Dear FAS faculty, staff, and researchers,
As Interim President Garber noted in his message earlier today, the last few months have been an extraordinarily painful and disorienting time for our community. The resignation of President Gay last week was a seismic event for Harvard, but we feel it especially deeply in the FAS.
Before she was president, she was our dean. We know her as a leader, a scholar, a teacher, a mentor, and a friend. We know her strength, her drive for excellence, and her embrace of the ambitions of our academic community.
With her resignation, we have lost all the possibility that we celebrated at her inauguration just a handful of months ago.
From my many conversations with colleagues over the past week, I know two things for sure.
First, as a community, we are emotionally raw. The time for analysis will come, but for now we are feeling the pain of this moment. Second, many are asking what comes next – and whether this moment has changed our trajectory as a School and a University.
Rest assured that Harvard has always been, and remains, committed to academic excellence. That is core to our identity. We continue to believe that nurturing a community that is diverse across every measure, that brings a world of perspectives and questions together, is one way in which we fuel that excellence. And it is our responsibility to benefit society through our excellence in teaching and research. That academic mission and role is enduring and unchanging.
This moment has also taught us that some of the aspects most important to a thriving academic community need investment. We have an opportunity to make sure that FAS is a place where all of us – students, faculty, researchers, and staff – can expect that we are engaged with curiosity and openness, empathy and understanding, and that we offer those same things in return. In the days and weeks to come, FAS will be undertaking work on this issue, starting with our initiative on civil discourse, and I will share more with you as we make progress.
To move forward requires trust. My ask of you is a hard one: let’s trust one another and let’s give each other the benefit of the doubt. Throughout the last several months, I’ve been surprised – inspired, in fact – by the willingness of colleagues to help figure out hard things. I am confident that collectively we have the wisdom and insight we need in this moment to heal and learn and make FAS and Harvard stronger, if we move forward together.
In community,
Hopi
Hopi Hoekstra
Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences
C. Y. Chan Professor of Arts and Sciences
Xiaomeng Tong and Yu Chen Professor of Life Sciences