Supporting belonging and promoting respectful dialogue

Harvard and its Schools have prioritized efforts to build and affirm a feeling of belonging for every member of our community. The University has committed to support belonging among Jewish and Israeli students, faculty, and staff, including through community-building initiatives, specially trained support staff, and funded religious and cultural events.

• Open Inquiry and Constructive Dialogue. In October 2024, Harvard adopted open inquiry and constructive dialogue principles and supported School-based initiatives that reinforce the free exchange of ideas, rigorous discourse, and empathy for all members of the Harvard community.
• Community and Campus Life. In April 2025, Harvard launched the new Community and Campus Life (CCL) office and replaced the former Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging with a focus on building a culture of belonging for all members of the Harvard community. CCL supports and expands on programs that encourage engagement across differences.
• Online safety guidance and resources. In October 2023, Harvard issued comprehensive guidance on issues relating to doxxing, online harassment, and personal online security, including resources available to community members experiencing these issues. The University also developed and distributed a guide, Protecting Against Online Abuse and Harassment, to help students, faculty, and staff recognize and report online harassment. HUPD, working with Harvard’s information security team, has processes in place to receive and act on these reports.
• Doxxing/harassment guidance. In September 2024, President Alan Garber, Provost John Manning, and the Deans of Harvard’s Schools released guidance clarifying that doxxing violates the University-wide Statement on Rights and Responsibilities’ (USRR) prohibition against “intense personal harassment” and constitutes “bullying” under the University’s Non-Discrimination and Anti-Bullying (NDAB) Policies. The Harvard University Police Department (HUPD), working with Harvard’s information security team, has established processes to receive and respond to these doxxing reports.
• Engagement with Jewish community organizations. Harvard leaders have participated in numerous events at Harvard Hillel, Harvard Chabad, and other Jewish organizations across the community. They have also engaged with the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism and the Anti-Defamation League to gain insights into best practices for tracking and addressing antisemitism on college campuses.
• Enhanced Kosher dining options. Harvard College has expanded options at Harvard Hillel and on campus to ensure hot Kosher meals are available to students on Harvard College’s meal plan.
• University leadership attendance at events. Harvard leaders attend dinners at Harvard Hillel, Chabad, and other Jewish organizations across our community to hear concerns and suggestions on improving the campus climate.
• Inclusive scheduling and event planning resources. In December 2024, Harvard launched a webpage that includes a multifaith calendar, a glossary of religious observances, and suggestions for inclusive catering.
• Mental health resources. The University also secured additional trauma-informed counseling resources through Harvard Counseling and Mental Health Services, prioritizing awareness of and access to its mental health and counseling resources, including the 24/7 CAMHS Cares line and in-person and virtual counseling support offerings. In January 2024, Harvard University Health Services removed visit limits for outpatient mental health care and medical consultations under Harvard’s student health insurance plan.
• Community support sessions. Harvard has organized community support sessions led by the counseling team and Harvard’s chaplains, which comprise more than 30 faith leaders representing Judaism and other religions.
• Resources in Times of Crisis. Harvard launched a new support and resources website, Resources in Times of Crisis, to provide community members with a central hub of resources for personal safety, online safety, and mental health and community support.
• Engagement with Sidechat. Harvard engaged with the leadership of Sidechat, a social media app that allows college students to post anonymously. Though Harvard has no relationship to Sidechat, the University asked the app to strictly enforce its content-moderation policies.
• Jewish student representation. The University has clarified that its inclusion and belonging efforts must reach all members of our community and has ensured that its “Belonging Student Leadership Council” includes Jewish student representation.

