Dear Members of the MIT Corporation
​We are members of the MIT community concerned about MIT’s relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its state-controlled subsidiaries. Saudi Arabia is an authoritarian state with​ one of the worst human-rights records in the world. Its shameful record is by now familiar from international press coverage: thousands of deaths and millions on the brink of famine in the Yemeni Civil War since 2015; the 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul; and the list goes on. Collaborative agreements with an authoritarian state with this record are antithetical to the mission, interests, and values of MIT and of open, democratic, societies worldwide. MIT’s choice on this issue should take into account the needs and interests not only of researchers and students at MIT, but of those directly affected by Saudi Arabia’s actions: civilians being bombed in Yemen, women activists being tortured for their efforts to secure basic civil rights, and the millions of children at risk of starvation.

After the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, President Reif solicited input from the MIT community on MIT’s engagements with Saudi Arabia. A subsequent report by Associate Provost Richard Lester states that 74% of MIT faculty who submitted comments either strongly objected or leaned against continuing engagements with Saudi Arabia, alongside 76% of non-faculty commenters. Yet MIT continues to accept funding from the Saudi Arabian government and government-controlled sources at the level of ~$8 million per year. The Saudi Arabia controversy underscores the need to build ethical principles deeply and fundamentally into MIT's international engagement policy.

Given the gravity of Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations, we urge the Corporation to heed the judgment of a significant majority of those who weighed in, and to end MIT’s relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

We call upon MIT to:
  1. Terminate all sponsored research programs, partnerships, investments, and financial engagements with Saudi Aramco, SABIC, and KACST.  These are state-controlled entities that do not serve a primarily educational mission.  MIT’s relations with these entities impugn the good name of the Institute and, by association, lends its prestige to the Saudi regime and risks being counted among its allies.
  2. Provide a transparent justification for why continuing any other relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is consistent with the values of the MIT community. This should take the form of a clear, detailed, and publicly accessible account of MIT’s relationship with each remaining major Saudi sponsor, university, or donor, with avenues for MIT community input. We ask that the MIT Faculty Policy Committee, in coordination with the MIT International Advisory Committee, be charged with this task. If no such justification is possible, end the relationship.
  3. Provide funds and resources to fully replace Saudi funding for any faculty member or student reliant on it. Continue to welcome students and researchers from Saudi Arabia to our campus, as we would students and researchers from any other country, and provide financial aid as appropriate.
  4. Present to the MIT community a comprehensive statement on MIT’s “Ethics of Engagement”. This statement should address both research partnerships and endowment investments. It should describe the decision-making process regarding the ethics of investment in and engagement with companies, governments, and individuals; identify the MIT offices and individuals who are responsible for making such decisions; and clarify what avenues the broader MIT community has for providing input on these decisions.

MIT has power to make a difference in the world, but not only through its ability to support science and engineering.  It is a powerful symbol of credibility and integrity. We object to MIT’s ongoing relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in our name.
You must provide an mit.edu email (this includes alum.mit.edu, etc.) to sign.
​Your email is collected for validation as a member of the MIT community ONLY.
It will not be shared or made public.
As of August 1, 2019, we have 304 signatories.  These 304 names will be sent to the members of the MIT Corporation with the above letter.  You may still sign after August 1, and your name will be included here, but members of the Corporation will see it only if they come to this page.  Thanks to everyone for their support.

