Many MIT students feel intense pressure to excel academically and receiving a poor grade (or a perceived poor grade) can be upsetting. One way for faculty to support students in coping with failure is to share stories of personal setbacks, whether that is a disappointing grade in a college course or a failed research project. Taking ten minutes to reassure students that they can be successful in their field, even when their grades aren't perfect, can enhance students' well-being.

Share videos from FAIL!, a student-organized speaker series where professors from Harvard and MIT tell stories about times they failed and how they bounced back.

Stereotype threat refers to the threat or anxiety a student feels of confirming a negative stereotype about a group one belongs to in a particular domain (e.g. women are not good at math). Stereotype threat can result in diminished academic performance, decreased belonging, and ultimately disengagement from a field and altered professional plans.

Though anyone can experience stereotype threat, it is more likely to affect underrepresented minority groups in academic settings and women in STEM.

There are several ways to mitigate stereotype threat, including:

• Providing meaningful feedback where high standards are emphasized and targeted feedback is provided for how to meet them.
• Including role models in your teaching. Even a single role model that challenges stereotypic assumptions can eliminate performance decrements under stereotype threat. Evidence indicates that even reading stories or watching videos about successful women and other stereotyped groups can protect students from stereotype threat.
• Encouraging a growth mindset by highlighting the importance of effort and motivation in performance, while deemphasizing inherent intelligence. Sharing your own stories of academic struggles and how you overcame them can also help emphasize the importance of effort.

For more information on building effective and welcoming academic environments, visit the MIT Teaching and Learning Lab’s website.

MIT Sloan organizes regular "Ask Me Anything" events for members of the MIT Sloan community. The series "provides firsthand personal perspectives on elements of personal identity. Past events have addressed national identity [as well as] religious, racial, sexual, and ethnic identity, the veteran experience, and themes such as mental illness and hearing loss. Typically, a small panel of community members provides brief introductions, then addresses questions that people may otherwise be hesitant to ask. The goal in offering these panels is to advance understanding and dialogue."

Suggestion boxes convey to community members that departmental leadership wants to better understand community members' experiences.

Pro tip: advertise use of the suggestion box in internal e-newsletters and other communications. Periodically report out themes and actions related to the suggestions in the boxes.

During periods of potential stress, like during finals or midterms, incorporate health and wellbeing information into departmental communications. Share sleep and meditation tips from MIT Medical or 'Don't Struggle Alone' posters advertising MIT's mental health resources.

Inform students of the resources.mit.edu website, which lists all of the resources available to MIT students. 

Outside sources that provide timely and informative wellness content include the New York Times Wellness Blog and Mindful Magazine.

MindHandHeart commissioned a series of cartoons related to wellness, mental health, and community at MIT from world-renowned cartoonist Larry Gonick. We encourage you to share them with your networks and brighten someone's day.

Encourage members of your community to apply to the De Florez Fund for Humor and undertake projects that make MIT a happier and more welcoming place.

Summer programs create community on campus and further MIT's mission to "build a better world." 

The MIT Philosophy Department in collaboration with UMass Boston hosts "PIKSI-Boston, an annual week-long summer institute for undergraduates from underrepresented groups in philosophy. Both MIT faculty and graduates students take part, with graduate students providing mentoring support as well as holding seminars. The Institute takes approximately 20 undergraduates each year, with the goal of helping them to develop the tools they need to succeed in philosophy."

There are a number of MIT funding sources available to students, faculty, and staff, including the MindHandHeart Innovation Fund, which offers grants of up to $10,000 to support projects that build community, promote mental health, or advance diversity, equity, and inclusion. Inform members of your department about these funding sources and encourage them to realize their good ideas.

Pick up a copy of "Best Practices in Graduate Student Advising," created in partnership by The Office of Graduate Education (OGE) and the Graduate Student Council (GSC), and read the “C2C Mentoring Guideposts.”  

The “Best Practices” guide attempts to define and address the roles, relationships, and expectations that currently exist in the life of a graduate student, as well as the fundamental principles that guide these relationships. The “Guideposts” are concrete actions faculty advisors can take in creating a positive mentoring relationship as identified by students.

Organize a walking group that meets for 30 minutes during lunchtime or form a team and complete a 5K. 

At the beginning of the year, encourage members of your department to join GetFit, a free 12-week fitness challenge organized by Community Wellness at MIT Medical.

Community Wellness at MIT Medical and MIT Recreation can connect departments to yoga, meditation, and fitness instructors. 

