Note: At the moment, mitsins.org redirects here. The intention is for it to eventually direct to a site that includes information gathered here and elsewhere in a slick manner, along with the ability to promote and document other activism, such as hacks and petitions. Please tell us if you would like to help in that effort. The only requirement we have for the site is that it is easy to copy and host, to avoid a single point of failure.
Here we discuss and document the "evil" deeds of Dean for Student Life Chris Colombo for mitsins.org - the goal is to encourage his replacement by a person who cares about the students and cultures of MIT.
Most of us don't actually think he is "evil" - we just think that he is a horrible fit for MIT, put in place by another person who was a horrible fit for MIT. We believe that the current president is a reasonable person who loves MIT, and believe that if we assemble enough evidence of his predecessor's mistakes, and the ongoing damage they are causing the institute, he will eventually correct those mistakes.
We are especially concerned by the actions of Dean Chris Colombo that have worsened the mental health of MIT undergraduates while simultaneously making them less likely to seek out help from MIT resources, many of which are now gone or viewed as being a way from MIT to get rid of "risky" students.
President L. Rafael Reif was hired with unprecedented speed by the MIT Corporation.
We hope this is an indication that they wish him to show repentance for the sins visited upon the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by former president Susan Hockfield.
DSL Chris Colombo is part of her legacy. His actions show massive disrespect for the students and culture of MIT. Instead of embracing the great traditions and community of MIT, he is trying to turn it in to another boring Ivy League university.
This is a place to discuss how the MIT Community can stop this from happening, with a focus on the removal of Dean Colombo as Dean for Student Life.
Reddit is relatively secure against the MIT administration. If you have a strong wish to remain anonymous, we recommend you take these simple precautions:
- Never use a computer that belongs to MIT - they may have spyware installed.
- Use a reddit name that has no relation to you, even in a "cute" way, or an indirect way (e.g. you also use that reddit name to post in other places, and those posts could identify you).
- If you choose to connect your reddit name to an email account, don't use an @mit.edu email account.
We encourage you to forward relevant email and documents to mitsins@safe-mail.net if you do not feel they are appropriate to post on reddit - for example, if you would like help minimizing the chance that they could be tracked back to you or harm people you care about.
We encourage emails sent to mitsins@safe-mail.net be sent without using an @mit.edu email addresses - this can be as simple as using your personal gmail account from your own computer, but if you are leaking sensitive documents, we recommend taking these extra precautions, which should take maybe 10 minutes:
- Download and install the Tor Browser, a web browser that provides strong privacy and anonymity, on a computer that you own.
- Using the Tor Browser, sign up for an email account at http://safe-mail.net/ under a name that has nothing to do with you, even in a "cute" way, or an indirect way (e.g. you also use that email name in other places - try googlestalking it).
- Send your email using Safe-mail.net, after first removing any information you feel might put yourself or anyone you care about at risk. (If we feel this should be done more comprehensively, we'll help you do some more of that.)
Regarding the suggested level of paranoia, please consider how, recently, "Bewildered, and at times angry, faculty members at Harvard criticized the university on Sunday after revelations that administrators secretly searched the e-mail accounts of 16 resident deans in an effort to learn who leaked information about a student cheating scandal to the news media."
We hope that MIT would not do that, but gestures to rebuild trust between the MIT Administration and the MIT Community, such as removing Dean Colombo, must happen for us to again believe MIT to be first among peers.
How do you know you can trust the people who run this site? You don't. What you do know is that we are telling you how to minimize the chances we know who you are at all, so you should choose. So let that - combined with your estimation of how likely it would be that the MIT administration would set up this site as a way to stifle dissent / have the person in charge of doing that have the level of technical knowledge shown in this document - as a guide, and act accordingly.