Signed (as of 1:00pm, August 1, 2019)
Alonso Espinosa Dominguez
Nina Lytton, SM 1984, Humanist Chaplaincy Intern
Sally Haslanger, Ford Professor of Philosophy and Women's & Gender Studies
Rose Lenehan
Patricia-Maria Weinmann, Associate Coordinator, Radius at MIT
Patrick Brown, Postdoctoral Associate
Roger P. Levy, Associate Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
Alice Pote
Elizabeth Wood, Professor of History and WGS
Danny Fox, Anshen-Chomsky professor in language and thought
Tom Arabia
Ruth Perry, Ann Fetter Friedlaender Professor of Humanities
Quinton Y. Zondervan, Cambridge City Councillor, EECS S.M. '95
Lisa Horowitz, Librarian
Libby Mahaffy, Diversity and Inclusion Specialist, HR
Jeffrey Ravel, Professor
Marion Boulicault, Graduate Student
Ásta (Sveinsdóttir), Professor of Philosophy, San Francisco State University
Ece Turnator, Humanities and Digital Scholarship Librarian
Leah Flynn Gallant
Lee David Perlman, Co-Director, The Educational Justice Institute at MIT
Matthias Jenny
Donca Steriade, Class-of-1941 Professor of Linguistics
Chris Karam
Stephen Yablo, David W. Skinner Professor of Philosophy
Suzana Fong
Theresa A. Tobin, Curator, Noam Chomsky's Papers, Retired
Elena Sobrino, Ph.D. Student, HASTS
Jonathan King, Professor
Adam Reynolds
Brad Skow, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy
Lauren Kapsalakis, MIT HASTS
Ellie Immerman, Graduate Student
Claire Isabel Webb, Ph.D. Candidate, HASTS
Tamar Schapiro, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy
Margery Resnick, Associate Professor of Literature
Edmund Bertschinger, Professor of Physics and WGS
Timothy J. Eisen, Student
Rosie Gillies
Eliot Watkins
George Verghese, Henry Ellis Warren (1894) Professor, EECS
Claire McKenna, Ph.D. Student, Sloan
Kieran Setiya, Professor of Philosophy
Crystal Lee, Ph.D. Student, HASTS
Wyn Kelley, Senior Lecturer in Literature
Rajesh Kasturirangan
Nancy Kanwisher, Professor, Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences
Madeline Pelz, Ph.D. Student, BCS
Nathalie Fernandez
Tal Inbar
--- 50 ---
Amanda Pickett, Program Assistant, Prehealth Advising
Megan Schneck
Helen Elaine Lee, Professor, CMS/Writing; Director, Program in Women's & Gender Studies
Patrick Moran, Ph.D. Student
Lauren Stanwicks
Emily Eckardt
​Jeba Sania
Jeff Rosenberg
Kim Benard, Assistant Dean
Agnes Cameron, Graduate Student, MIT Media Lab
Anne EC McCants, Professor of History and Director of Concourse
Catherine Ricciardi, Nurse Director Imes Clinical Research Center
Milo Phillips-Brown, Ph.D. Candidate, Philosophy
Gadi Geiger, Research Scientist
Alison Hynd
Laura Schulz, Professor of Cognitive Science
Cedrick Boursiquot
Ian Condry, Professor
T.L. Taylor, Professor
Kelly Halverson
Arthur Bahr, Associate Professor of Literature
Juliette Alain
Ila Fiete, Associate Professor
Kelsey Allen
Gabrielle Robbins, Ph.D. Student, HASTS
Adam Bear, Affiliated Researcher
Diana Henderson, Professor of Literature and WGS
Ledia F. Hernandez, Research Associate
Ishani Maitra, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan
Aja Grande, Ph.D. Student, HASTS
Ceasar McDowell, Professor of the Practice of Civic Design
Nick Montfort, Professor
Marah Gubar, Associate Professor of Literature
Luke Hewitt
Cosmo Grant, Graduate Student, Philosophy
Christopher Markiewicz, Research Affiliate
