As one of several steps the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) is taking to advance racial justice in our community, I am writing to launch the work of the FAS Task Force on Visual Culture and Signage. This Task Force will take up the important conversation of how we foster a more inclusive visual culture across the FAS, connecting our past with the promise of our future. Our campus has been...
It is with profound gratitude for the accomplishments of a singular Harvard career that I write to announce that Margot Gill, FAS Administrative Dean for International Affairs, will be retiring at the end of this calendar year. Through her many roles at Harvard over the years, Margot has been the FAS’s ambassador, forging connections with international governmental and institutional partners to further our Faculty’s teaching and research mission. She has been a fierce advocate for our students, and, in recent years, she has also been the one opening “Harvard’s...
As described in President Bacow’s message to the community, the University has taken a number of steps to address the new Department of Education (DoE) regulations for responding to campus-based sexual harassment, including sexual assault, that went into effect on August 14th. The University has adopted two interim policies that go beyond the minimum requirements stipulated by the new...
We are one week into the start of this singular semester, and we have already achieved some important things together.... Read more about A Hopeful Start
It is with genuine excitement and a sense of new possibility that I write to announce the appointment of Sheree Ohen as the inaugural Associate Dean of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DIB) for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, starting September 28.
Dean Ohen is currently the Chief Officer of Diversity and Inclusion at Clark University where she provides strategic direction in creating a campus climate that is welcoming, inclusive, respectful, and free from bias and harassment. A highly principled leader, Sheree is known...
As we look ahead to the start of a fall semester unlike any other, we confront the realization that we are now living history in the making. This moment has been shaped by crises old and new, as one pandemic has collided with another. The COVID-19 pandemic is a truly singular event; a public health threat that has spared no part of our academic enterprise from disruption, forcing us to reimagine everything from undergraduate residential life to the daily activities of our labs and libraries. Meanwhile, a second pandemic is unfolding, one...
On July 6, we announced our plan to invite up to 40% of our undergraduates to campus for the fall semester. We also described a number of public health practices and campus adaptations that this plan would require in order to ensure the health and safety of our community while also protecting our academic enterprise. With less than a month to go before the start of the fall term, I am writing today to share an update on our implementation of those plans and our approach to the ongoing management of our pandemic-adapted environment.... Read more about Looking Ahead to Fall
We are preparing for a fall semester unlike any we have previously encountered. Over the past several months, we have engaged hundreds of colleagues in considering how best to return to campus, with the health and safety of our community as our primary consideration. Now, as our planning goes into practice, we need your help to implement new procedures.... Read more about Undergraduate Access to Campus
Shortly after Monday’s announcement about our plans for the fall semester, we learned that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced new regulations that imperil the lives and academic progress of our international students and scholars. These new guidelines directly undermine the careful planning and approach we have taken for fall, specifically our plans to deliver all graduate and... Read more about Support for our International Students and Scholars
On June 15, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences provided an interim report on fall planning efforts that outlined three possible pathways for how we might return students to campus. After careful deliberation, and informed by extensive input from our community, we write today to announce our...
