At the May 2024 Institute Faculty Meeting, a motion was passed to convene an ad hoc committee charged with reviewing and revising the policies and procedures of the MIT Faculty Newsletter (FNL) and clarifying its relationship to the faculty as a whole. Over the course of seven months – from September 2024 to March 2025 – the committee conducted interviews, analyzed archival materials, and collected survey data to assess the current state of the FNL and recommend steps for its future sustainability.

Widespread Engagement and Broad Support

The committee’s December 2024–January 2025 survey received 468 responses, three-quarters of which were from faculty and emeriti, reflecting a 26% response rate – considerably higher than comparable Institute surveys. The results confirmed strong engagement with the Newsletter: over 60% of respondents reported reading most or all issues, and emeritus faculty were particularly active readers. The Newsletter’s signature “MIT Numbers” and faculty-written articles were the most widely read and appreciated features.

Significantly, the community expressed strong support for the FNL’s independence – from the MIT Corporation, central administration, and faculty governance structures. While most did not see the Newsletter as “the voice of the faculty,” respondents overwhelmingly endorsed its role as a venue for diverse perspectives and open discourse on matters of importance to the Institute.

Challenges in Governance and Production

Despite this strong institutional support, the committee uncovered a number of structural and operational challenges. Editorial Board meetings have been irregular, often scheduled on short notice, and lack systematic documentation. The board has at times operated below its stated membership minimum, and the nomination process has been inconsistently applied. New members receive little orientation, and the lack of formal onboarding limits effective participation.

On the production side, the Newsletter relies heavily on a single Managing Editor and a largely ad hoc system of soliciting content. The absence of predictable submission deadlines, publication calendars, or robust editorial planning creates significant barriers to sustainability.

A Call for Transparency, Accountability, and Investment

To address these issues, the committee issued a series of recommendations, including:

• Improving transparency through public documentation of board meetings, election processes, and policy revisions.
  
• Establishing clear term limits and structured nomination protocols, in consultation with experts in institutional governance.
  
• Issuing an annual report to the faculty, detailing editorial board activities, submission rates, and production metrics.
  
• Increasing the number of editorial board meetings to better manage the growing complexity of the publication.
  
• Hiring a professional production editor to support the Newsletter’s management and ensure timely publication.
  
• Creating new content spaces, including a “Letters to the Editor” section and regular updates from faculty governance committees.
  

In addition, the committee recommended the appointment of a transitional support committee from July 2025 through June 2026 to help implement these changes.

A Note From the Editorial Board of the Faculty Newsletter

We, the Editorial Board of the MIT Faculty Newsletter, would like to express our deep gratitude to the committee – informally known as the Silbey Committee – for their thorough, thoughtful, and generous work. This report marks not just a milestone in the history of the FNL, but also a moment of reflection and renewal.

We see in this report both a challenge and an aspiration: to hold true to the original spirit of the FNL as a publication rooted in independence, and to evolve it into something stronger, more transparent, and more inclusive of the full faculty voice. That voice – diverse, discerning, and sometimes discordant – is not noise. It is sound. It is music. Built upon care. Composed with integrity. Resonant with the shared concerns of a community devoted to the life of the mind and the values of a just and open university.

At a time when the very notion of faculty governance is tested by shifting administrative structures, external pressures, and rapid institutional change, the FNL stands as a rare platform where faculty – in all their ranks, from all parts of the Institute – can find a home for their ideas, their critiques, their commitments. The committee’s recommendations call on all of us – not just the board – to act. To not merely preserve what the FNL has been, but to build what it is meant to be: an enduring institution of intellectual independence and principled discourse.

We welcome the opportunity to undertake this work in partnership – with the faculty, with governance committees, and with the broader MIT community. The report calls for better structure and stronger support; we embrace that call. But more fundamentally, it reminds us that the faculty voice must not be fragmented or forgotten. It must be heard – not because it is always right, but because without it, the balance of this Institute, and what it stands for, risks tilting irreversibly.

Let us care for this platform together. And let it be worthy of the faculty whose voices give it meaning.

The Editorial Board of the MIT Faculty Newsletter

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