these sorts of physical interpretations to things they’re seeing in more equation-based formats in other classes,” explains Dawn Wendell, a senior lecturer in mechanical engineering who is one of the seminar’s four instructors.

For the loudspeaker project, students learn about electricity and magnetism, but in 6.A01 they don’t derive all the equations and variables covered in 8.02 (Physics II). “We don’t want to teach the physics class,” says Wendell. “Instead, we say, ‘Here’s Ampere’s Law. Now let’s try using it in 10 different ways.’”

“Students are so much more motivated to learn if they see what is at the end of the process,” says Dennis Freeman, dean for undergraduate education and professor of electrical engineering. He co-created the seminar along with Wendell, Martin Culpepper (MIT’s “maker czar” and professor of mechanical engineering), and postdoc Scott Page. “So for example, students make their first loudspeaker prototype based on their intuition about what is important, and then refine their design and optimize performance based on theories and equations they’ve seen elsewhere, like 8.02. Aligning formal theory and intuition strengthens both, and leads to a principled design methodology that is both effective and technically satisfying.”                                  

The class has been well-received by freshmen. “I love how we’re making everything from scratch,” says Francisca Vasconcelos, the creator of the levitating droplet fountain. Students use 3-D computer aided design software to design their projects and learn maker skills like laser cutting and 3-D printing to create parts. They can also opt to complete additional training, called MakerLodge training, to access shops around campus, join maker communities, and get MakerBucks for their own projects.                       

Cen clearly sees connections between 6.A01 and his science GIRs. “Many of the concepts I’ve learned in 8.01 [Physics I] and 18.02 [Calculus] are directly applicable to my final project, which I think is really cool,” he says, rattling off several examples, such as calculating the forces on the robotic arm, determining the angular acceleration, and using linear algebra to make the arm reach a particular point in space.

Trading breadth for depth

The seminar came about as a by-product of Freeman’s interest in “the early years” of MIT students’ education. Compared to MIT’s peers, he says, “we’re unusual in having so much math, physics, chemistry, and biology in the core GIR classes.” While this makes for a rigorous curriculum, it also means other things get squeezed out: GIR science classes have no lab component, which Freeman feels is “completely the opposite of what it should be.”

“If you count the number of facts per minute, lectures are much more efficient than labs,” Freeman says. As a result, notes Wendell, depending on their major, some students may not have a class with a lab until the spring of their sophomore year. “Especially for our students who are mostly scientists and engineers, to not have that feels like a missed opportunity.”

Freeman’s experience developing and teaching the sophomore course 6.01 (Introduction to Electrical Engineering and Computer Science I) provided the inspiration for the freshman advising seminar. In 6.01, a series of hands-on activities involving a mobile robot are used to introduce software engineering, feedback and control, circuits, probability, and planning.

Freeman wanted to use a similar approach for 6.A01. For example, in a two-hour class period, students are given a magnet, wire, and paper and are tasked with making the loudspeaker. “Could we have covered more of Maxwell’s equations had we used the two hours for a lecture? Yes, I could have gotten through all four of them. Would they have understood all four of them? No!” he says with a laugh. “So I’d rather have them gain a deeper appreciation of one. At least now they know Ampere’s Law, they have experience with it. I think they’ll recognize when they could use it in the future.”

Transcending content

In addition to the curriculum itself, Wendell believes 6.A01 is beneficial to freshmen in less tangible ways, such as building community. Vasconcelos agrees: “Everyone in class has an interest in making, so I got to meet all the other freshmen who find making cool.” Students also have the opportunity to get to know several instructors in a supportive role, rather than just their own advisor. And because the projects are inherently multidisciplinary, Wendells says, “students realize their classes are not as separate as they think they are.”

The seminar also challenges how freshmen are accustomed to learning, both in high school and even in the GIRs: the premise that answers are either right or wrong. The real world is often more nuanced, of course, and Wendell cites the motor project as an example: Students may have successfully learned the physics and equations, machined the parts, and programed the electronics, but the motor still might not work.

