Goals

These Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging goals express the aspirations of many, though not all, of the members of the Harvard community. By focusing work and planning on these goals and focus areas, Schools and business units can achieve the foundation of inclusion necessary to advance Harvard’s mission of academic and organizational excellence. The Task Force recommends this framework as a tool the campus can use to come together to work toward shared goals.

HKS Visual Design Consultant

HKS has hired a consultant to help developa visual design that will pull together the old and new buildings on its campus. Afterthat design has been set, the School will examine the use of spaces to enhancediversity, inclusion, and belonging.

Takeaway

This School is reviewing art and iconography to create appropriately inclusive spaces.

HSDM Alumni of Color Portraits

In conjunction with the 150th anniversary celebration and the launch of theFreeman, Grant, and Franklin Scholarship (named for key African-American alumni), the Office of Diversity andInclusion and the Office of Developmentand Alumni Relations are working oncreating a wall of portraits to celebratealumni of color.There is also a discussion about displaying flags that representstudents’ countries of origin in the lobbyof the Research Education Building.HSDM is also working on replacinggendered signs of single-stall bathroomswith gender-neutral ones.

Takeaway

This...

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HDS Vital Conversations

The Divinity School introduced a daylongconversation and presentation series duringincoming student orientation titled Vital Conversations, which focused on addressing racism and sexual and gender-based violence, and offered a continued series of community conversations throughout theyear with the same title, but touching on other aspects of diversity and inclusion.There were many events and programsorganized within the community, particularly by the student group HDS Racial Justice and Healing Initiative:

  • A conference on Buddhism and race.
  • A three-part...
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HLS Faculty Teaching Workshops

Each summer two or three of the faculty workshops focus on teaching, includingtopics such as gender and race in the classroom; experiential learning; and learning outcomes and assessments. These are workshops in which faculty share bestpractices for creating environments that foster inclusion and belonging in teachingand learning.

Takeaway

This practice provides an example ofhow to schedule formal time and spacefor faculty members to share how theycreate and foster inclusion and belonging through teaching and learning. Thebroader practice of sharing knowledge...

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GSD Joint Faculty-Staff Meeting

A joint faculty-staff meeting at thestart of each academic year promotes asense of shared vision in which the dean, faculty, and administrative leadershiplay out selected accomplishments andgoals. Human Resources (HR) provides staff and faculty opportunities to connect outside of the regular daily routine. HR coordinates regular Druker Design Gallerytours of current exhibitions led by faculty curators. In collaboration with the GSD Joint Council, HR hosts an annual “DesignToday” lecture given by a GSD facultymember to provide an opportunity forstaff to learn about the intellectual...

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FAS Tenure-Track Faculty Mentoring

The dean of FAS made mentoring oftenure-track faculty a central topic at his fall2015 retreat for the FAS academic deans. Together, the deans reviewed the principles underlying the FAS’s AY 2009‒10approach to mentoring and professional development, discussed fresh approaches,and formulated benchmarks to help themevaluate at the upcoming academic planning meetings how well departments/areas were doing.Throughout fall 2015, asthese academic planning discussions tookplace, the Office for Faculty Affairs (OFA)separately conducted focus groups withtenure-track and recently tenured faculty to...

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GSAS “Dual Citizens”

Because GSAS students may have “dual citizenship” in other Schools, there are alsocollaborative efforts with offices in these Schools. For example, GSAS has collaborated with colleagues in the Chan School of Public Health,Harvard Business School, and the Kennedy School of Government to develop GSAS-wide pipeline andretention programs. Collaborations exist with diversity and inclusion (D&I) officesacross Harvard on recruitment efforts. Finally, under the leadership of the Officeof the Assistant to the President for Institutional Diversity and Equity, individualsinvolved in D&I...

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DCE Courses on Diversity

While it’s difficult to know which courses explicitly incorporate content related toinclusion and belonging into the curriculum, ongoing efforts have been made to increase the number of courses that address related topics, such as race, sexuality,gender, religion, and culture.The HarvardExtension School (HES) currently offers more than 41 courses on these topics,including “Understanding Islam andContemporary Muslim Societies” and“Gender, Leadership, and Management.”These types of courses are very popularamong HES students and receive strong reviews each semester.

Takeaway...

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SEAS Funds for Staff Professional Development

SEAS encourages staff to utilize training sessions and professional developmentconference funds to develop and/orimprove skills used in their daily roles,or to develop a deeper knowledge in new areas of interest to their overall career paths. The FAS and the University have programs/offices/centers in place whichoffer professional development opportunities, research and funding applicationsupport, and teaching support to all faculty.There is a particular emphasis on providingmentoring support to tenure-track faculty.

Takeaway

This practice highlights the...

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SEAS Blind Grading

A guide on implementing blind grading onvarious software platforms used at SEAS is being developed. Additionally,Women in Computer Science (WiCS) hosts avariety of community events to encouragecollaboration among all levels of studentspursuing a concentration in computerscience (CS). As a result of an area-wide diversity committee, CS also launched a freshman advising initiative to provide eachfemale student who indicates a primary interest in CS with a CS faculty member as a freshman adviser. This required collaboration with admissions and faculty.

Takeaway

...

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HBS 5i

The governance model of HBS is much likethat of Harvard more broadly — a matrixwhere strategy, decisions, and activitiesbubble up or exist or are made at the locallevel (e.g., within a particular departmentor program), but then are hopefully woventogether in service of a School-wide strategy. One of the most significant factors incausing inclusion to be felt and experiencedas a shared responsibility at HBS was the dean early in his tenure naming “inclusion”as among his “5i” priorities (innovation, intellectual ambition, internationalization, inclusion, and integration) — specifically,“to...

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HMS Entrance Interviews

The School’s entrance interviews with all first-year underrepresented minority (URM) students and feedback from the Office of Recruitment & Multicultural Affairs (ORMA) Student Advisory Group (SAG) are essential to providing negativeand positive insights from the applicants’perspective on the interview experienceand the subsequent implementation ofchanges to enhance it the following year.In 2017, ORMA initiated post-interview (pre-decision) anonymous surveying ofURM applicants to identify best practicesand also challenges on the interview day from the applicants’ perspective.

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