MIT Lindy Hop Society Membership and Updates

Fri May 1 00:09:33 EDT 2020

Hello all,

We hope this email finds you and yours well. We're in the midst of renewing
our club status with MIT and need *MIT students to fill out this form to
confirm their membership (<1 min to fill out):
https://engage.mit.edu/submitter/form/start/405022
<https://engage.mit.edu/submitter/form/start/405022>. *Students can also
consider adding themselves to the Lindy Hop organization on engage
directly: https://engage.mit.edu/organization/lindyhopsociety. Student
groups are required by the ASA to have at least five MIT student members
confirm membership each year.

We'd also like to take this opportunity to update everyone on MIT's
COVID-19 response, send out our yearly anti-hazing and non-discrimination
statements, and provide resources that might interest you to get your
dancing-fix from home.

COVID-19 update

We interpret MIT's April 24 post about summer programming
<https://ovc.mit.edu/summer-student-options-travel/> to mean there will be
no student group events physically on campus through at least June 28,
2020.  MIT decisions regarding the remainder of summer will be made likely
in late May and posted on MIT's official COVID-19 website:
https://covid19.mit.edu/

If you have any questions or concerns about the swing dance, please write
back to us at swing at mit.edu .

Stay well, everyone, and we look forward to seeing you when dances resume.
Dancing at Home

Boston Swing Central has a mailing list and facebook page where they have
been sharing online and livestream events (sign-up and learn more here:
http://www.bostonswingcentral.org/). Events this Friday
<https://www.facebook.com/events/669598900491913/> and Sunday
<https://www.facebook.com/events/577654079544561/> are already posted on
Facebook -- feel free to check them out! They have been coordinating a
calendar of other virtual events and providing information to support local
teachers and musicians, so please consider joining that online community!
Massachusetts Anti-hazing and MIT Non-discrimination

All MIT student groups are required to follow the Massachusetts Anti-hazing
law and the MIT Non-discrimination policy.  As required by section 19, the
text of this law is distributed below.

If you have any questions, concerns, or want to report questionable
behavior or violations of these policies, please email asa-president at mit.edu
(confidential, non-archived) and/or Ethan Feuer (efeuer at mit.edu, Director
of the Student Organizations and Engagement).
TEXT OF ANTI-HAZING LAW: THE GENERAL LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS, Chapter 269

Section 17. HAZING; ORGANIZING OR PARTICIPATING; HAZING DEFINED: Whoever is
a principal organizer or participant in the crime of hazing, as defined
herein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than three thousand dollars
or by imprisonment in a house of correction for not more than one year, or
both such fine and imprisonment.

The term hazing as used in this section and in sections eighteen and
nineteen, shall mean any conduct or method of initiation into any student
organization, whether on public or private property, which willfully or
recklessly endangers the physical or mental health of any student or other
person.  Such conduct shall include whipping, beating, branding, forced
calisthenics, exposure to the weather, forced consumption of any food,
liquor, beverage, drug or other substance, or any other brutal treatment or
forced physical activity which is likely to adversely affect the physical
health or safety of any such student or other person, or which subjects
such student or other person to extreme mental stress, including extended
deprivation of sleep or rest or extended isolation.

Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section to the contrary,
consent shall not be available as a defense to any prosecution under this
action.

Section 18. FAILURE TO REPORT HAZING: Whoever knows that another person is
the victim of hazing as defined in section seventeen and is at the scene of
such crime shall, to the extent that such person can do so without danger
or peril to himself or others, report such crime to an appropriate law
enforcement official as soon as reasonably practicable.  Whoever fails to
report such crime shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand
dollars.