“That’s hard, and that’s really where engineering gets complicated, where it’s no longer that perfect, idealized system. ... The outcome is not guaranteed,” she says. Often students get stuck, which presents an opportunity for them to learn how to approach a problem — an essential skill for scientists and engineers that transcends mastering content alone. “It’s not about right or wrong answers,” adds Wendell. “It’s more try something, learn from it, iterate.”

For now, the instructors are iterating as well, evaluating what worked and what resonated with students to decide how to tweak the seminar next fall. Ultimately, Freeman notes, the long-term goal is to use the 6.A01 model to develop a new freshman learning community, like Concourse or the Experimental Study Group. “The sort of students we attract are highly stimulated with this maker framework,” he says. “It’s not something I would endorse for everybody, but I think it could be very effective for some people.”

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Adding hands-on practice to science and engineering classes

On a cold, drizzly December afternoon, a few dozen freshmen assembled in a large classroom in Building 34 to demonstrate their final projects for the semester. There was a levitating droplet fountain, motorized skates, and a Rubik’s Cube solving machine, to name a few. One student, Lujing Cen, issued a command to his digital automaton: “Draw the weather.” The automaton, a robotic arm perched over a whiteboard and holding a marker, was still for a few seconds. After searching the internet and retrieving an image — in this case, a conventional weather icon — it drew an amorphous cloud with a few raindrops.

The display of innovative contraptions marked the culmination of 6.A01 (Mens et Manus: Building on the Science Core), a new freshman advising seminar. The class is one of 54 advising seminars offered each fall as an alternative to traditional freshman advising. Seminars allow a small group of students to get to know their advisor while learning about a topic of interest to them — from nucleic acids, operations research, and the solar system to blacksmithing, leadership development, and the arts at MIT.

What sets 6.A01 apart is the emphasis on hands-on learning — with a healthy dose of making — that relates directly to concepts freshmen learn in their science General Institute Requirements courses (GIRs). Three class projects — a simple loudspeaker, a brushless motor, and the final independent project — provide real-world context for the material students learn in the seminar.

Ampere’s Law in 10 different ways

Each project acts as a medium in which to gain a deeper understanding of principles covered in the science GIRs. “For us, it’s about giving these sorts of physical interpretations to things they’re seeing in more equation-based formats in other classes,” explains Dawn Wendell, a senior lecturer in mechanical engineering who is one of the seminar’s four instructors.

For the loudspeaker project, students learn about electricity and magnetism, but in 6.A01 they don’t derive all the equations and variables covered in 8.02 (Physics II). “We don’t want to teach the physics class,” says Wendell. “Instead, we say, ‘Here’s Ampere’s Law. Now let’s try using it in 10 different ways.’”

“Students are so much more motivated to learn if they see what is at the end of the process,” says Dennis Freeman, dean for undergraduate education and professor of electrical engineering. He co-created the seminar along with Wendell, Martin Culpepper (MIT’s “maker czar” and professor of mechanical engineering), and postdoc Scott Page. “So for example, students make their first loudspeaker prototype based on their intuition about what is important, and then refine their design and optimize performance based on theories and equations they’ve seen elsewhere, like 8.02. Aligning formal theory and intuition strengthens both, and leads to a principled design methodology that is both effective and technically satisfying.”                                  

The class has been well-received by freshmen. “I love how we’re making everything from scratch,” says Francisca Vasconcelos, the creator of the levitating droplet fountain. Students use 3-D computer aided design software to design their projects and learn maker skills like laser cutting and 3-D printing to create parts. They can also opt to complete additional training, called MakerLodge training, to access shops around campus, join maker communities, and get MakerBucks for their own projects.                       

