The Campus Committee on Race Relations and the MLK Celebrations Committee will merge and the new committee will be called Committee on Race and Diversity, Chancellor Phillip Clay has announced.
"In combining the two committees, the aim is to strengthen our ability to more effectively advance race relations goals in campus life," Clay said.
The committee's responsibilities will include assessing the community environment and suggesting strategies; developing and sponsoring community initiatives to advance race relations and awarding grant funds to support these; sponsoring or cosponsoring community-wide events and forums including, but not limited to, the MLK Breakfast; and advising the administration on matters that arise.
The new committee will focus on the campus community, while Provost L. Rafael Reif's initiative on faculty race issues will continue to focus on developing approaches to advance faculty diversity.
The new committee will administer the grants program that the former CCRR managed; it will also sponsor the MLK Breakfast in February.
In addition to comprising faculty and student members, the new committee will have representatives from the offices of the provost, chancellor and executive vice president. It will be chaired by J. Philip Thompson, professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on November 7, 2007 (download PDF).
