Student Government

Undergraduate Student Government

The Undergraduate Association (UA) represents undergraduate students and advocates for their interests to enhance the MIT student experience. The UA comprises a wide variety of committees that deal with topics including community and diversity, involvement, innovation, support and wellness, community service, sustainability, and alumni affairs. The Financial Board coordinates budgets and allocates funds to student organizations. The Committee on Education provides student feedback to departments and the Institute to improve the undergraduate academic experience. 

Each class at MIT annually elects a president and executive committee for its class council, which plans and coordinates programs and social events throughout the year.

The Association of Student Activities, a joint committee of the UA and the Graduate Student Council, is responsible for recognizing student groups and activities, allocating student office space, and organizing activities midways that take place during orientation in August and Campus Preview Weekend each April.

Residence halls and other living groups have their own student governments that promote their community's culture. Undergraduate residences are members of the Dormitory Council (DormCon), which advocates for their needs and interests to the Institute. DormCon also coordinates shared events and traditions, including Residence Exploration, Campus Preview Weekend, and the Interactive Introduction to the Institute. Fraternities, sororities, and independent living groups have the Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Association, and the Living Group Council to support their members' needs and activities. These bodies also promote good relations among their houses and host communities in Boston's Back Bay, Brookline, and Cambridge.

Graduate Student Government

The Graduate Student Council (GSC) exists to enhance the overall graduate experience at MIT by promoting the general welfare and concerns of the graduate student body, creating new programs and initiatives, and communicating with the MIT faculty and administration on behalf of graduate students. The GSC seeks to emphasize, in all its activities, the core values of representation, communication, collaboration, transparency, and accountability.

The council accomplishes its goals through a structure of elected representatives, standing committees, and officers. GSC representatives facilitate communication between the council and their constituency (a department, academic program, living group, or demographic group). The standing committees span all facets of the graduate experience, including orientation for all incoming graduate students; career exploration events and a variety of academic seminars throughout the year; large social and cultural activities; advocacy on student-related issues at the local, state, and federal levels; and the Muddy Charles Pub.

The GSC serves an advocate for graduate students on many academic and student-life related issues, such as housing, stipends, health care, sustainability, and advising. In addition, the GSC nominates individuals to serve on a number of Institute committees, to ensure that there is a student voice in decisions made throughout the Institute.

The GSC also interfaces with graduate student groups through the Association of Student Activities (a joint committee of the GSC and the Undergraduate Association) and the GSC funding board, which allocates event funding to these groups. Additionally, the GSC maintains relations with other graduate student organizations both locally and nationally so as to share ideas about how to best address graduate students' needs.

The GSC office is located in Room 50-220, Walker Memorial, above the Muddy Charles Pub. To keep students apprised of the council's activities, it maintains a comprehensive website which serves as a repository for a large amount of information relevant to graduate students; it also publishes the Anno, its weekly newsletter, reaching all graduate students on campus.