HDS Statement of Community Values

Harvard University aspires to provide education and scholarship of the highest quality — to advance the frontiers of knowledge and to prepare individuals for life, work, and leadership. Achieving these aims depends on the efforts of thousands of faculty, students, and staff across the University. Some of us make our contribution by engaging directly in teaching, learning, and research, others of us, by supporting and enabling those core activities in essential ways. Whatever our individual roles, and wherever we work within Harvard, we owe it to one another to uphold certain basic values of the community.

Harvard Divinity School confirms and embraces the values of the University, seeking only to define them further in light of the unique nature of our local community, understanding the invaluable opportunity presented to us in our differences and shared concerns as we educate scholars, teachers, ministers, and other professionals in the study of religion for local or global leadership and service.

• Respect for the rights, differences, and dignity of others.

• We seek to respect, understand, and learn from the cultures and beliefs of the members of our diverse community. Conscious of our own levels of privilege, we seek—with kindness and compassion—to engage in open and active dialogue that broadens our perspectives, increases our knowledge and awareness, and fosters mutual understanding and empowerment.

• Honesty and integrity in all dealings.

• We are committed, individually and as a community, to listening, speaking, and acting with candor, with equitability, and with courtesy, so that all may participate freely within a climate of openness, trust, and sensitivity.

• Conscientious pursuit of excellence in one’s work.

• We strive to pursue excellence with both graciousness and humility. We acknowledge that excellence is achieved through effort, creativity, and the exploration of new ideas and that individual achievement is rarely accomplished without the support of our community and the collaboration of our peers.

• Accountability for actions and conduct in the workplace.

• In seeking the long-term welfare of all, we endeavor to accept responsibility for the impact of our actions on our community, our environment, and the world. We hold ourselves and each other accountable for our behavior and our use of resources.

The more we embrace these values in our daily lives, the more we create and sustain an environment of trust, cooperation, lively inquiry, and mutual understanding — and advance a commitment to education and scholarship, which all of us share.

As we advance our shared commitment to education and scholarship, we endeavor to build a community, and, ultimately, a world, in which people can peacefully live and work together across religious and cultural divides.