Harvard and its Schools are implementing new programming and initiatives to foster and enhance respectful and constructive dialogue and civil discourse and promote an academic culture where diverse perspectives can be respectfully explored, challenged, and developed. Examples include:

• Harvard School of Dental Medicine Working Group. In Fall 2025, HSDM will launch a Working Group on Constructive Dialogue and Belonging charged to work intensively over the next nine months to develop practical recommendations to foster a culture of pluralism and belonging at HSDM and continue building capacity for constructive dialogue and open inquiry.
• Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Constructive Engagement Working Group. In Spring 2025, the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health launched a Working Group on Constructive Engagement, with representatives from students, staff, trainees, and faculty. The working group is charged with developing practical recommendations for sustaining healthy pluralism at the School by nurturing an inclusive culture, encouraging open inquiry, and building capacity within all segments of the community to engage respectfully across differences.
• Faculty Training in Constructive Dialogue. HDS has instituted a faculty training in constructive dialogue for this fall, 2025, utilizing Bok Center personnel and resources.
• Interfaith Engagement. In July 2025, Harvard announced a new university-wide initiative for interfaith engagement, under the leadership of Rabbi Getzel Davis, who spent 12 years as a chaplain at Harvard Hillel. Through the lens of interfaith engagement, the University seeks to foster respect for diverse identities, build relationships between communities, and encourage cooperation for the common good. 
• Pluralism Hub. Harvard is actively exploring the creation of a major initiative to promote viewpoint diversity.

• President’s Building Bridges Fund. n the 2024-25 academic year, through the President’s Building Bridges Fund, the University funded and launched student-led projects to promote a culture that fosters community among affinity groups and encourages constructive dialogue on interfaith and/or intercultural issues.
• Intellectual Vitality Initiative. Harvard College has continued to advance its Intellectual Vitality Initiative, an effort focused on promoting respectful dialogue, open and rigorous inquiry, and thoughtful listening through a series of events, programs, and curriculum offerings. Along with a new website to increase awareness, additional efforts include sponsoring civil disagreement fellowships for House tutors and working lessons about civil disagreement into the College’s Expository Writing class. Additionally, members of the College class of 2028 completed the Perspectives Program, which teaches students to engage in dialogue across differences.
• Intellectual Vitality and Free Expression Student Summit. In January 2024, Harvard College and PEN America hosted the Intellectual Vitality and Free Expression Student Summit aimed at fostering open, productive communication.
• Open Minds in Dialogue conference. In October 2024, the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching, along with the Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning, hosted the “Open Minds in Dialogue” conference focusing on challenges to free inquiry and how best to foster open, rigorous conversations in academic settings.
• Fellowship in Values Engagement. As of spring 2024, the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics began engaging in a Center-wide effort to expand its longstanding work on civil discourse, including a new Fellowship in Values Engagement. The Fellowship works with resident tutors to foster intellectual vitality by promoting ethical reflection and a culture of civil disagreement in undergraduate community life.
• School-based initiatives. In October 2024, the University adopted its Open Inquiry and Constructive Dialogue principles to “reinforce the free exchange of ideas, rigorous discourse, and empathy for all members of our learning communities.” Since then, various Schools at Harvard have launched or enhanced programming and initiatives around respectful and constructive dialogue and civil discourse.
  • Following the work of its Candid and Constructive Conversations Working Group, Harvard Kennedy School is implementing recommendations on building a stronger culture of engagement, including through new training modules on civil discourse and modeling difficult conversations.
  • As a continuation of work over the last several years, Harvard Law School has developed and shared best practices for productive classroom discussion, built difficult conversation modules into first-year student orientation, piloted a negotiation requirement for graduation, and adopted rules that protect classroom discussion to ensure students can share views freely and openly.
• Institutional Voice Principles. In May 2024, Harvard adopted its Institutional Voice Principles and will not “issue official statements about public matters that do not directly affect the university’s core function” as an academic institution. Institutional statements on matters not related to the university’s core functions risk creating an environment counter to the university’s mission of being a community where open inquiry, debate and the careful weighing of evidence is embraced in classrooms and other settings The University can and will continue to speak out on matters relevant to its core function, such as free and open inquiry, teaching, and research. 
• Reviewing admissions processes to encourage free inquiry and civil discourse: Deans are working with their admissions teams to review how their respective admissions processes currently evaluate and value candidates’ demonstrated abilities to engage constructively with different perspectives, show empathy, and participate in civil discourse. For example, in August 2024, Harvard College updated the Class of 2029 application to ask a question about a time applicants “strongly disagreed with someone.” The prompt also asks students “How did you communicate or engage with this person? And “What did you learn from this experience?”