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Vol. XXXVIII No. 1September/October 2025
First US Destination of MIT PhDs Over the Last Five Years
Source: Office of the Provost/Institutional Research...
Vol. XXXVIII No. 1September/October 2025
J-WAFS: From an Idea to a Program
Remarks by Professor John H. Lienhard V at the 10th Anniversary Celebration of the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) 22 May 2025 In 2005, I began...
Vol. XXXVIII No. 1September/October 2025
Reply to Prof. Hutchinson on Arguing Ad Hominem
Professor Hutchinson claims that the authors of the open letter to Professor Alex Byrne[1] commit the logical fallacy of arguing ad hominem. To commit this fallacy is to illicitly exploit...
Vol. XXXVIII No. 1September/October 2025
Are Ad Hominem Attacks Legitimate Academic Freedom?*
The Latin phrase ad hominem meaning to the person describes approaches to argumentation, debate, discourse, and politics, that consist of personal attacks against the opposing speaker, rather than presenting arguments...
Vol. XXXVIII No. 1September/October 2025
Introducing OACES
In August 2025, we were pleased to announce the arrival of OACES (pronounced “oasis”), or the Office of Academic Community, Empowerment, and Success. OACES is a “pillar” (or sub-unit) in...
Vol. XXXVIII No. 1September/October 2025
Why There Were No Faculty Newsletter Editorial Board Elections Last Spring
Some of you may be wondering why the Faculty Newsletter Editorial Board elections didn’t happen this May. The FNL Nominations Committee went through a process of selecting a slate of...
Vol. XXXVII No. 5May/June 2025
How Kafka, Not Newton, Saved My Life
I carry the burden of an imperial name: Franz-Josef. Austro-Hungarian, obsolete, mildly ridiculous. But this is the story of how a different Josef – Josef K., Kafka’s protagonist fromThe Trial...
Vol. XXXVIII No. 1September/October 2025
The Silbey Report: Independence, Transparency, and a Path Forward for the Faculty Newsletter (FNL)
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...
Vol. XXXVIII No. 1September/October 2025
How US Universities Can Survive State Terrorism*
As a professor at MIT, I find myself navigating strange waters these days. Last semester, I advised the thesis of a student who left the country because she did not...
Vol. XXXVIII No. 1September/October 2025
Reflections on an Encounter Outside Wichita, Kansas
Around twenty years ago my wife and I took our children to visit her brother and his family in Wichita, Kansas. We were living in Medford at the time, near...