There are many ways to make communities more inclusive of trans and gender non-conforming people, including:

• Ensure access to all-gender bathrooms with clear and welcoming signage.
• Normalize sharing pronouns in group settings and email signatures.

• Don’t ask a trans person what their “real name” is. For some trans people, being associated with their birth name is a tremendous source of anxiety, or it is simply a part of their life they wish to leave behind. Respect the name a trans person is currently using.

• Be careful about confidentiality, disclosure, and “outing.”

• Do not tolerate anti-trans remarks or humor.

Check out the Trans@MIT website, which provides educational tools for anyone who would like to better understand trans people and gender differences. Trans@MIT staff are also available to host workshops and advise MIT community members on any trans-related questions or concerns.

Share material from Trans 101, a gender diversity course designed to increase awareness of what it means to be trans and ways to be an effective ally. 

Borrow ideas from the student-run UA Compton Lounge (26-110) and consider adding legos, fidget toys, coloring books, yoga mats, plants, and free coffee and fruit to your department's community spaces.

Every fall, the Math Department invites graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and staff to a camp in New Hampshire.

The MIT Activities Committee (MITAC) offers discounted tickets to the MIT community for local arts and culture, sporting events, and family activities. Take your department, lab, or center on a day trip to Boston.

In the summer of 2018, the Chemistry Department held the first in a series of town hall meetings to discuss the department's shared values.

"The goal of the meeting... [was] to craft a departmental "code of conduct" or "statement of shared values" that would express the shared vision of conduct that members of the department expect of themselves and each other ... All members of the Department of Chemistry- faculty, staff, students, and postdocs- were invited to participate and contribute their thoughts on how the statement should be crafted."

Pro Tip: work with student leadership to develop an agenda for your town hall discussion. Consider discussing key data points from the climate survey. Reach out to MindHandHeart for support in planning a town hall in your department, lab, or center.

MindHandHeart publishes a calendar to 'De-Stress and Take Care' at the end of every semester. Distribute this to students during finals period and encourage them to take breaks and practice self-care.

Many departments provide snacks and treats during finals period. Women and Gender Studies offers free 10-minute chair massages— a very popular activity. ??

The University of Michigan’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching created classroom guidelines to encourage inclusive and respectful discussion:

• "Be aware of how much you are contributing to in-class discussions. Try not to silence yourself out of concern for what others will think about what you say. If you have a tendency to contribute often, give others the opportunity to speak. If you tend to stay quiet, challenge yourself to share ideas so others can learn from you."
• "Listen respectfully. Don’t interrupt, engage in private conversations, or turn to technology while others are speaking. Use attentive, courteous body language." More guidelines are available on the University of Michigan's site.

You may wish to use this or collaboratively establish ground rules with your students. You can also visit the MIT Teaching and Learning Lab’s website for additional ideas.

MIT students hail from all over the world and it can be hard to accurately pronounce their names when you haven't heard them before. Prior to the start of class, enter students names that you find challenging into a free pronunciation app, like Pronounce Names, Forvo, or Google Translate. At the beginning of a course, ask all students what their preferred name is and how to pronounce it. 

It may also be useful to have students create a nameplate that they can place on their table or desk. This will help students learn each other’s names too.

For more information on building inclusive and welcoming academic environments, contact the MIT Teaching and Learning Lab.

Every March, the MIT community celebrates RAK Week through a series of loosely-planned events and small, spontaneous acts of generosity known as “RAK hacks.” From a “kindness crawl” to a rainbow-colored ball pit, the week is full of fun activities, giveaways, and surprises. Connect with MindHandHeart in the fall and come up with ideas for ways your department, lab, or center can mark the week.

Visit the MIT Events calendar to learn about the many fun and interesting events happening on campus, and share them with members of your community.

MIT's Women's and Gender Studies Department hosts a monthly Intellectual Forum "in which faculty members share works-in-progress [and] bring the community together for interdisciplinary engagement on topics of shared concern."

Consider giving students a 2-3 minute break 1-3 times during class. Encourage students to use this time for catching up on their notes or formulating questions. Short breaks can also help students focus more clearly during the remainder of the class. 

Avoid introducing new material in the last 5-10 minutes of class. Instead, use that time to help students incorporate their new knowledge in the context of their prior knowledge.

Begin lectures with a recap of the previous class or by asking students a question that encourages a review of the previous class.

For more information on building inclusive and welcoming academic environments, contact the MIT Teaching and Learning Lab.