Margarita Ribas Groeger, Senior Lecturer in Spanish, Global Studies and Languages
Enrico Flor, Ph.D. Student
Regina Ebo
Yarden Katz, MIT Alum (Ph.D. 2014)
Rick Heller
Dorothy Hosler, Professor of Archaeology and Ancient Technology
Ethan Zuckerman, Professor of the Practice
Haley Schilling
Ochiba Attah
Joe Scherrer, Graduate Student, Physics
Sujaya Neupane, Postdoctoral Fellow
Caroline A. Jones, Professor
Nader Nikbakht
Ethan Wilcox
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Peter S. Donaldson, Ford Professor in the Humanities
Rodrigo Ochigame, Graduate Student
Rachel Ryskin, Postdoc, Brain & Cognitive Sciences
Brent D. Ryan, Associate Professor, DUSP SA&P
Julia Mongo
Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Associate Professor of Law and Development
Andrew Schulert
Alan Lundgard, Ph.D. Student, Computer Science
Christina Moore
David Hsu, Associate Professor
​Matisse Peppet
William Popov
Samuel M. Allen, Professor Emeritus
Mark Szarko, Librarian
Ronald Riso
Carroll Eastman, M.D., Physician, MIT Medical
Kay Lowden
Saeid Saidi
Moses Carr
Gabby Ballard, student
Ian Murray, Program Assistant
Drazen Prelec, Professor, Sloan School, Dept. of Economics, Dept. of Brain & Cognitive Sciences
Thomas Mateo, SM 1984
Nancy Ritzenthaler, President, Ritzmark Holdings LLC
Piotr Indyk, Professor, EECS
Vinod Vaikuntanathan, Associate Professor, EECS
Danica Mijovic-Prelec, Research Scientist, Co-Director of MIT Sloan Neuroeconomics Lab
Vann McGee, Professor of Philosophy
Yael Kalai
Jen Purdy
Sebastian J. Garza
Babak Manouchehrifar, Doctoral student, DUSP
Arden Ali, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Philosophy, Northeastern University
KJ Surkan, Lecturer, Women's & Gender Studies
Lerna Ekmekcioglu, McMillan-Stewart Associate Professor of History
Stefan Helmreich, Professor
Louis Kampf, Professor of Humanities Emeritus
Catherine Modica, Academic Administrator, Physics
Evelyn Fox Keller, Professor of History and the Philosophy of Science, Emerita
Shankar Raman, Professor
Jean Jackson, Professor of Anthropology, Emerita
Abby Jaques
Gabriella Carolini, Associate Professor, Urban Planning and International Development
Ezra Haber Glenn, Lecturer in Urban Planning
Wayne O'Neil, Professor of Linguistics
Christina Warren
Sara Sinback
Jim Eggleston
Heather Paxson, Professor
Daniel Gallagher
--- 150 ---
Priyanka deSouza
Isadora Araujo
Dan Traficonte, Ph.D. Student, DUSP
Yasmin Bijani, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Faizan Jawed Siddiqi, Doctoral Student
Elise Harrington
Kevin Lee, Ph.D. Student, Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Dorothy Tang
Ayan Meer
Shin Bin Tan
Prassanna Raman, Ph.D. Candidate
Laura Delgado
Selma Sharaf
Chaewon Ahn, Ph.D. Candidate
Nergis Mavalvala, Professor of Physics
Valentina Urbanek, Senior Lecturer, Philosophy Department, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Barbara Jusiak, Research Scientist
Emma Atherton
Mathieu Medina
David Hermann
​Heather Logue
Joanna J. Bryson, Reader, University of Bath
Ella M. Barnhill
Prerna Sekhri​
Fiona Chen​
Yuan Yao
Christina Mata
Fern D Keniston, AA: CSAIL, Quest for Intelligence, MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab
Zahra Khan
Pratik Modi
Brian Tokar, Class of 1976, Environmental Studies lecturer, University of Vermont
