December 16, 2009
To the Members of the MIT community:
Today, the Institute-wide Planning Task Force releases its final report. Convened and led by MIT’s Provost, Chancellor, and Executive Vice-President and Treasurer, this group of approximately 200 faculty, students, and staff has explored new ways of cutting costs and enhancing revenues while promoting our historic excellence in teaching and research.
The final report shows that MIT is at its best when it comes together to solve problems. Beginning in February 2009, the group spent six months creating and assessing ideas — some of which grew out of submissions to the online Idea Bank — and in August the MIT community was invited to comment on the Task Force’s preliminary findings. The feedback from the community was carefully considered by each of the Task Force’s nine working groups. This final report, therefore, reflects the collective effort, imagination and judgment of the MIT community.
As impressive as the work of the Task Force is, it must be seen as part of a larger whole. In the years leading up to the global economic crisis, members of the administration and individual faculty, staff and students were working to engineer solutions aimed at preserving what is most precious at MIT. The work of the Task Force builds on many long-standing efforts aimed at improving our operations, safeguarding the Institute’s financial stability, and enhancing its global leadership.
Many of the ideas found in this report will be implemented over the coming months and years, while others will require further evaluation. In early 2010, the Task Force leadership will begin informing the MIT community of its plans for actions based on this report.
In closing, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to the members of the Task Force — and to the members of the MIT community who helped guide their work.
Sincerely,
Israel Ruiz, Vice President for Finance
Steven R. Lerman, Vice Chancellor & Dean for Graduate Education
Martin A. Schmidt, Associate Provost
Task Force coordinators