MIT Climate Nucleus
Committee Meeting
Thursday, January 20, 2022
Held Virtually
MINUTES
The co-chairs began the meeting by providing an update on the formation of the climate working groups, noting that final proposed rosters would be shared with Nucleus members in the coming days and invitations would begin to go out to prospective working group members soon after that.
Symposia
The Nucleus then continued a discussion that began at the December 2021 meeting regarding ideas for a new climate symposia series, as called for in the Fast Forward plan. The co-chairs began by summarizing some of the points raised at the December meeting, including:
- Finding another way to describe the series that reflects more of a narrative approach (rather than calling the events “symposia”).
- Organizing the symposia around themes, such equity and environmental justice; student leadership; and more.
- Considering an audience consisting of MIT students and other community constituencies, while also making the events open/available to the public.
- Linking the symposia to courses, student projects, or competitions.
- Leveraging existing MIT climate communications assets, such as the climate portal and podcast managed by ESI.
As a basis for discussion, the co-chairs presented three possible options for the symposia. In general terms, these options were:
- Option one: A traditional symposia series, perhaps renamed, featuring invited speakers and with the possibility of coordinating with instructors so that attendance could be part of a class and might substitute for a course requirement of some other kind.
- Option two: An event series that identifies and connects with classes that already have student climate projects planned; speakers and themes would then relate to those projects.
- Option three: A single, institute-wide climate course, listed in multiple departments, potentially following the model of 7.00 (COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, and the Pandemic), which met once per week for one hour; video lectures were made available to the public. The course featured outside expert speakers on a range of Covid-related topics.
The co-chairs then opened up a conversation about the options.
Audiences and speakers
One member suggested that the Nucleus start by exploring the gap MIT wants to fill – e.g., trying to reach students, the general public, etc. Another member reinforced the idea of starting by identifying target audiences and then strategizing around them. Opinion polls in the U.S. find that a majority of Americans are now either concerned or very concerned about climate change. Given this, the question should be, “what do we do about it,” with a symposia series that might focus on climate solutions, targeted at the broad public.
There was extensive discussion about ensuring a focus on reaching external audiences (in addition to the MIT community). One member noted the growing success of MIT’s climate communications assets, including the climate portal and primer and related assets. It was suggested that this could be separate activities (e.g., symposia focused on the MIT community, and other communications efforts for external audiences). At the same time, this member voiced strong support for involving MIT students in some way.
There was also discussion about how this symposia series, compared with the 2019-2021 series, could do more to help cultivate collaborations with outside climate groups, feature more young climate leaders, and reflect a more grassroots approach. This, in turn, leads to a focus on engaging students and young people, but does not necessarily mean that the focus of the symposia should be entirely or even largely curricular.
Interdisciplinarity and cross-Institute coordination
A number of members touched on the importance of interdisciplinarity (using the symposia to model integration across disciplines) and on the idea that the symposia series present an opportunity for the Nucleus to play its Institute-wide coordinating role. Members also discussed the idea that climate should be a concern for everyone – not a “niche” issue. Specific points here included:
- The importance of truly drawing ideas, speakers, and involvement from departments across the Institute, including all five schools and the College.
- The importance of diversity in terms of both embodied diversity and disciplinary diversity.
One member described an initiative at another university in which every semester classes pause for a week to enable students across the university to work together at various levels on solving a complex multi-disciplinary problem. Recognizing the difficulty of implementing such an initiative, there was discussion about the form it could take at MIT, involving students from all four class years; one member suggested it would be akin to a project-based General Institute Requirement.
Another member built on this idea by suggesting that the problem area could be announced at the beginning of the year or semester, so that every department or program could be charged with identifying some of the core competencies important to that problem area and preparing students in those competencies so they would be ready for the week of problem-solving.
Feedback on option 3 (an Institute-wide course)
One member noted that something like option three would require a faculty champion willing to lead it.
There was a question about whether option 3 could be an addition to the environment and sustainability minor, or whether it might crowd out enrollment from other minor requirements. One Nucleus member involved with the minor responded that they did not believe it would crowd out enrollment.
One member also expressed concern that this format (for a course) might discourage external audiences from tuning in.
Overall Consensus from the Nucleus Committee
Option one was preferred, with a priority on having a coherent theme: A symposia series, perhaps renamed, featuring invited speakers aligned with a theme or overarching topic of interest.
Ideas for themes and topics
One member urged that the focus should be on real-world solutions that are available to cut emissions now. With this in mind, the event series could include field trips to net-zero buildings, large-scale wind farms, etc. Another member pointed out there is a lot of exciting work still happening in climate science, such as research involving climate system feedbacks, and that it would be important to include this perspective.
One member suggested integration with MIT’s Climate Grand Challenges, which will be announced in Spring 2022. (It was noted that planning is underway for a CGC event.)
One member proposed a career-focused event series on climate, bringing speakers such as Chief Sustainability Officers to offer ideas and context for what climate careers could look like for students from many different majors/departments. This wouldn’t be a traditional career fair with recruiters, but rather an opportunity for students to learn what a climate-focused career could look like.
There was discussion of using the symposia series as an opportunity to ask organizations doing climate work to describe specific challenges they are facing, and then use the symposia as work sessions, where audience members spend time co-creating solutions to the challenges identified. This would satisfy a number of objectives (e.g., educational, network-building).
Relatedly, one member suggested that the symposia could focus on how to deal with obstacles to addressing climate change, such as conflicting business interests or local/regional barriers that prevent adoption of clean energy solutions.
Other points of discussion
One member raised the question of whether the climate symposia should be conceived and planned by the Education Working Group that is about to be stood up, rather than the Nucleus itself.
Members also discussed the importance of using multimedia/multiple modes of communication and presentation, rather than a traditional format in which panelists make prepared presentations from a stage.
Next steps
- The co-chairs agreed to return to the Nucleus with a more fully-formed proposal based on the ideas and feedback discussed in today’s meeting.
- Curricular-focused ideas discussed by the Nucleus will be referred to the Education Working Group for further consideration.