The Chemistry Department hosts a biannual resource fair in the middle of the fall semester, inviting campus offices to advertise their offerings. It is an opportunity to reach students who arrived after September as well as remind current students of the resources available to them.

Encourage community members to participate in Independent Activities Period (IAP), a special four-week term that runs during January and consists of a variety of activities, including how-to sessions, lecture series, films, recitals, and contests. MIT community members have the opportunity to teach classes on topics that interest them— everything from yoga to pottery to astrology.

Organize lunch presentations where community members share their skills and talents outside of their jobs and research areas.

Invite faculty, students, and staff to commune over tea in a different group space every month. Keep a large thermos and some tea supplies handy to supply the lab of the month. During their "tea-turn," labs can provide other snacks. Pro tip: hold the event on a regular date, i.e. the first Friday of every month, preferably during a slower period. 

Well-designed interactive learning activities can provide students the opportunity to elaborate, receive feedback, and understand that they're not alone in the learning process. However, the use of too many interactive learning activities can be stressful for introverts.

Individual activities provide opportunities for all students to assess their understanding without the added stress of peer interactions.

When employing interactive learning activities, consider having students work on their own first. Besides making the activities less stressful for more introverted students, this strategy can also increase the quality of discussion by having students formulate and consolidate their positions individually first.

Activities that allow students to respond anonymously (e.g., clicker-type questions, muddy cards) can also be a non-threatening and effective way to check students’ understanding of material.

For more information on building effective and welcoming academic environments, visit the MIT Teaching and Learning Lab’s website.

With input from members of your community, turn your diversity statement into an action plan or include this focus in broader strategic planning efforts. Outline your goals and achievements in a poster or visual that is visible to MIT community members. Plan events designed to foster diversity and inclusion, and regularly communicate progress.    

Examples of MIT departmental diversity statements can be found at diversity.mit.edu/departmental-statements.

The Office of the First Year hosts a letter writing event where first-year students write welcoming messages to members of the incoming class.

For a large paper, require that students turn in outlines, drafts, and revisions at various points, rather than requiring only one large submission at the end of the semester.  For a large project, identify phases in the project to establish milestones for students, rather than requiring a final deliverable by a particular date.

Avoid giving only one final exam. Make sure to have at least one significant assessment before the drop-date deadline.

For more information on building effective and welcoming academic environments, visit the MIT Teaching and Learning Lab’s website.

Analyze common spaces to ensure they feel welcoming. The simple addition of a table and chairs or couch can turn a hallway into a place where people work and friends catch up. Legos, white boards, and plants can help make spaces feel inviting and friendly. 

Those who feel anxious about their place in their department may not be comfortable socializing in a large, open lounge space. Creating smaller lounge spaces using dividers may help to relieve some of this discomfort, and encourage all members of the community to utilize common spaces.

Ensure walkways are clear and that common spaces are accessible to people with disabilities.

Share the Cheat Sleep one pager and 253-CALM card produced by Community Wellness at MIT Medical. During periods of potential stress, like around finals and midterms, remind students of the importance of getting a good night's sleep.

MIT's Accessibility and Useability Office provides free accessibility reviews and consulting. Schedule an appointment to ensure that your websites and applications meet federal accessibility guidelines.

There are many ways to encourage a growth mindset in academic environments, including:

• Convey the message that struggle is common, expected, and often necessary, especially for challenging tasks and acquisition of skills. Share experiences of your own struggles and that of others.
• Offer extra help outside of class (office hours, help-sessions, etc.) and communicate that it is normal and expected that students take advantage of this.
• Communicate that abilities can grow over time. This can be done by communicating how expertise is developed and by providing assignments, research milestones, and exams where students can demonstrate incremental progress (i.e. projects/papers that incorporate cycles of feedback and revision).
• Focus on processes, not “final answers."
• De-stigmatize mistakes and challenges, and teach students to see them as learning opportunities. For example, emphasize the importance of failure and iteration in the engineering design process and in research.
• Give frequent and timely feedback that focuses students’ attention on how to improve. Praise students for effort, strategies, and the utilization of resources.

For more information on building effective academic environments, visit the MIT Teaching and Learning Lab’s website.

Community Wellness at MIT Medical and MIT Recreation can connect departments to yoga and meditation instructors. Departments can underwrite the costs of the classes, offering them free or at a discounted rate.

Encourage members of your community to attend the MIT Libraries Calm Under the Dome, a free half hour of silent mindfulness held on Mondays at noon in the Barker Reading Room.

