Community Values

Harvard University aspires to provide education and scholarship of the highest quality — to advance the frontiers of knowledge; to equip students, staff, and faculty and academic personnel for fulfilling experiences of life, work, and inclusive leadership in a complex world; and to provide all members of our diverse community with opportunities for growth. We pursue these goals for our own good and for the public good through the many ways that advancing and sharing knowledge can improve human flourishing and through the service and leadership of our community members on campus and beyond. Achieving these aims depends on the efforts of thousands of students, staff, and faculty and academic personnel across the University. Some make their contributions by engaging directly in teaching, learning, and research; others contribute by supporting and enabling those core activities in essential ways, while also pursuing professional growth.

Harvard University’s five core values provide a framework to organize how each of us can act to create that inclusive and hospitable culture. We invite every one to embrace these values. If we can achieve that, we will together strengthen the foundation of inclusion needed for the pursuit of excellence at Harvard.

Whatever each person’s individual role or location within Harvard, we owe it to one another to uphold certain basic values of the community.

These values were developed with community input by the Harvard University Presidential Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging.