MIT-WHOI JP REP MEMORANDUM
WHOI Student Organization Membership
To: Members of the MIT-WHOI Community
From: MIT-WHOI JP Reps
Date: May 3, 2022
Subject: Status of Partners and Affiliates in the WHOI Student Organization
The JP Reps stress the importance and unconditional inclusion of partners, spouses, and other affiliates of Joint Program students within the MIT-WHOI student community and the WHOI Student Organization, as stated in our constitution.
The nature of the MIT-WHOI Joint Program is unique. Our split campus program makes forming a cohesive community difficult and can lead to feelings of isolation. The WHOI Student Organization (more commonly called the JP Reps) was founded in 2002 to “create a student community at WHOI” and “enhance student life in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology–Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (MIT-WHOI) Joint Program”. We recognize that integration into the WHOI community can be even more difficult for students with partners. In addition, many of these partners have expressed feelings of trepidation or awkwardness in integrating into our community, and some have mentioned the unwelcoming energy surrounding some JP social events. We recognize that living in Woods Hole as the partner of a Joint Program student can be particularly challenging. Many move so that they can be with their partner at WHOI, and may not have a built-in mechanism to form a social circle.
With all of this in mind, we, the Reps of the WHOI Student Organization, want to explicitly state our policy that partners, affiliates, and spouses are warmly welcomed as peers to all events funded or facilitated by the JP Reps.
We know in the past there has been a practice of referring to partners as a “plus one”. In events with limited attendance, “plus ones” are often allocated spaces after students are allocated spots. This policy violates Article II of our constitution which states “any member of the MIT community is eligible to become a member of this organization”, and the MIT Association of Student Activities which recommends “any… affiliate or partner of a student who chooses to join a student group may be a member of an MIT student organization”.
Similarly, the traditional practice of the JP Reps has been to refer to the MIT-WHOI Joint Program student body as its members and communicate mainly through the jp-all-students@mit.edu email list. We believe this policy excludes the valuable members of our community and also is not in accordance with our constitution. For this reason, the JP Reps invite any spouse, partner, or affiliate of a Joint Program student to submit a request for membership via this form. Our constitution stipulates that in order to be eligible for membership you must have attended at least one JP Reps event or meeting since the beginning of the MIT fall semester. To assist our new members in meeting this requirement, we will be holding an information session about this policy on May 9th at noon over zoom, and all are welcome to attend, thus becoming eligible for membership. Additionally, the new official email list used for JP Reps announcements shall be housed at whoi-student-community@mit.edu. Any JP affiliate or community member who submits a valid request for membership will be added to this email list. As per MIT Association of Student Activities guidelines, community members or partners who are not Joint Program students must reapply for membership at the beginning of the academic year. An email at the start of each academic year will be sent to the jp-all-students@mit.edu and whoi-student-community@mit.edu email lists reminding everyone of this policy.
Members, regardless of enrollment in the Joint Program, are considered fully equal participants in our organization, except where our constitution stipulates otherwise. The main difference being the JP Reps must be Joint Program students, but non-student members may vote in the elections for the three at-large members of the Reps, who shall represent the interests of the entire membership of the organization, including non-enrolled members. All members, regardless of enrollment, are eligible to submit funding requests to the WHOI Student Organization (JP Reps) for grant money allocated to the Reps by the MIT Office of Graduate Education. However, due to logistical challenges, reimbursement requests may only be submitted by Joint Program students. We recommend that non-enrolled members email the JP Reps directly (jp-student-reps@mit.edu) so the JP Reps can help with reimbursement for events. This also means members, regardless of enrollment, are considered attendees, not “plus ones”, for normal events. In fact, as members, they are eligible to bring their own “plus ones”. All members may attend meetings of the JP Reps and raise concerns as equal participants. All members shall also have the right to vote to remove a JP Rep from office (as stated in Article III, Section 4) and approve amendments to the constitution (as stated in Article V, Section 1).
These policies shall in no way detract from the Joint Program student body. All students are still considered de facto members of the WHOI Student Organization and shall retain all privileges they have enjoyed since the organization was founded. The goal of the JP Reps is to “enhance student life in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology–Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (MIT-WHOI) Joint Program” and this includes students and their partners who are a part of our community. We welcome any feedback on this policy.
We believe this is an issue of inclusion and equity. Discrimination and a lack of support for partners of Joint Program students create an unequal burden. Students with partners are more likely to be ‘non-traditional’ students. Students who, for example, took time away from academia before enrolling in graduate school. We believe our community should rally around these students, not ignore their special circumstances. This memo is intended to bring our policies in line with the guidelines already laid out in our constitution and by the Association of Student Activities. We have not changed, in any way, the guidelines or constitution of the JP Reps, but instead are correcting errors in the way we have operated. We apologize it has taken us this long to create an avenue for our entire community to participate.
Finally, to our friends, the partners of Joint Program students, we hope this policy clarifies how welcome and valuable you are to our organization and our community.
Signed,
The JP Reps
Shavonna Bent, Ciara Dooley, Michael Dotzel, David Geller-McGrath, Max Jahns, Lukas Lobert, Shawn Wang, and Ciara Willis
Please note:
- This memo shall be considered the formal policy and operating procedures of the JP Reps effective immediately, however, it may take us some time to catch every exclusionary reference, especially on the website. We ask for your patience. The policies of this memo supersede any dated language.
- In accordance with the policy outlined in this memo, the JP Reps will now require announcements about any events which receive JP Reps funding to be broadcasted via the whoi-student-community@mit.edu list-serv, not just the jp-all-students@mit.edu email list.
- The JP Reps want to reiterate that, in accordance with the MIT Association of Student Activities guidelines, all events will still be open to “members of the MIT community” irrespective of membership status. In other words, we encourage spouses and partners to declare their membership, but they will be welcome at any JP Reps event regardless.
- The JP Reps are not the only resource to fund activities aiming to strengthen our community. The Reps want to highlight the Graduate Student Experience Grant (a grant that is comparable with our funds in terms of purpose and provisions) that is run by the Office of Graduate Education. This fund encourages spouses and partners of MIT students to apply. There are many other opportunities like this. The Reps would be happy to assist any members in applying for these funds.