Over 300 MIT faculty members publicly voiced disapproval of President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet selections ahead of Steve Bannon's visit to Harvard University – a visit he has since canceled, according to the Boston Globe.
Bannon had been scheduled to speak at Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics on Wednesday during a post-election conference. Harvard is only a five-minute drive from MIT.
"The President-elect has appointed individuals to positions of power who have endorsed racism, misogyny and religious bigotry, and denied the widespread scientific consensus on climate change," read a statement published on the website MIT Values. "Regardless of our political views, these endorsements violate principles at the core of MIT’s mission."
Trump has drawn criticism from all corners of the political world for making Bannon, the former executive chairman of the right-wing website Breitbart News, his chief strategist.
Bannon called Breitbart a platform for the alt-right movement, described by the Washington Post as "a small, far-right movement that seeks a whites-only state" whose supporters are "known for espousing racist, anti-Semitic and sexist points of view."
Harvard drew flak for inviting Bannon, but Dean Doug Elmendorf said in a prepared remark the school does not take a position on specific issues in public policy and looks to learn from any participant who comes to campus.
"We invite the managers of the successful and unsuccessful candidates, and we invite distinguished journalists and pollsters who were involved in the campaign," Elmendorf said.
The group of MIT faculty members also criticized Trump for picking Myron Ebell to lead the Environmental Protection Agency transition team, Reince Preibus as the White House Chief of Staff and Jeff Sessions to be the attorney general.
"Ebell has claimed that the so-called global warming consensus was not based on science. Furthermore, the new White House Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, has confirmed that climate change denial will be the default position of the Trump administration," reads the statement.
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