She thinks they would be good role models for MIT women. Mathew Evans G , a first year post-doctoral associate in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, says discrimination is not an issue, noting that MIT is much more diverse than the University of Cambridge in England, where he spent last few years. He commented, though, that MIT's high cost of education can be a discriminatory factor. This is not an issue in the U.K., where students are never required to pay more than a thousand pounds per year, he said. She feels that racism at MIT has its roots in mainstream culture and media.
Mainstream media uses discriminatory terminology, publishes biased or even harmful stereotypes.
Racism against Arabs is widespread to the extent that it appears politically correct, Fawaz said. The Tech uncritically reproduces news from mainstream media and thus perpetuates the discriminatory terminology. According to Fawaz, minority students have tried to speak both to The Tech and LSC about the issues, but have made little progress. Gan said that MIT is very diverse both as far as students and lecturers are concerned. A lot of ethnic variation among U.S. citizens attending MIT makes the place very inviting towards international students of various racial backgrounds, Gan said.