Given that he expects to find everything was done correctly
I don't think that stating expectations is necessarily indicative of partiality, he may just be expressing his current thinking. As an engineer, I go into nearly every project with certain expectations, the issue is whether or not I accept the data that challenges those expectations. MIT culture does instill in its students and staff the need to "go where the data take you," so I think folks should give him a chance.
Also "acted in accordance with MIT policy" doesn't mean "did the right thing," the conclusion may be that policy changes are needed.
Whilst I have serious concerns over MIT policy, it is not unreasonable that that "several cogs in the system" acted according policy, leading to an extremely flawed result.
In an aircraft mishap investigation, they regularly conclude that it was a series of minor issues/deficiencies causes a crash, not a single pilot/crew/person making a single huge error.
I don't think that stating expectations is necessarily indicative of partiality, he may just be expressing his current thinking. As an engineer, I go into nearly every project with certain expectations, the issue is whether or not I accept the data that challenges those expectations. MIT culture does instill in its students and staff the need to "go where the data take you," so I think folks should give him a chance.
Also "acted in accordance with MIT policy" doesn't mean "did the right thing," the conclusion may be that policy changes are needed.