Discrimination, bullying, harassment, injustice, racism, homophobia … lions and tigers and bears oh my!

MIT’s culture has apparently become so unsafe that a key sticking point in MIT’s Graduate Student Union (GSU) negotiations with Melissa Nobles and Cynthia Barnhart is who gets to adjudicate grievances related to the above parade of horrors. MIT insists that its overstaffed Institute Discrimination & Harassment Response Office should remain in charge of dispensing social justice. Savvy negotiators from the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America with whom the GSU has affiliated know that he who controls the grievance process holds the hammer of justice.

“We, as student-workers and victims in these situations, deserve a clearly laid out procedure where we are empowered to speak out about our grievances and supported throughout the process to reach a fair resolution,” proclaim the champions of downtrodden PhDs in a 2,000 word guest column in The Tech. “We have to move past words and broad statements about ‘belonging’ and take action to see a truly inclusive community formed here at MIT and codified through a contract.”

The wokeified chickens have come home to roost.