Cen clearly sees connections between 6.A01 and his science GIRs. “Many of the concepts I’ve learned in 8.01 [Physics I] and 18.02 [Calculus] are directly applicable to my final project, which I think is really cool,” he says, rattling off several examples, such as calculating the forces on the robotic arm, determining the angular acceleration, and using linear algebra to make the arm reach a particular point in space.

Trading breadth for depth

The seminar came about as a by-product of Freeman’s interest in “the early years” of MIT students’ education. Compared to MIT’s peers, he says, “we’re unusual in having so much math, physics, chemistry, and biology in the core GIR classes.” While this makes for a rigorous curriculum, it also means other things get squeezed out: GIR science classes have no lab component, which Freeman feels is “completely the opposite of what it should be.”

“If you count the number of facts per minute, lectures are much more efficient than labs,” Freeman says. As a result, notes Wendell, depending on their major, some students may not have a class with a lab until the spring of their sophomore year. “Especially for our students who are mostly scientists and engineers, to not have that feels like a missed opportunity.”

Freeman’s experience developing and teaching the sophomore course 6.01 (Introduction to Electrical Engineering and Computer Science I) provided the inspiration for the freshman advising seminar. In 6.01, a series of hands-on activities involving a mobile robot are used to introduce software engineering, feedback and control, circuits, probability, and planning.

Freeman wanted to use a similar approach for 6.A01. For example, in a two-hour class period, students are given a magnet, wire, and paper and are tasked with making the loudspeaker. “Could we have covered more of Maxwell’s equations had we used the two hours for a lecture? Yes, I could have gotten through all four of them. Would they have understood all four of them? No!” he says with a laugh. “So I’d rather have them gain a deeper appreciation of one. At least now they know Ampere’s Law, they have experience with it. I think they’ll recognize when they could use it in the future.”

Transcending content

In addition to the curriculum itself, Wendell believes 6.A01 is beneficial to freshmen in less tangible ways, such as building community. Vasconcelos agrees: “Everyone in class has an interest in making, so I got to meet all the other freshmen who find making cool.” Students also have the opportunity to get to know several instructors in a supportive role, rather than just their own advisor. And because the projects are inherently multidisciplinary, Wendells says, “students realize their classes are not as separate as they think they are.”

The seminar also challenges how freshmen are accustomed to learning, both in high school and even in the GIRs: the premise that answers are either right or wrong. The real world is often more nuanced, of course, and Wendell cites the motor project as an example: Students may have successfully learned the physics and equations, machined the parts, and programed the electronics, but the motor still might not work.

“That’s hard, and that’s really where engineering gets complicated, where it’s no longer that perfect, idealized system. ... The outcome is not guaranteed,” she says. Often students get stuck, which presents an opportunity for them to learn how to approach a problem — an essential skill for scientists and engineers that transcends mastering content alone. “It’s not about right or wrong answers,” adds Wendell. “It’s more try something, learn from it, iterate.”

For now, the instructors are iterating as well, evaluating what worked and what resonated with students to decide how to tweak the seminar next fall. Ultimately, Freeman notes, the long-term goal is to use the 6.A01 model to develop a new freshman learning community, like Concourse or the Experimental Study Group. “The sort of students we attract are highly stimulated with this maker framework,” he says. “It’s not something I would endorse for everybody, but I think it could be very effective for some people.”

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MIT responds to Trump’s executive order on travel

Since Friday afternoon, the MIT administration has been working to respond to an executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump barring citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the United States.

“We continue to push hard to bring back to MIT those members of our community, including two undergraduates, who were barred from the U.S. because of the January 27 Executive Order on immigration,” MIT President L. Rafael Reif wrote this afternoon in an email to the MIT community. “We are working personally with each of the affected individuals we are aware of.”

Starting on Friday, Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart and leadership from the International Students Office and the International Scholars Office reached out to members of the MIT community who might be directly affected by the executive order. Those efforts revealed that there are students, faculty, and international scholars who are out of the country and trying to return to campus.

