MIT providing funding for ILGs through COVID
It has not been widely publicized, but throughout the COVID crisis, MIT has demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt its belief and reliance on ILGs. Most notably, it has done so by reimbursing all ILGs for their lost revenue due to COVID.
Read that last sentence again, and think about what that means to Phi Sig. Our finances are strong, so we would have survived, but it would have been a rougher period.
We believe that the Phi Sig alumni association has one of the best financial and house situations among ILGs. The same cannot be said for others, unfortunately. While some ILGs have made it through the past year on life support, there is little doubt some will have to close. The number would have undoubtedly been much higher without MIT’s generosity.
To emphasize how unique this is, as far as we know (including people on the AILG board), there is no other U.S. university who has done this for their ILGs. We should be proud of how MIT has stepped up not only in its financial support, but in its signaling that ILGs are vital to the Institute’s culture and operation.
Rich Downey ‘94, our Alumni Association president, has expressed our appreciation on behalf of the Alumni Board. If you feel as grateful as I do about MIT’s quiet-yet-powerful support during these trying times, I encourage you to directly reach out to any or all of the key people at MIT who made this happen:
Suzy Nelson, Vice President and Dean for Student Life, nelsonsm@mit.edu
Cindy Barnhart, Chancellor, cbarnhar@mit.edu
Rafael Reif, President, rafaelreif@mit.edu
Martin Schmidt, Provost, schmidt@mit.edu
Glen Shor, Executive Vice President and Treasurer, glenshor@mit.edu
