When advisors lose interest in projects (and students) — Anyone who is familiar with lab-based research work will know how much research involves an immense amount of single-use and disposable materials. Even our research questions and projects can be disposable, involving many dead-end projects which are dropped after a few failed experiments or even after years of work if…

What is the single most common question the RISE campaign gets from administrators? The campaign to Reject Injustice through Student Empowerment (RISE) has gained wide support and engagement across campus, with almost 1000 individual signatures and 74 student group signatures. With the hundreds of hours that have been put into…

International students faced with marginalization, uncertainty, and precarity — Being international in the United States while a deadly pandemic sweeps the country is not a welcoming experience — especially not when many Americans think “foreigners” are to blame. One is reminded of the horrific aftermath of September 11, 2001: three thousand people dead, thousands more injured, and a wave…

Diversity, equity, and inclusion committees (DEICs) now exist in a significant portion of departments and programs at MIT. A few of these committees have existed for 2–3 years. However, many were initiated in response to the recent national uprisings against police terror and institutional racism, as well as the organizing…

The notification of an email, the buzzing of a text, or the unexpected call sent me into a spell of anxiety. Even the absence of any notification kept me so worried that I constantly checked my screens to ensure I had not missed an email from my advisor. I was…