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I completely agree that it is not reasonable to say that any action taken by an individual is the responsibility of an institution or community, but conversely
by esrauch 15y ago
I completely agree that it is not reasonable to say that any action taken by an individual is the responsibility of an institution or community, but conversely I don't think it is fair to say that individuals actions should never reflect poorly on the community that they are a part of.
> You are the only one responsible for cultivating a moral compass.
I don't really understand this point; you are the only one responsible for cultivating Physics 1 knowledge as well. If there were high profile instances of people who had recently taken Physics 1 at MIT and clearly did not absorb it at all, then that still can reflect poorly on MIT.
Clearly there are going to be outliers, but it doesn't even sound like you are arguing that this guy is an outlier, but rather that MIT shouldn't strive to cultivate ethical behavior and any amount of unethical behavior by MIT alum shouldn't reflect badly on them as an institution.
I'm actually living in Cambridge now, and (based on completely anecdotal evidence of conversations with students) it appears to me that MIT focuses far less on being a responsible citizen or an ethical engineer than most other universities that I have had experience with. At many schools, ethics is not only a required course, but something that is not uncommonly discussed in the context of any random CS course. One of my interns from MIT was specifically surprised to hear that I had talked about ethical considerations related to being employed in a CS related field in my undergrad.