Section 19. COPY OF SECS. 17 TO 19; ISSUANCE TO STUDENTS AND STUDENT
GROUPS, TEAMS AND ORGANIZATIONS; REPORT: Each institution of secondary
education and each public and private institution of post secondary
education shall issue to every student group, student team or student
organization which is part of such institution or is recognized by the
institution or permitted by the institution to use its name or facilities
or is known by the institution to exist as an unaffiliated student group,
student team or student organization, a copy of this section and sections
seventeen and eighteen; provided, however, that an institution's compliance
with this section's requirements that an institution issue copies of this
section and sections seventeen and eighteen to unaffiliated student groups,
teams or organizations shall not constitute evidence of the institution's
recognition or endorsement of said unaffiliated student groups, teams or
organizations.

Each such group, team or organization shall distribute a copy of this
section and sections seventeen and eighteen to each of its members, plebes,
pledges or applicants for membership.  It shall be the duty of each such
group, team or organization, acting through its designated officer, to
deliver annually, to the institution [in MIT's case the Office of Student
Life Programs (with exception of varsity teams and club sports, who will
deliver attested acknowledgements to the Department of Athletics, Physical
Education and Recreation)] an attested acknowledgement stating that such
group, team or organization has received a copy of this section and said
sections seventeen and eighteen, that each of its members, plebes, pledges,
or applicants has received a copy of sections seventeen and eighteen, and
that such group, team or organization understands and agrees to comply with
the provisions of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen.

Each institution of secondary education and each public or private
institution of post secondary education shall, at least annually, before or
at the start of enrollment, deliver to each person who enrolls as a full
time student in such institution a copy of this section and sections
seventeen and eighteen.

Each institution of secondary education and each public or private
institution of post secondary education shall file, at least annually, a
report with the board of higher education and in the case of secondary
institutions, the board of education, certifying that such institution has
complied with its responsibility to inform student groups, teams or
organizations and to notify each full time student enrolled by it of the
provisions of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen and also
certifying that said institution has adopted a disciplinary policy with
regard to the organizers and participants of hazing, and that such policy
has been set forth with appropriate emphasis in the student handbook or
similar means of communicating the institution's policies to its students.
The board of higher education and, in the case of secondary institutions,
the board of education shall promulgate regulations governing the content
and frequency of such reports, and shall forthwith report to the attorney
general any such institution which fails to make such report.
TEXT OF NON-DISCRIMINATION POLICY:

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is committed to the principle of
equal opportunity in education and employment.  The Institute prohibits
discrimination against individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual
orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, religion, disability, age, genetic
information, veteran status, or national or ethnic origin in the
administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, employment
policies, scholarship and loan programs, and other Institute administered
programs and activities; the Institute may, however, favor US citizens or
residents in admissions and financial aid.(*)

The Vice President for Human Resources is designated as the Institute's
Equal Opportunity Officer.  Inquiries concerning the Institute's policies,
compliance with applicable laws, statutes, and regulations, and complaints
may be directed to Ramona Allen, Vice President for Human Resources,
Building NE49-5000, 617-324-5675.  In addition, inquiries about Title IX
(which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex) may be directed to the
Institute's Title IX coordinator, Sarah Rankin, Room W31-223, 617-324-7526,
titleIX at mit.edu.  Inquiries about the laws and about compliance may also be
directed to the US Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Region
I, 5 Post Office Square, 8th Floor, Boston, MA 02109-3921, 617-289-0111,
OCR.Boston at ed.gov.

(*) The ROTC programs at MIT are operated under Department of Defense (DoD)
policies and regulations, and do not comply fully with MIT's policy of
nondiscrimination with regard to gender identity.  MIT continues to
advocate for a change in DoD policies and regulations concerning gender
identity, and is committed to providing alternative financial assistance
under a needs-based assessment to any MIT student who loses ROTC financial
aid because of these DoD policies and regulations.

The statement was last updated on October 1, 2019.

http://referencepubs.mit.edu/what-we-do/nondiscrimination-policy

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to reach
out to us at swing at mit.edu. Thank you to all of our volunteers this last
year who helped make our dance possible; and we look forward to seeing
everyone in the future!

Kindly,

The LHS Officers
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