Student Life and Learning Digest

Reach Out and Make Connections

Eric Grimson
Chancellor

This week I shared with the campus the sad news of another student death. Along with the recent bike accident, this is the fourth death to hit the community since the beginning of the academic year. I certainly am struggling to make sense of this trauma, and I know that many of you may be, too.

At MIT, we’re great at tackling the world’s problems. Whether it’s the future of energy, a cure for cancer, or affordable health care, we gladly take on the big challenges—and we expect that we’ll find a way to solve them. Often, we do so by teaming up with others. Sometimes, though, I think we forget to apply this same approach to our own struggles. In my email to the campus this week, I described how, during tough times like these, it is vitally important to reach out and make connections. It occurred to me that this attitude should be familiar to us. After all, we do it in our research. We do it working on class projects, or in study groups. Let’s do this within the community, too, for ourselves and for one another.

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Students are asking...

Q: Who uses offices like Student Support Services? I am nervous about contacting someone for help and wonder what happens if I do.

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