"The Women in Math website celebrates the many female students, postdocs, and professors of mathematics at MIT. Here, we showcase our mathematicians' new projects and achievements. Current and prospective students will find news, upcoming lecture series, and ample resources. Alumnae can reconnect and stay updated. Browse through the in-depth biographies to learn more about what these mathematicians study at MIT and how they got here." -Women In Math

Download and print these STEM Role Models posters and raise awareness of women's achievements in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Ensure print materials from the Violence Prevention and Response (VPR) office are visible and available to office visitors. VPR is MIT’s primary on-campus resource for preventing and responding to interpersonal violence, including sexual assault, dating and domestic violence, stalking, and sexual harassment. 

Invite VPR to deliver a training to your community on topics such as gender roles, bystander intervention, communications, and healthy relationships.

Take time at a team meeting to review the Title IX policy so that everyone is aware of what to do and who to contact if some one discloses an instance of violence to them. For more information visit T9BR’s website.

Read about domestic/dating violence, consent, and more on VPR’s website.

Hand out 'Muddy Cards' at the end of class to solicit student feedback. Developed by statistician Frederick Mosteller, muddy cards consist of three questions:  "(1) What was the most important point in the lecture? (2) What was the muddiest point? (3) What would you like to hear more about?"

Muddy cards can help faculty members to clarify misunderstandings in the classroom and can be adapted for the lab/research group environment. 

For more information on optimizing your teaching, visit the MIT Teaching and Learning Lab’s website.

Many MIT students experience Imposter Syndrome: a nagging feeling that they don't belong at the Institute and will soon be exposed as a "fraud." This feeling is particularly acute when students first transition to MIT and when they encounter academic challenges.

Faculty and staff can help students to feel a greater sense of belonging by:

• Sharing personal stories about times they felt like they did not belong.
• Communicating that most students question their belonging, particularly during important transitions and difficult times, but that these questions decrease over time as students become used to their new academic expectations and social environments. 
• Providing targeted feedback that communicates high standards as well as the belief that students are capable of meeting them.

For more information on building inclusive and welcoming academic environments, contact the MIT Teaching and Learning Lab.

Ask these questions in group settings: "Whose voices are missing from our discussion?" "Who else is doing similar work?" "How can we include other stakeholders?"

Hang up 2-1 Rule with Smoots, a poster promoting the MIT version of this practice.

Courses that are taught at too low a level (for the degree of preparedness of the students) are not motivating and do not facilitate learning, whereas courses that are taught at too high a level (for the degree of preparedness of the students) can promote anxiety and stress, are often demotivating, and do not facilitate optimal learning because they do not contain sufficient scaffolding for students.

Designing a course that is optimally difficult can be challenging, and the MIT Teaching and Learning Lab can help.

Arrange to hold safe and confidential exit interviews with departing students, faculty, and staff. Collect, analyze, and share anonymized data from these interviews to gather ideas for departmental improvement. Connect with Human Resources and the Office of Graduate Education to learn what others have done, questions already asked, and for guidance on the process.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a microaggression as "a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group (such as a racial minority)." Microaggressions are often frequent, so a single microaggression can contribute to a broader experience of unwelcomeness.

Read about the damaging effects of microaggressions and stop them from happening at MIT. 

• Messiah College created a useful list of "Microaggressions in the Classroom."
• The "I, Too, Am Harvard" photo campaign highlights the experiences of black students at Harvard University and the microaggressions they have faced. 
• The New York Times article "Campuses Cautiously Train Freshmen Against Insults" describes ways colleges are working to prevent microaggressions. 
• The Atlantic article "Microaggressions Matter" describes how microaggressions are indicative of deeper problems in America related to race, social class, gender, and sexuality.
• The Inside Higher Ed piece "A 'Chilly Climate' on Campus" describes a new report showing how American colleges are more diverse than ever, yet a "subtly hostile environment for women and students of color" persists.

Do not ask a student to speak on behalf of their identity group or single them out because of their background ― this is a harmful microaggression. For example, do not ask the sole woman in a class to speak on behalf of all womankind.

Create departmental work spaces that can be reserved ahead of time as well as storage areas where visitors can leave their belongings. Have someone greet the visitor, assist them in getting acclimated to their space, and answer any questions the visitor may have. 

 Invite staff from LBGTQ+ Services to provide an office overview of what they do and how you can get involved.

Go to Atlas and sign-up for the You Are Welcome Here: LBGTQ+ 101 training that is offered every month by HR. This training covers: allyship, terminology, statistics, gender bias, stereotypes, LBGTQ+ resources, current events, and more to help equip participants with active skills to be a resource.

