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Since Gomes’ arrival on campus in 1970, the religious climate at Harvard has seen significant changes. When Harvard stopped requiring students to attend chapel daily in 1886, the University earned the moniker “Godless Harvard” from counterparts Yale and Princeton Universities. Yale stopped the requirement in 1926, while Princeton ceased the practice...
First, consider the attention that we are told to give to equally controversial topics. Before freshmen even set foot on campus, the Freshman Dean’s Office tells students that “questions about identity and privilege seem especially important to consider”—identity with respect to “race and class,” that is. Socioeconomic and racial components of one’s life are worthy of focus, but these are not the only areas about which critical thought would benefit students. In the instance of Community Conversations, the College...
Second, note how there’s no public forum for the general discussion of religious opinions. To be sure, there are a variety of specific religious student groups on campus. But there is no collective space in which critical thinking about religion in general, rather than a specific religious tradition, can occur. It’s true that the programming at Memorial Church is helpful with respect to a general Christian perspective, but there needs to be a place where students of all persuasions can ask more fundamental questions about religion. The Institute of Politics is responsible for fostering...
...IOP’s recent panel discussion “Challenges to Faith at Harvard” revealed more clearly Harvard’s need for a general religious space on campus. The IOP’s Harvard Political Union astutely recognized the lack of dialogue about religion, and held the event for this reason. As Shankar G. Ramaswamy ’11, chair of the HPU, noted, “We decided to have this event because it’s the type of matter that students might be reluctant to strike up a conversation about, because...
...complexity, on for size, perhaps without reference to a particular faith. These students, situated on the religious spectrum somewhere between agnosticism and a particular belief, should have a non-denominational space in which to voice their beliefs both with fellow students as well as with different religious groups on campus...