In 2010, MIT issued a Report on The Initiative for Faculty Race and Diversity on how race affects the recruitment, retention, professional opportunities, and collegial experiences of minority professors at MIT.

The original impetus for this report stems from a unanimous 2004 resolution of the MIT faculty to double the percentage of URM faculty (and triple the percentage of URM graduate students) within ten years. The faculty adopted this resolution in recognition of MIT's commitment "to developing and maintaining a robust environment that values and celebrates the potential of all the members of the MIT community as that potential enhances MIT's mission to continued excellence in teaching, research, and community service."

President L. Rafael Reif, Letter to the Community, 14 January 2010

Chemical Engineering Professor Paula T. Hammond ’84, PhD ’93 led the report committee, which included Emery N. Brown of the School of Science; Leslie K. Norford of the School of Architecture and Planning; Christine Ortiz of the School of Engineering; Marcus A. Thompson of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences; and Lotte Bailyn of the Sloan School. In developing the Initiative, MIT drew from its experiences with the 1999 Study on the Status of Women Faculty in Science at MIT. 

As an institution that prides itself on the ability to address some of the world’s most difficult problems, MIT can and should lead the nation in the important challenge of increasing the numbers of minority faculty via a strong Institute-wide policy.

Report on The Initiative for Faculty Race and Diversity, 2010

UPDATE

Schaffer, Amanda. "The Long Path to Inclusivity." MIT Technology Review, 20 October 2020.