Presidential Charge to Task Force 2021
Task Force 2021 opening charge
The Covid-19 virus required us, individually and together, to suddenly redefine the way we live and work, the way we learn and teach, the way we conduct research. It required a radical withdrawal from the campus and imposed a serious financial threat, for the Institute and for many in our community. There may be no full return to our familiar “normal.”
While MIT continues to manage through this emergency, Task Force 2021 will seek to use the lessons of this extraordinary time to explore how MIT might invent a thriving new future. What have we learned about what we treasure most in the MIT experience? What aspects caused the most frustration? What worked better than we hoped? And what might be open to constructive change?
Task Force 2021 will distill and apply the knowledge we have gained together to help us imagine an MIT that is better, safer, more flexible, more effective, more efficient, more sustainable, more inclusive, more equitable, more affordable and more financially resilient in the long term, while sustaining the Institute’s distinctive values and culture and its dynamic approach to education, research and innovation.
In short – by drawing on expertise and experience from across the community – Task Force 2021 is charged with developing the blueprints for building a better MIT.