Basic Considerations for Inviting Visitors to Campus
MIT hosts are responsible and accountable for their guests. Ensuring that MIT hosts know this provides a clear approach to advancing safety on campus.
Given this responsibility, MIT community members are encouraged to consider the following questions when determining whether to extend an invitation to a campus visitor. When evaluating these questions, hosts need to exercise judgment, consult with others, and listen carefully to objections.
- How will the visit advance MIT and Departments, Labs, and Centers (DLCs) or organizational values?
- To assess any risks to physical safety, what additional information should hosts find out about visitors before inviting them to campus?
- What will the expected impact of the visit be? Are there potential negative impacts that should be considered or mitigated?
- How can MIT community members share concerns about this invitation? Are there staff in the relevant DLC, students, other MIT community members, or peers at other institutions who should be consulted in advance?
- If an objection based on a physical safety risk is raised before or after the visit, have the concerns been addressed?
These questions are not intended to set forth hard and fast rules that must be explored and answered for every visitor, regardless of the circumstances. Rather, they are meant to provide a framework for hosts to consider when determining whether inviting a particular guest is appropriate.
The depth of a host’s engagement with these guidelines will depend on the nature and duration of the visitor’s engagement with MIT, specifically with whom the visitor is engaging, over what period of time, and the spectrum of possible harm.
Moreover, these are intended to be general Institute-wide guidelines, which particular DLCs may adapt to their own values, work practices, and communication cultures.
Prohibition on Inviting Level 3 Sex Offenders to Campus
We all have a shared responsibility to protect members of our community, and scrutiny of potential visitors is important to keep our community safe.
Given that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has identified that Level 3 sex offenders “[h]ave a high risk of re-offending” and “[p]ose a high degree of danger to the public,” individuals designated in any jurisdiction as Level 3 sex offenders (or corresponding highest level in the jurisdiction) create a particularly high threat of imminent physical harm on campus.
Therefore, MIT has determined that those who are identified as Level 3 or equivalent sex offenders should not be invited as visitors to campus. In any circumstance in which it is discovered that an invited visitor is a Level 3 sex offender or equivalent after an invitation has already been made, the invitation to campus should be revoked.
The U.S. Department of Justice maintains the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW), a free public database that compiles sex offender registry information from state and territorial jurisdictions.
The responsibility to conduct a proactive search to prevent an invited visit by a Level 3 sex offender will depend on the nature and duration of the visitor’s engagement with MIT, specifically with whom the visitor is engaging and over what period of time. In certain circumstances—at least in the following situations and others similar to them—we encourage greater scrutiny given the level of the visitor’s engagement with the MIT campus:
- If the invited visitor is expected to have private or semi-private interactions with students (e.g., as a mentor, etc.); or
- If the invited visitor will be a speaker at a large public event.
If in doubt as to whether an invited visitor falls within these circumstances, MIT hosts are encouraged to search the NSOPW.
Moreover, if the MIT host is aware, from any source, of any allegations of sexual misconduct by a potential invited visitor or concerns about sexual misconduct have been raised about that visitor, the host is required to conduct a search of the NSOPW and rescind the invitation if the guest is a Level 3 sex offender.
NOTE: MIT acknowledges that searches of the NSOPW would only apply to U.S.-based individuals. Furthermore, name duplications in the NSOPW or inconclusive search results may require a dialogue with a potential visitor. If a host’s search leads to uncertainty about whether an individual is listed as a Level 3 sex offender and further clarification is necessary, individuals can request support from the MIT Police.
Accessing the NSOPW database may trigger traumatic responses among some MIT community members. There are resources available, including Violence Prevention and Response, which provides confidential support and advocacy for students; MyLife Services, which provides support for MIT faculty, staff, and postdoctoral fellows; the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC), an off-campus resource that provides 24-hour support; and Student Mental Health & Counseling Services, part of MIT Health.