Dear Members of the Harvard Community, I write today to update you on our progress in tackling climate change on campus. Thanks to the efforts of thousands of individuals across the University, Harvard has attained the goal we established in 2008 of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent from 2006 levels by 2016, inclusive of growth. Reaching…
Supporting our Community
In my message of November 15, I urged the Harvard community to affirm fundamental values of inclusion and belonging, and to model the respect for people and ideas that rest at the heart of any academic community. Our responsibility to each other requires us to demonstrate that we are enriched by difference and respectful disagreement, and to…
A Message to the Community
Dear Members of the Harvard Community, It has been one week since the end of the most divisive and contentious election any of us has ever known. Whatever our personal political views, emotions run high and feelings deep in what for many is a challenging and uncertain time. And not just acrimonious words but escalating…
“A Risky Experiment”: Harvard-Radcliffe Women’s Weekend
Cambridge, Mass., November 4, 2016 As delivered. Thank you so much, Acey [Welch]. And thank you also to the Radcliffe Pitches. And thanks to so many of you—including the many alumnae and alumni groups—who have worked so hard to make this weekend possible. And thanks to all of you for coming back. I am pleased…
“Showing Us How to Do It”: Remarks by Drew Gilpin Faust for the inauguration of Paula A. Johnson as president of Wellesley College
Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass., September 30, 2016 As delivered. Thank you faculty, students, staff, distinguished guests, and friends. What an honor and a personal pleasure it is to be here today, to extend to Dr. Paula Johnson the greetings of her fellow college and university presidents. When Paula Johnson was a girl in Brooklyn dreaming…
University-wide Inclusion and Belonging Task Force
Dear Members of the Harvard Community, Harvard’s commitment to excellence is deeply connected to our efforts to attract students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds, life experiences, and perspectives. Exposure to difference fosters creativity, challenges settled assumptions, and helps make possible the advancement of knowledge central to our educational mission. Equally important is our responsibility…
Claiming Full Citizenship
The Harvard Crimson Op Ed On my desk sits a copy of a photograph published last May in the Boston Globe. Outside Mass. Hall, a young woman stands amid a crowd of students protesting the newly announced College policy on single-gender social organizations. The sign she carries proclaims: I SHOULD’VE GONE TO BRYN MAWR. The…
Morning Prayers: “Historians All”
Holden Chapel, Cambridge, Mass., August 31, 2016 As delivered. Good morning. Today we begin another academic year and launch ourselves into the future—the future of this 380-year-old institution and the futures of tens of thousands of us gathered here to learn together. But this morning I want to say just a few words about the…
Freshman Convocation Address to the Class of 2020
Tercentenary Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., August 30, 2016 As prepared for delivery. Welcome, Class of 2020. When I saw many of you at Visitas last April, you were making up your minds about where you wanted to spend the next four years. I am delighted that the 1,667 of you have accepted our invitation…
2016 Remarks at ROTC Commissioning Ceremony
Tercentenary Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., May 25, 2016 As delivered. Good morning. It’s a pleasure to greet you—alumni, students, parents, friends—and especially the veterans who have joined us for this ceremony. I am delighted that this year we will be commissioning 12 new officers, the most since 2010. A few weeks ago, we welcomed…