About PTAC

Our Charge

In the summer of 2012, the Undergraduate Association (UA) and Graduate Student Council (GSC) collaborated with President Rafael Reif to form the Presidential Transition Advisory Cabinet (PTAC). This goal of this cabinet is to provide the President with direct access to student representatives who will advise on issues pertaining to the undergraduate and graduate student experience. The charge of PTAC is as follows:

  1. To identify existing MIT-wide issues as well as strategies for new opportunities.
  2. To serve as a confidential sounding board to the President by providing student feedback to difficult questions and new ideas.
  3. To provide input into the long-term vision for student academic, research, and community life on campus.

Timeline

Cabinet meetings will be held twice a month starting in July and continuing into the fall with each month’s meetings focused on a central theme. In consultation with the President, the Cabinet will be responsible for selecting the monthly theme. At the month’s first round-table discussion, initial theme-related questions will be developed for the Cabinet to investigate. Over the next two or more weeks, the Cabinet will then engage the student community in an open discussion about the theme. This period will require significant diligence and resourcing in order to aggregate feedback into a representative response. Finally, the Cabinet will present its findings and provide the President with actionable recommendations on the questions initially posed.

It is expected that conversations will follow the C 3 framework of being candid, constructive, and confidential. In addition, a public report will be released following the official discharge of PTAC in December.