Editor's Note: The Scientist published this piece online on July 31, 2007 (see http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53451/). Frank Douglas resigned from senior positions at MIT earlier this summer, in the wake of the Institute's controversial denial of tenure to James Sherley, who staged a hunger strike in protest in February. Please comment on this piece and related issues by clicking here.
On June 3, I resigned faculty and administrative positions at MIT, effective June 30. I did so because I perceived an unconscious discrimination against minorities and because my colleagues and the institute authorities did not act on my recommendations to address these issues. The timing was such that many of my colleagues thought I was resigning over the case of James Sherley, who was denied tenure in 2004 and went on a hunger strike earlier this year in protest, but my decision was based on the complex, insidious nature of discrimination in ...
