Leslie Arroyo - Story of Us
The Mission of the Harvard Foundation
In 1981, the president and deans of Harvard University established the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations with the mandate to “improve relations among racial and ethnic groups within the University and to enhance the quality of our common life.” In pursuit of this mission, the Foundation seeks to involve students of all racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds in the ongoing programmatic enterprises of the College and University and to highlight the cultural contributions of all Harvard students. The Foundation sponsors annual programs and activities that are designed to promote diversity, inclusion and equity in the interest of interracial, intercultural and inter-religious understanding and harmony in the Harvard community (HF Website).
The Harvard Foundation Today
Today, the Harvard Foundation is located in the basement of Gray’s Hall and is responsible for creating programming that includes flagship events, such as Cultural Rhythms; a celebration that features performances from various student cultural organizations and highlights an artist whose work inspires action and deeper reflection on racial equality and inclusion. The Foundation also creates learning opportunities through peer-to-peer workshops and dialogues offered by interns that create space for students to enhance their cultural competence and deepen their understanding of identity, inclusion, and belonging. Additionally, the Foundation offers individualized support through specialized advising and programming for students who identify as undocumented and/or first-generation or come from other marginalized backgrounds. Lastly, the Foundation also includes the Student Advisory Committee (SAC) which works to increase dialogue and booster collaboration among the College’s ethnic and cultural affinity student organizations. The SAC disburses grants in support of projects and programs that highlight and encourage dialogues on race, culture, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
In March 2020, shortly before students were evacuated from campus due to COVID-19 concerns, the Foundation interns learned that the office would expand to include the Diversity Peer Educators or DPEs from the Office of Diversity Education & Support. The DPEs are “trained student facilitators who utilize their passion for inclusion, intersectionality, and social justice to help create a better Harvard community” (Who Are DPEs, 2022). This merger was shocking to both offices as it came without the consultation of interns and staff. Additionally, this shocking news came during an already uneasy time for the Foundation that has been in a period of transition since the passing of Doctor Allen S. Counter in 2017. Doctor Counter was the founding and only director of the Harvard Foundation until the time of his passing. Therefore, Doctor Counter took with him a great amount of institutional memory. As Anant Pai describes, his passing was particularly shocking to those at the Harvard Foundation because “the Foundation has been forced to reexamine its own work and its understanding of diversity; in the wake of his passing, the future of the organization is more unclear than it has ever been before” (Klemenčič, 2018). For that reason, the news of the merger served as a catalyst to reinstate the Foundation in a greater period of transition in which it must continue to reckon with its past history and leadership to reimagine the future.
Then in Fall 2021, the interns returned to an in-person internship experience. Upon return, they learned that all past Harvard Foundation and DPE staff had left Harvard. The only staff member that remained was the director at the time, Sheehan Scarborough, who was on a leave of absence. Sheehan returned in November, shortly before two new staff members, Marvin Baclig and Alejandra Rincon, joined the Foundation in December.
Then during March 2022, Sheehan made the decision to also leave the Foundation leaving the director position open. The search for a new director is currently taking place. In addition, in April, the interns learned of another administrative decision which includes decreasing the number of interns from 18 to 12 - 14 interns.
In 2022, we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Harvard Foundation; yet, the Foundation is still in the process of attempting to effectively bring together a new, larger group of interns and staff to continue and develop essential programming. Above that, now the Foundation must decide how to make this new, larger intern group smaller for the upcoming Fall semester. This brings me to the question: what if the effective organizational development of the Foundation to better serve the current needs and demands of historically marginalized students on campus? This question serves to analyze how to build the Foundation’s capacity to change and achieve greater effectiveness by developing, improving, or reinforcing strategies and structures to better serve the current needs and demands of historically marginalized students on campus.
