Dear Members of the HMS and HSDM Community:
In the last two weeks, an abundance of springtime energy brought students, faculty, postdocs, and staff together on the Quad for consecutive “superstar” events: the solar eclipse and the Dunham Lectures featuring Nobel Prize-winning biochemist and HMS alumna Jennifer Doudna.
Both gatherings were extraordinary. During the eclipse, the HMS Quad was packed with members of our community, their eyes trained on the sun but safely protected with eclipse glasses. Just a few days later, the line for entry into the Martin Amphitheater for the Dunham Lectures looped around the New Research Building’s extensive lobby.
I was genuinely moved by these enthusiastic turnouts. Both events compelled us to pause and reflect in wonder on natural phenomena — from coronas to CRISPR — and recall what brought us to science in the first place.
Other opportunities for gathering and reflection are in the works, in addition to recent lunches I have had with medical students in their academic societies and community breakfasts that I have hosted with cross-sections of staff, faculty, students, and trainees. I look forward to upcoming events like the Grad Ed Quad Party on April 24 and the Quad Faculty Meeting on April 25, which will feature a Town Hall with Interim President Alan Garber. We are also planning the return of the Green Dragon Pub — a pre-pandemic tradition — in June. This event will be open to the entire HMS community.
Community celebrations are pivotal in helping us cultivate a spirit of shared purpose and belonging across our campus and beyond. Fostering community and promoting constructive dialogue across Harvard are important objectives of the listening sessions hosted by the Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and the Presidential Task Force on Combating Anti-Muslim and Anti-Arab Bias, which are underway on our Harvard Longwood Campus. I want to make sure each of you has access to multiple avenues for free expression, respectful conversation, and emotional support. Please remember that these safety and well-being resources are available.
Like so many of us, I look forward to the celebrations of academic achievement and personal milestones that lie ahead this graduation season. I understand and respect that many of you are entering this season with deeply-held beliefs that you may wish to express. Amid those emotions, I hope that in the coming weeks we can all focus on lifting each other up, respecting one another and our accomplishments, and treasuring what brings us together.
Sincerely,
George Q. Daley
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
Harvard University