The situation changed in the wee hours of Sunday morning, with a temporary order issued by the Massachusetts federal district court restraining the government from, solely on the basis of the executive order, detaining or removing holders of a valid visa or green card who travel from the seven countries to the U.S. through Logan Airport.

Around noon on Sunday, MIT leadership emailed the MIT community strongly advising all Institute students, faculty, staff, and visiting researchers who are citizens of the seven affected nations to return to the U.S. as soon as possible, and no later than Saturday, Feb. 4, when the court order expires.

“Get back as quickly as you can,” advises Barnhart. “This is a very fluid situation, and we encourage all members of the MIT community subject to the executive order to fly directly to Logan Airport.” Affected travelers are being given legal and general support from MIT.

Sunday gathering and rally

The Sunday letter to the community also invited MIT students, faculty, and staff to gather in Lobby 7 for a student-organized event at noon.

“It is with deep concern that I am, as many are, watching the news of President Trump’s executive order preventing nationals of certain countries from entering the United States,” Krishna Rajagopal, the William A. M. Burden Professor of Physics and chair of the MIT faculty, wrote in his own email inviting faculty to the gathering. “We are a global institution; the ability of some MIT students, scholars, staff and faculty to travel has just been curtailed in a sharp and uncertain manner. We are one community; this affects us all.”

“My father was an immigrant who came to the U.S. to study at MIT,” says Davi da Silva, an MIT graduate student and an organizer of the gathering. “I have many friends and classmates from the nations on Trump’s list. Having people from all over the world working together is a feature of American science, not a bug. I feel that not just intellectually, but deeply personally.

“From here,” he continued, “students need to stay engaged. We’re working to help students learn about issues, advocate to their elected officials, and vote in upcoming elections.”

Hundreds of members of the community attended the event. Students, faculty, and staff were joined by Institute leaders including Provost Martin Schmidt and Barnhart, who addressed those gathered.

Members of the group then walked across the Massachusetts Avenue bridge together to attend a larger rally at Copley Square in Boston, where speakers included U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.

Ongoing efforts

MIT officials are working intensively with the affected students, faculty, and international scholars.

The Institute is also considering how it might assist students from these nations who have been offered admission to the Class of 2021.

According to data from the Registrar’s Office, during the fall semester there were 47 MIT undergraduate and graduate students from the seven affected nations: 38 from Iran, five from Syria, two from Sudan, and one each from Iraq and Somalia. Nine of the affected students are undergraduates and 38 are graduate students.

Additionally, there were five exchange or visiting students at MIT last semester hailing from Iran, along with one from Yemen.

MIT’s international students, postdocs, and researchers can contact the International Students Office and the International Scholars Office for immediate assistance. Members of the MIT community with legal questions about this situation can contact the Office of the General Counsel. All of these offices stand ready to provide direction and assistance to members of the MIT community who are in need of help.

Letter from President Reif

In his letter to the MIT community today with his thoughts on the executive order and its meaning, President Reif called the order “a stunning violation of our deepest American values, the values of a nation of immigrants: fairness, equality, openness, generosity, courage.” About the many people from MIT who rallied on Sunday in opposition to the order, Reif wrote, “As an immigrant and the child of refugees, I join them, with deep feeling, in believing that the policies announced Friday tear at the very fabric of our society.”

Reif also wrote of the need for national unity — and for MIT to play a part in its realization:

“I would like us to think seriously about the fact that both within the MIT community and the nation at large, there are people of goodwill who see the measures in the Executive Order as a reasonable path to make the country safer,” he wrote. “We would all like our nation to be safe. I am convinced that the Executive Order will make us less safe. Yet all of us, across the spectrum of opinion, are Americans. 

“In this heated moment, I urge every one of us to avoid with all our might the forces that are driving America into two camps. If we love America, and if we believe in America, we cannot allow those divisions to grow worse. We need to imagine a shared future together, if we hope to have one. I am certain our community can help work on this great problem, too, by starting right here at home.”

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