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The MIT Press IDEA Plan

for inclusion, diversity, equity,
and accessibility

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The MIT Press IDEA Plan

for inclusion, diversity, equity,
and accessibility

Introduction

The MIT Press (MITP) has an open work culture of diverse and spirited individuality and a proud legacy of bold, socially engaged publishing that champions the sharing of information and ideas from divergent perspectives. Our investment in equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in the workplace and in what we publish has deep roots, encompassing our long-time participation in the Mellon University Press Diversity Fellowship, our support for the work of underrepresented authors through our Diverse Voices Fund, and decades of publishing powerful works on social justice, race, equity, and activism across the STEAM spectrum, among many other activities.

Over the last few years, our EDI focus has become more intentional, in large part through staff-driven initiatives, culminating in the commitment as one component of our FY22-24 strategic plan to: “Be a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization in how we hire and promote, how we work, and what and who we publish.”

In 2021, we hired EDI consultant Tara Robertson to help MITP’s senior team develop a roadmap in support of this objective, with the goal of providing actionable recommendations in three areas:

  1. People: Who works at MITP, and do all staff feel included and that they belong? How can we grow the diversity of our staff, and their experience of inclusion and belonging at work, going forward?
  2. Publishing: Who and what is being published currently? Given the fields in which MITP publishes, and what possibilities exist for further diversifying the authorship and topics of our publications?
  3. Ecosystem: What is currently happening at the industry level with regard to EDI? What leadership role could the Press play, building in part on our leadership on equity, in access to published knowledge?

Following four months of research, including an all-staff survey, access to demographic data provided by MIT’s Office of Institutional Research, and numerous individual meetings and focus groups, Robertson provided several recommendations, with a primary focus on people, employee life-cycle, and evolving work culture in the context of the pandemic and MITP’s new hybrid office structure. Robertson’s report helped MITP’s leadership team finalize its EDI action plan, supplementing and significantly enhancing ongoing EDI initiatives and commitments at the Press.

We have decided to share our EDI commitments and action roadmap publicly, with the aim of assisting interested peers in the university press community (while acknowledging that there are significant operational and structural differences among presses). At the same time, public auditing of our three-year implementation plan will help hold us accountable to these commitments.

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Background

These are the data and resources that we relied on to establish the baseline for EDI activities at the Press and to build our action plan.

Baseline demographic data

From the perspective of staff diversity, MITP is similar to the university press community as a whole. Several studies have looked at the demographics of publishing. The predominant characteristics of MITP’s staff demographics as of April 2021 were as follows: 79% white, 67% women, 79% heterosexual, and 89% non-disabled. The first figure below shows the baseline for university presses overall from a 2019 study by Lee & Low, and the second is specific to MITP. Clearly, the industry as a whole and the MIT Press itself can and should do more to attract, cultivate, and retain a more diverse workforce.

Baseline salary data

Based on a multiple regression analysis of variance conducted in March of 2021 using fully coded anonymized data, we looked at salary in relation to self-reported gender, ethnicity, and education level, as well as age and job seniority. The only statistically significant predictors of salary differences to emerge in this analysis were age and job seniority. There was a small positive correlation between non-white self-identification and higher salary, but it was not statistically significant (p<0.08). While it was helpful to establish that there are no pay inequities at MITP related to race or gender, this does not address the larger issue of low starting salaries across the industry and how it hinders efforts to attract and retain a more diverse workforce.

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Highlights from the Survey on Inclusion, Belonging, and Well-being

Eighty-three percent of MITP staff completed a survey on experiences of inclusion, belonging, and well-being in May of 2021. Overall, staff reported feeling that their colleagues are kind, smart, engaged, quirky, and hardworking; that their work is challenging, interesting, and meaningful; that they value the autonomy, flexibility, and freedom they have in how they do their jobs; and that they are proud of MITP’s mission and impact.

The survey responses also identified key challenges and opportunities for improvement. A large number of staff reported feeling burned out and overworked during the pandemic. While this concern is by no means unique to MITP (e.g., Microsoft surveyed over 31K employees in January of 2021 and found that 54% felt overworked and 39% felt exhausted) it spotlights the need to support employee well-being in our current hybrid/remote context through further adjustments in our work practices and cultural norms.

Action plan

At the conclusion of her consultation with the MIT Press, Tara Robertson recommended several action items to support EDI and our antiracism objectives. Robertson’s recommendations focus largely, but not exclusively, on the employee lifecycle—recruitment, onboarding, career development, retention, and off-boarding. They figure prominently in the roadmap provided below, integrated into, and supplemented by, other ongoing activities at MITP that embody our commitment to social justice equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging.

On this website, we are sharing committed actions in the areas of Communication, Compensation, Hiring, Internships, Learning, Networks, Onboarding, Promotion Process, Publishing Ecosystem, and Retention. Each action area is paired with key implementation steps that MITP is undertaking over the next three years to support EDI, along with projected timeframes for completion. We will update this site biannually to track and share our progress and issue an annual report. In addition, we describe our ongoing EDI activities in more depth here.

Note, because MITP is a department of MIT itself (and, hence, MITP staff are Institute employees) changes in our policies and practices for recruiting, promoting, and compensating our staff can only proceed in close coordination with the Institute’s central human resources office, which regularly audits all Institute salaries for equity to make sure every unit at MIT is in compliance with the Massachusetts Equal Pay Act. We also benefit from a close relationship with and guidance from the Institute Community & Equity Office.

View the accountability tracker

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