Student-driven initiatives address campus rifts

Through communal meals, discussions, and activities, four student-driven initiatives will launch this spring with the objective of gathering students from various backgrounds and perspectives to foster challenging conversations and mend divisions.

The initiatives are financed by the President’s Building Bridges Fund. This program, initiated in the fall, sought proposals aimed at enhancing community across differing faiths, cultures, and backgrounds. 

“I am motivated by the enthusiasm and innovation our students exhibit in promoting dialogue across differences,” remarked President Alan M. Garber. “Transforming our culture is an ambitious yet attainable goal that will necessitate ongoing efforts throughout the University. This initial round of initiatives signifies a crucial step towards achieving our goal of enabling every individual at Harvard to navigate contentious topics as easily as shared interests and to forge significant connections that contribute to intellectual, personal, and social development.”

The four chosen initiatives concentrate on creating settings conducive to challenging discussions. Some programs will unite students in small groups to address issues of policy and religious law, while others are aimed at questioning participants’ perspectives. The aim is to develop a platform for discussions on intricate subjects and themes beyond traditional classroom settings.

“We are delighted to have received an abundance of insightful proposals from both undergraduate and graduate students throughout the University,” stated Sherri Charleston, chief diversity and inclusion officer. “The initiatives that were selected truly brought the mission and vision of the President’s Building Bridges Fund to life in ways we are confident will have a genuine influence on our campus this spring.”

Summaries of the initiatives

• Building Understanding Between the Jewish and Muslim Communities at HLS (Harvard Law School)

Establishing a groundwork for future events and casual gatherings, Jewish and Muslim student leaders at HLS will host an open luncheon forum for all students titled “Linked Traditions: Islamic and Judaic Law.” The gathering will include a Jewish and a Muslim faculty member (or graduate student) who will engage in a meaningful dialogue about the two interconnected legal traditions, as well as examine sources of law, institutional frameworks, and contemporary challenges in each tradition.

• Questions Left Unanswered (Harvard College)

This weekly dinner and intimate discussion series will bring together students from diverse intellectual and cultural backgrounds. Over 10 sessions, participants will tackle significant contemporary controversies, fostering thoughtful small-group discussions about challenging topics among students holding differing viewpoints. Each meeting will host a leading thinker in the field, invited to steer the conversation. This initiative aims to blend intellectual rigor with community-building, nurturing a deeper sense of empathy, understanding, and collaboration among participants.

• Fostering Intergroup Collaboration and Intellectual Vitality Through a Cooperative Online Quiz Game at Harvard (Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences – Psychology)

Utilizing Tango, a cooperative online quiz game rooted in realistic conflict theory and intergroup contact theory, this initiative will provide opportunities to investigate the issues surrounding polarization and tribalism. Designed to encourage mutually advantageous collaboration, Tango pairs participants from diverse backgrounds in a joint problem-solving atmosphere. The inquiries posed are crafted to challenge participants’ worldviews and foster meaningful intergroup discussions, thereby diminishing outgroup hostility and enhancing mutual respect across divides.

• Policy Bridges: Fostering Constructive Dialogue Across Ideological Divides (Harvard Griffin GSAS – Biological Sciences in Public Health, HSPH, and Biomedical Informatics, HMS)

This series of three panel discussions will focus on a critical policy issue for the 21st century (Climate Policy, Technology Policy, and Health Policy). The sessions will include both small and large discussion groups where audiences and experts collaborate to explore and pinpoint common ground and shared values informing each perspective. The objective of the initiative is to cultivate a setting that facilitates constructive conversations to help bridge ideological gaps, enhance mutual understanding, and discover common ground on significant policy issues.

The President’s Building Bridges Fund was created as a response to the initial recommendations from both the Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias and the Presidential Task Force on Combating Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab, and Anti-Palestinian Bias, which highlighted the necessity for providing increased opportunities for community building on campus. Grant funds were allocated to support projects along one or multiple of the following lines:

• Creating relationships between affinity groups whose interests and perspectives on critical issues may differ
• Investing in intellectual excellence
• Taking action against discrimination, bullying, harassment, and hate
• Encouraging constructive campus dialogue regarding interfaith or intercultural issues, or a combination thereof

“Both task forces acknowledged the significance of offering opportunities for students to establish cross-cutting communities outside of the classroom and to acquire skills pertaining to constructive dialogue,” said Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor, and a member of both Presidential Task Forces. “These initiatives respond to the task forces’ recommendations by creating those opportunities in various contexts.”