Religious, community, and campus life 

Harvard and its Schools have prioritized efforts to build and affirm a feeling of belonging for every member of our community. The University has committed to support belonging among Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian students, faculty, and staff, including through community-building initiatives, specially trained support staff, and funded religious and cultural events. Highlights include a Presidential initiative on Interfaith Engagement, events and activities related to religion and faith, increased awareness of religious observances and meal requirements, lecture series and workshops modeling dialogue across difference, and new funding to support student projects related to building bridges. 

Last updated December 2025. 

Supporting religious life

• Interfaith Engagement. In July 2025, Harvard announced a new University-wide initiative for interfaith engagement. Through the lens of interfaith engagement, the University seeks to foster respect for diverse identities, build relationships between communities, and encourage cooperation for the common good. 

• New permanent Muslim prayer space.  In August 2025, the University announced the establishment of a permanent prayer space for its Muslim community. A room on the Smith Campus Center’s second floor will be designated as a permanent musallah, a prayer space for Muslim affiliates to gather for daily worship and reflection. A space previously utilized for Muslim prayer will now be dedicated to Hindu worship, to accommodate the growing number of Hindu students on campus. 

• Community support during Ramadan. Building on similar efforts in past years, during Ramadan in academic 2024-25, the Harvard College Dean of Students Office (DSO) collaborated with the Muslim Chaplaincy, Harvard Islamic Society (HIS), and Harvard University Dining Services to support students participating in Ramdan-related activities. Specifically, the College DSO and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) teams partnered with HIS to host Iftar dinners three evenings each week (excluding Spring Break), supplementing University-provided meals on two other evenings. Additionally, the DSO hosted a Suhoor meal at the Dean of Students Residence. The DSO and EDI teams also supported the HIS Eid celebration. 

• New community spaces. In Fall 2024, the University collaborated with the University’s Muslim Chaplains and practitioners from Harvard’s Counseling and Mental Health Service (CAMHS) to moderate “Community Spaces” for Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian students. These spaces aim to foster a sense of belonging through dialogue with peers who have a shared identity. 

• Religion, Ethics, and Spiritual Life. Harvard College’s Office of Culture & Community has established Religion, Ethics, Spiritual Life as a pillar of its work and collaborates regularly with the newly appointed Director of Interfaith Engagement to ensure communication, alignment, and collaboration. 

• Space for faith-based activities at Harvard Business School. Over the summer of 2025, Harvard Business School built an outdoor terrace, extending the footprint of its MBA Class of 1959 Chapel to accommodate faith-based activities. 

• Inclusive scheduling and event planning resources. In December 2024, Harvard launched a webpage that includes a multifaith calendar, a glossary of religious observances, and suggestions for inclusive catering. 

• Harvard Business School multifaith calendar. The Harvard Business School Office for Community and Culture developed a multifaith calendar that lists observances which typically involve fasting or accommodations for class attendance or time off, provides background and guidance, and features a Religious Observances Calendar download that can be added to Outlook. 

• Outreach to affected students at Harvard Graduate School of Education. The Harvard Graduate School of Education Student Affairs team established expanded outreach protocols for students who have been affected by natural disasters, wars, or other crises. The expanded protocols were completed and socialized in September 2025. These expanded protocols include steps intended to ensure that students are aware of, and have access to, University supports throughout the duration of the event impacting the student. 

Community and campus life

• Community and Campus Life. In April 2025, Harvard launched the new Community and Campus Life (CCL) office (replacing the former Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging) with a focus on building a culture of belonging for all members of the Harvard community. CCL supports and expands programs that encourage engagement across differences. 

• “Middle East Dialogues” and similar programming at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Harvard Kennedy School will continue to organize a set of co-curricular events and activities with speakers from Israel, Palestine, and the broader region through which students can explore a diversity of perspectives on the Middle East.  In fall 2025, HKS hosted Middle East Dialogues with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and former U.S. diplomat Rob Malley.  

• Harvard Graduate School of Education grants, fellowships, and programs. In August 2025, Harvard Graduate School of Education launched the Courageous Conversations Fund—with award criteria modeled after the President’s Building Bridges Fund. The Courageous Conversations Fund supports smaller-scale, student-led initiatives that seek to engage students in learning about how to model difficult conversations with respect and dignity at the forefront. 

• Rappaport Forum at Harvard Law School. At Harvard Law School, faculty serve as organizers and moderators of the Rappaport Forum, designed to promote and model full, vigorous, and civil discourse on critical and complicated issues facing our community, our nation, and our world, and which has hosted debates on topics such as whether the Constitution supports a unitary executive; the future of the administrative state; the propriety of universal injunctions; censorship, content moderation, and the First Amendment; stare decisis and the future of Roe v. Wade.  Additionally, the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law regularly hosts crosscutting events that seek to unpack contemporary questions of Jewish and Israeli legal scholarship.  

• Harvard Law School “Why I Changed My Mind” series.  Harvard Law School is continuing to host an event series, “Why I Changed My Mind,” where prominent faculty discuss an important legal and social issue where they became convinced to change their original view.  

• Harvard Law School Community Connection Grants. The Community Connection Grant program at Harvard Law School provides grants for student-led projects that encourage small group discussion across differences, build facilitation skills, and/or model constructive disagreement. Activities may include;  discussions that encourage a well-informed, nuanced understanding of divisive legal and political issues; social events that build trust among members of groups with differing views, perspectives, or approaches; and experiences that help community members develop skills and methods for constructively engaging with one another on difficult topics, or in the wake of discord and distrust prompted by use of social media. 

• Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Dental Medicine student collaboration fund. The fund supports projects proposed by at least two or more recognized student organizations to foster conversation and dialogue as well as to collaborate with one another on a range of topics, ideas, and experiences to advance learning across different students. Dialogue proposals will be reviewed twice a year and student organizations can apply for funding for their project. 

• Harvard Chan School of Public Health sessions and workshops. In September 2025, Harvard Chan School of Public Health offices hosted “Resisting Hate Together: Muslim and Jewish Voices Against Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Anti-Palestinian Racism,” featuring external experts. This two-hour session provided students with strategies for intervention in response to both implicit and explicit bias, using scenario-based activities and offering educational content about the lived experiences of these communities.  Additionally, the School introduced two new workshops in October: “Finding Your Voice: How Receptiveness Shapes Solutions” and “The Price of Silence: Solving Problems Within Our Own Networks.” 

• Constructive engagement models at Harvard Divinity School. In September 2025, Harvard Divinity School hosted a workshop on religious nationalisms, considering a wide variety of case studies.  

• Mental health resources. The University secured additional trauma-informed counseling resources through Harvard Counseling and Mental Health Services, prioritizing awareness of and access to its mental health and counseling resources, including the 24/7 CAMHS Cares line and in-person and virtual counseling support offerings. In January 2024, Harvard University Health Services removed visit limits for outpatient mental health care and medical consultations under Harvard’s student health insurance plan. 

• Community support sessions. In 2024, Harvard organized community support sessions led by the counseling team and Harvard’s chaplains, which comprise more than 30 faith leaders. 

• Resources in Times of Crisis. Harvard launched a support and resources website, Resources in Times of Crisis, to provide community members with a central hub of resources for personal safety, online safety, and mental health and community support. 

• Engagement with Sidechat. In spring 2024, Harvard engaged with the leadership of Sidechat, a social media app that allows college students to post anonymously. Though Harvard has no relationship with Sidechat, the University asked the app to strictly enforce its content-moderation policies.