今天是新一学年的开始。欢迎各位来到哈佛。大家都是来自不同国家和地区，成长背景与生活环境也各有不同。在此，我想重申哈佛的办学理念和目标。

　　每当新生到校的时候，我常常会提起，哈佛是个多么多元化的大学，它可能是学生所生活过的最多元化的集体之一。来自不同种族、民族、国家的人们汇聚于此，他们政治观念可能各不相同，性别观与身份认同也各有差异。我们认为，这种不同是哈佛教育中不可分割的一部分。不管你是大学新生，还是满怀抱负的研究生，还是教职员工，都能从哈佛的这种教育中受益。

　　今年，哈佛的录取政策遭到了质疑，这更是对我们根本原则，对哈佛多元化的努力提出的挑战。在这一学年内，我们会积极应对质疑，向其他的声音证明多元化的重要之处。

　　然而哈佛的努力还不止于此。我们不仅要为哈佛所招收的优秀学子提供多元化的环境，更要让每个人都有一种归属感。“我就是哈佛的代表，就是哈佛的一部分”，我希望每个学子都可以感受到这一点。光有多样性还不够，归属感、包容性也很重要。要做到这一点，哈佛要做的还有很多。我们知道，我们生活的这个社会充斥着不平等、不公正，这些无形之中对每个人的生活都产生了影响，对于哈佛也是一样。

　　因此，当我们规划未来、迎接挑战之际，建立一个真正包容的集体非常重要，这项任务也十分艰巨。刚刚入学的新生中，有很多人对于周围同学的文化、国家并不了解，你们彼此对对方也各有期待。因此，大家可能会担心，如果尝试着和不同的人交流，能否得到理解，还是会被忽视、无视？如何让哈佛成为一个相互学习相互了解的集体，而非冷漠忽视？如何消除隐性歧视并从中吸取教训？如何能消除一些歧视性或者针对性的语言？如何才能让大家以治学般的严谨态度探询、理解人与人的差异？

　　这个暑假，我和Jim Ryan院长谈及了这些情况，他表示，我们应该努力成为“包容的倾听者”。我对此非常认同，这也是一个真正的学者应该具有的品质。大学言论自由——每个人都有权表达自己的观点，但是在你们未来的大学四年内，这种言论自由可能无形中会因言语不当而带来伤害。这些言语也许本来是一番好意，却因为误解曲解而事与愿违。然而这些都是哈佛在努力推动多元化中无法避免的过程。这一点我们会继续坚持，在应对指控的法庭上、在日后的公众交流中、在我们每一天的生活中，都应该坚持这一点。

　　用心聆听，更包容地聆听，不要怕犯错，不要担心，勇于尝试，努力包容。让我们相互学习，共同进步。

Faust seeks even greater inclusion

At first Morning Prayers of academic year, Harvard president promotes diversity and its complexity

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

During her remarks at the first Morning Prayers of the academic year in Memorial Church’s Appleton Chapel, President Drew Faust（photo 1）told listeners that the University celebrates the differences within its community as "an integral part of everyone’s education.”

Lucy Forster-Smith（left, photo 2）, Sedgwick Chaplain to the University and the church’s senior minister, officiated the service.

The Harvard University Choir was also part of the morning service（photo 3）.

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By Colleen Walsh

Harvard’s dedication to diversity and inclusion is unwavering, said President Drew Faust on Wednesday morning, but the University still must do more.

During her remarks at the first Morning Prayers of the academic year in Memorial Church’s Appleton Chapel, Faust told listeners that the University celebrates the differences within its community as “an integral part of everyone’s education.”

“I often remark that for many if not most of those arriving at Harvard for the first time, this is the most varied community in which they have ever lived — perhaps will ever live,” she said. “People of different races, religions, ethnicities, nationalities, political views, gender identities, sexual orientations.”

She emphasized that fostering a culture of inclusion must be a fundamental part of Harvard’s longstanding efforts to create campus diversity.

“Simply gathering a diverse mixture of extraordinarily talented people in one place does not in itself ensure the outcome we seek,” said Faust. “Everyone at Harvard should feel included, not just represented in this community. ‘I, Too, Am Harvard’ must be a statement every one of us can confidently make. Diversity must become belonging.”

President Drew Faust at Morning Prayers

Morning Prayers service with speaker Drew Gilpin Faust, President of Harvard University, on Wednesday, September 2, 2015.

Faust also referenced an ongoing lawsuit contesting the University’s use of race as one among many factors considered in an admissions process designed to learn about the whole applicant, a policy held up as a model by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1978 and repeatedly reaffirmed since.

“Our vigorous defense of our procedures and of the kind of educational experience they are intended to create will cause us to speak frequently and forcefully about the importance of diversity in the months to come,” said Faust.

She urged her listeners to embrace tolerance and understanding and encouraged them to reframe difficult conversations and uncomfortable encounters.

“Can we together turn what we might leap to label as ‘micro-aggressions’ into a teachable moment? Can we explain why phrases like ‘off the reservation’ or words like ‘lynching’ have a different and powerful resonance for individuals who hear them within a heritage of violence and oppression? Can we make our lives together the subject for inquiry and exploration and understanding in something of the same spirit with which we approach our academic purposes?”

Building a community of inclusion helps challenge inequality and injustice, said Faust, both at Harvard and beyond. But that work isn’t simple, in part because of the University’s commitment to freedom of speech.

“In the course of the year to come, that freedom is likely to produce some utterances that we deplore. And there will be times we must speak out against them. But we are likely far more often to encounter good intentions gone awry, mistakes and misunderstandings that are an inevitable part of this experiment in diversity we at Harvard are so committed to defend — in the courts, in the public discourse, and in our lives together.

“Listen hard,” she recommended, “listen generously, risk making a mistake, risk being made uncomfortable, risk forgiveness. Learn from one another.”

With the mercury soaring, Wednesday felt more like a prime beach day than the start of another school year. But despite the midsummer conditions, the time-honored tradition signaled that Harvard’s academic calendar is again underway. Lucy Forster-Smith, Sedgwick Chaplain to the University and the church’s senior minister, officiated the service. Her closing words echoed Faust’s sentiments in a theological sense.

“For the holy rays of insight that arrive when we least expect them, startle us afresh, Holy One,” Forster-Smith said in her benediction. “For the joy of service that clears the way for justice and peace, give us strength and compassion.”