MIT’s Office of Experiential Learning (ELO) is back for its fourth year of handing out half a million dollars to wannabe social justice activists looking to burnish their credentials. This, despite bemoaned budget belt tightening.
It seems good old UROP projects that focus on developing basic science and engineering skills are not sufficiently fashionable for MIT’s current administration. Public Service + Social Impact programs are all the rage, diverting promising STEM students off to work with NGOs, non-profits, and government agencies to advocate for climate change awareness, racial justice, and the woke cause du jour.
A crack anthropology team among last year’s Social Impact ELO grantees was determined to teach Mongolians how to stay warm in the winter. In an environmentally sustainable manner, of course. Which is what landed them a grant. While their molten salt brick hot delivery plan was a dismal failure, it did give Beaver readers a good laugh.
But hey, as long as this keeps MIT former DEI staff employed, all is well.
How about a proposal to measure the impact of social impact grants on student politicization and administrative bloat? Do you think that might get funded?
In any event, you can’t win if you don’t play. Wouldn’t it be grand of someone submitted a Sokal Hoax style application and it got funded? Give it a try here, and if you succeed, the Beaver will make you famous.
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