Post the updated white You Are Welcome Here card, which is a part of a campaign to increase LGBTQ+ visibility on campus, identify multiple points of access to LGBTQ+ support services, and create a more welcoming campus environment.

At the start of each semester, encourage members of your department to sign up for the MindHandHeart Beat (covering wellness and mental health news and resources), the Community Wellness e-newsletter (covering wellness tips and upcoming exercise classes), and the People Matters HR e-newsletter (covering workshops and resources available to MIT faculty, graduate students, and staff).

Share your pronouns at the start of class ― if you feel comfortable doing so. This can serve as an invitation for students to share their pronouns, but does not force them to make their pronouns public knowledge. 

Say "these are the pronouns I use" as opposed to referring to "preferred pronouns." Pronouns are not a mere preference for many people, so avoid using this term.

Visit the LBGTQ@MIT website for more information on understanding pronouns and using them correctly.

There are many offices and initiatives dedicated to supporting students during their time at MIT. MindHandHeart has compiled a list of print materials advertising a selection of campus mental health, community, and wellness resources. We encourage departments to display these materials in common areas. 

For a complete list of the support resources available to MIT students, visit resources.mit.edu/support.

Consider the pictures in your common areas: are they dominated by one identity? Include women and people of color in framed pictures, bulletin boards, flyers, webpages, and marketing materials. 

Use physical spaces and departmental communications to highlight the achievements of women and people of color.

Check out the women's bathroom on the 5th floor of the Stata Center for inspiration. It features an array of portraits and bios of accomplished women.

Students in the Chemistry Department started a 'ChemChat' program to encourage members of their department to connect with folks from different labs. "ChemChat's goal is to facilitate connections, collaborations, and conversations within the department. We offer gift-card funded lunches for people to reach out and make connections with peers outside of their laboratories and years."

Encourage students to sign up for MIT Connect, an app connecting members of the MIT community for platonic, one-on-one lunches. 

Inform undergraduate students about an Office of the First Year (OFY) program where they can take a member of the MIT faculty out to a nice dinner or coffee, reimbursed by the OFY.

If you would like to request a training for your department on how to recognize and respond to students in distress, email facultyguide@mit.edu.

There are many ways to define research group expectations, some may include:

• Sharing the specific times when everyone is expected in the lab/office.
• Establishing a preferred process for resolving group conflict.
• Determining the desired notification period before a planned absence and who to notify.
• Articulating policies and expectations around authorship/credit for collaborative work, which can help to reduce stress associated with working in teams.
• Informing group members of the most effective communication method to reach the PI.
• Articulating the learning goals and values of the research group.
• Communicating the priorities, milestones, and deadlines for the group and its members with the group as a whole.

It is important to routinely revisit group expectations in order to determine if the expectations are accurate and understood by the group.

There are many ways to define classroom expectations at the start of a course, including:

• Begin and end class on time.
• Use a well-defined class structure.
• Set clear, unambiguous prompts and deadlines for assignments.
• Be explicit about grading practices.
• Articulate policies and expectations for group work, which can help to reduce stress associated with working in teams.
• Consider the timing of assignments and avoid scheduling big deadlines when other classes may have exams.
• If using specific software tools in your course, make sure to articulate why, provide guidelines for how to use the tool, and allow students enough time to become comfortable using the tool. 
• Provide students with a road map for how to succeed in your course. 
• Articulate learning goals for your course: what is the student supposed to know and do by the end of your course?

For more information on building effective and welcoming academic environments, contact the MIT Teaching and Learning Lab.

Prior to the start of the 2017-18 academic year, Underrepresented Minority Representatives of the Department of Chemistry drafted a welcoming newsletter that was sent to URM students entering the Chemistry program. The letter included lists of relevant campus resources and groups. This effort to open the line of communication between incoming URM graduate students and those with experience within the department was well-received, and has inspired the creation of the Chemistry Alliance for Inclusion and Diversity (CADI), a student-run group that supports the success of underrepresented minority (URM) chemists at MIT.

Issues of diversity and inclusion vary by discipline as well as by department at MIT. Faculty leadership is key to effective and sustained efforts with regards to governance, search committees, pipeline issues, and optimizing the experiences and contributions of every member of the department community.

Infuse current reading lists and media shown in and out of class with authors and speakers that represent multiple perspectives and identities. When you are highlighting interesting research, include a diverse array of researchers.

For more information on building inclusive and welcoming academic environments, contact the MIT Teaching and Learning Lab.