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About Our Office

For the Harvard Community

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Our office works with stakeholders and partners across the University to guide Harvard’s culture toward inclusive excellence

What is Inclusive Excellence?

A community that draws on the widest possible pool of talent to unify excellence and diversity. One that fully embraces individuals from varied backgrounds, cultures, races, identities, life experiences, perspectives, beliefs, and values.

The aspiration to achieve inclusive excellence moves beyond the goal of nondiscrimination and toward an embrace of the value that flows from bringing diversity of experience and thought to campus, and the rich and varied forms of excellence that can emerge from that diversity.  

[Adapted from the Association of American Colleges and Universities]

  • Messages from Leadership

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    I am thrilled to see the groundswell of work that already exists at Harvard, and I look forward to synthesizing and integrating the University’s many effective diversity and inclusion efforts into a visible, innovative strategy for enhancing diversity, equity, access, inclusion, and belonging across campus. I fundamentally believe that many of the challenges that we face in higher education relative to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging have answers rooted in applied research. We must work together in the field to find them.
    Sherri Ann Charleston, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer 

  • Messages from Leadership

    We are committed to a just Harvard and a just world where all people’s rights and dignity are respected and honored. No one should be harmed or denied an equal opportunity to thrive because of their race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or religion. Our commitment reflects the moral responsibility that everyone owes to one another and recognizes that true excellence and human flourishing are possible only by fully including people of all backgrounds and lived experiences.
    Excerpt from 10.30.20 message from University Leadership

Our Office

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Our office works across the University to serve as a:
Convener
•Facilitate collaboration and strategic partnerships across Schools/Units
•Coordinate common language and vision
•Create and manage the institutional infrastructure necessary to achieve sustainable inclusive excellence

Catalyst
•Collectively identify metrics to advance and measure inclusion and belonging
•Serve as a consultant to support Schools and Units in inclusion and belonging strategic planning
•Foster a culture of innovation in diversity, inclusion, and belonging

Capacity Builder
•Support inclusion and belonging training and technical assistance
•Ensure access to tools and resources across the University and serve as central access point for inclusion and belonging resources​​​​​​
•Surface and maximize adoption of promising practices

Community Builder
•Develop spaces for affinity-group gathering
•Create opportunities to engage across affinity group
•Foster inclusive dialogue, conversations, and community spaces

Our Goals

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Recruitment, Retention, and Development Practices for Excellence

Each part of Harvard should recruit and retain a community that draws on the widest possible pool of exceptional talent, unifying excellence and diversity; promotion processes should be characterized by nondiscrimination and should recognize excellence in all its forms. 

Union of Academic Freedom and a Culture of Mutual Respect and Concern

All members of the Harvard community can, in a thoughtful and concrete manner, work to discover and develop teaching, learning, mentoring, and interpersonal engagement strategies that promote academic freedom alongside mutual respect and concern.

Academic, Professional, and Social Integration

All members of the Harvard community should be integrated into academic, professional, and social contexts that permit them to be their authentic selves and that support their academic and professional success, even while challenging them to grow.

Inclusive Values, Symbols, and Spaces

Our symbols and spaces should convey our values of excellence, inclusion, and openness as well as conveying how those aspirations both grow from but also transcend our history.

Our commitment to creating an inclusive community 

Harvard University is a global community committed to welcoming all people. We fully embrace individuals from varied backgrounds, cultures, races, identities, life experiences, perspectives viewpoints, beliefs, and values. We strive to foster an environment that draws upon the widest possible pool of talent to unify excellence and diversity. Harvard views diversity, inclusion, and belonging as the pathway to achieving inclusive excellence and fostering a campus culture where everyone can thrive.

EEO Statement  

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions, or any other characteristic protected by law. 

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