Openness Hack

In 2022, MIT hackers protested on the problem of Open Campus. Before the COVID pandemic, MIT campus was famously known for being open to the public, in the sense that most of its doors would be unlocked. During the pandemic, MIT adopted card readers in all doors that previously would be free access to all, for the sake of the health and safety of the MIT community. In Fall 2022, however, despite rolling back most of the pandemic-related rulings (for example, masking was not mandatory anymore, and there wasn't even optional testing available unless the student was feeling symptoms), the doors stayed locked and no one other than bearers of MIT IDs could enter campus. One of the biggest symbols of such disparity in the position taken by MIT Administration was the existence of turnstiles right by the doors of Lobby 7: both the outside doors and the inside turnstiles required ID access to pass through, as seen in this screenshot of @mit.regressions stories about the hack: Many conversations (although not much change) were happening between students, who felt that this creates an unwanted and non-representative image of MIT to the outside community, and the administration, who wanted to keep doors closed. In midst of such conversations, the four banners at Lobby 7 were swiped to banners that displayed MIT stated principles, and the principle of Openness was right in one of the banners by the turnstiles. In the very style of an art display, MIT hackers placed a black stripe along the name Openness, along with signs that described the exhibition: At some point, the sign was removed, and other signs showed up for the days the hack was up: The hack was featured in a photo in an issue of The Tech.

The signs said:

Openness

Cynthia Barnhart, Glen Schor et al. Multimedia (Banner, Closed Campus) 2022

Three years ago, Lobby Seven looked very different from the way it looks today. While the cafe is back to selling coffee, Rotch Library has reopened, and students and professors are back to traversing this hub between their classes, one key aspect of MIT is missing from this nexus: openness to the Cambridge and Boston community. During the post-pandemic reopening of MIT, rather than remove Lobby Seven's temporary gates, MIT administration made the decision to keep Lobby Seven gated in violation of the open ideals it professes.

A closed campus goes against MIT's core values stated on these banners: "Because openness is a central MIT value, our campus is open too. The vast majority of our buildings are open to the public and the campus has no visible perimeter; we are an aggressively ungated community that works around the clock and welcomes the world in." (Reif, MIT Campus Guide, 2016, Emphasis Added). MIT Campus used to be a hub not only of science, but also of arts and culture. LSC showed movies to the city at large; members of the public attended theater shows; dance organizations used empty classrooms and hallways to practice. MIT has taken away one of the "biggest ... arts and community space[s]" (City Councilor Burhan Azeem, 8/19) from the wider Cambridge community.

By juxtaposing the "Openness" banner not but five feet from gates requiring tap access, MIT administration makes clear who they consider their community: not Cambridge. The black banner, striking through the forsaken value of "openness," represents a mourning shawl for the open and welcoming MIT that was, before this closed campus. If MIT is to uphold its stated values, removing these gates and allowing the larger community in is a vital step in our return towards an open and welcoming MIT community.