Libby Shaw
Daniel Fitzgerald
Thea Paneth, AA
Gyunghoon Kang, Graduate Student
Jordan Isler, Undergraduate Student
Molly Ruggles, Senior Educational Technology Consultant
Jeremy Poindexter, Ph.D. '18
Rachel Kurchin, Ph.D. Student
David Slesinger, Alum/Former Class President, '72
Susan Spilecki
Lucas Mason-Brown, Ph.D. Student
David H Wu
Catherine Wilka, Graduate Student
Yilang Xu
Stephanie Chin
Nicholas Pape
Keis Bejgo
Alexandra Stanton, MIT SB '18, Harvard Ph.D. Student
Edward Gathuru, Undergraduate Student
--- 200 ---
Eren Guttentag, Student
Jess Cohen, Undergraduate Student
Julian Hernandez
Cynthia A. Harris
Empar Rollano-Hijarrubia, Ph.D. Physics
Jack Dinsmore
Em McDermott
Mark J. Pearrow
Timothy Havel
Edgardo Letona, Student, BCS
Brij Bhushan
Miana Smith
Tim Brothers, Technical Instructor
Rucha Mehendale, Graduate Research Assistant
Shohini Stout
Adam Suhl
Dawn Anderson, Head of House
Daniel Engelberg
Daniel Munoz​, Ph.D. Candidate
Jeff Rosenberg
Orisa Coombs
Nadine Eichenlaub
Fayed Ali
Davor Ljubenkov
Israel Bonilla
Nishanth Mundru
​Joshua Elbahrawy
Subrata Ghoshroy​, Research Affiliate, STS
Chad Sauvola
Eaman Jahani
Josue J. Lopez, Graduate Student, MIT Presidential Fellow
Michael Nguyen
Naomi Gutierrez
Robin Wolfe Scheffler​, Assistant Professor, STS
Alex Canepa​
Robert C Berwick, Professor
Tony Knopp, Program Director
Babak Babakinejad
Ron Spangler​
William Martin
Joyce Yoon
Marcus Dahllof​
Christopher Frechette, Human Resources Officer
Roger Summons, Professor
Louis Bucciarelli
Jesse Kroll
Mriganka Sur​​
Wai Cheng, Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Eben Lazarus, Assistant Professor of Finance, Sloan School
Jonas Brunschwig​, Graduate Student, Department of Urban Studies and Planning
--- 250 ---
Diane Williams
Sue Zimmerman, MD.
Andrew Bahle
Jeffrey L. Schwartz, Lecturer
Frederick P Salvucci, Senior Research Associate and Lecturer
David Auerbach
Harold Dresner Levin, MIT SB Mathematics '65, PhD Philosophy '76
Adam Haber
Matti Eklund, Professor of Philosophy, Uppsala University
Anni Raty
Adam Omar Hosein, Associate Prof. of Philosophy
R. A. Briggs, Professor of Philosophy, Stanford University (and MIT alum)
Lyndal Grant
David Boylan
Sean Kearney
Lauren Ashwell
George E. Smith, PhD MIT 1979; Professor, Tufts University
Ryan Doody
Selim Berker, Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University (and MIT alum)
Richard Kimberly Heck, Professor of Philosophy, Brown University, MIT PhD 1991
Elton Zhou
James Drayton
John Tirman
Thomas Matteo
Vivishek Sudhir
David Shoemaker, Senior Research Scientist, Kavli Institute
Scott A. Hughes, Professor of Physics
Tong Zhao
Tony Knopp
Harrison Wang
Aniket Dehadrai
Anna Frebel, Associate Professor of Physics
Jessica Horowitz
Louis Bucciarelli, Professor
Mason Ng, Ph.D. Student, Physics
Benjamin B. Lane, Ph.D. Student, Department of Physics
Renee Caso, Manager of Academic Programs
Beth Marois
Emma Batson
Matthew Feng
​Helena de Bres, Associate Professor of Philosophy
Claire I. Webb
Dhruva Ganapathy
Ed Boyle, Professor
Susan Spilecki
Geoffrey Supran, Postdoctoral Associate, MIT; Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard
Peter Downs, Senior House Alum
Soma Mitra-Behura
Lee Kamentsky
Tri Nguyen
--- 300 ---
Darnell Granberry
Jennifer Weisman
Matt Johnston
Gregory Dreifus
--- 304 ---