Garber Names Recipients of Inaugural Building Bridges Fund

President Alan M. Garber ’76 announced the four student-led projects receiving support from the inaugural President’s Building Bridges Fund in an email to Harvard affiliates Wednesday afternoon.

The fund — which targets projects seeking to “encourage dialogue and deepen understanding across differences on our campus” — selected projects proposed by groups of students at Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

“We hope that the Building Bridges projects and other efforts currently under way will foster an environment in which everyone at Harvard can speak and debate freely, take risks for the sake of intellectual growth, and feel that they are valued members of our community, whether their views are popular or not,” Garber wrote in the email.

Harvard funded a project pitched by College students seeking to hold a “weekly dinner and small group discussion series” on “major modern controversies.” It also funded an HLS proposal to host a luncheon with Jewish and Muslim faculty members and two GSAS projects, one that will build an “online quiz game” to “examine the challenges of polarization and tribalism” and one that will host a speaker series on “pressing” policy issues.

The fund was established in October by Garber in response to a recommendation issued by the twin presidential task forces on combating antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias and anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian bias.

Each project will receive a one-time grant of up to $5,000, which will be financed by the Office of the President, and will be expected to submit a report on the project’s outcome within 10 days of the initiative’s completion.

In Garber’s October announcement, he wrote that all submitted projects would be evaluated by a selection committee based on their commitment to building relationships between affinity groups, acting against bullying and harassment, and creating dialogue around interfaith and intercultural issues.

University Professor Danielle S. Allen, who sits on both task forces, wrote in a press release that the task forces were interested in funding projects building “cross-cutting community outside of the classroom.”

“These projects respond to the recommendations of the task forces by providing those opportunities in a variety of different contexts,” she wrote.

Sherri A. Charleston, Harvard’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, also celebrated the projects in the press release, writing that they would quickly deliver value on campus.

“The projects selected brought the mission and purpose of the President’s Building Bridges Fund to life in ways that we are confident will have a real impact on our campus this spring,” she wrote.

The Building Bridges grant was one of a series of recommendations issued by the two task forces in June. Their preliminary findings also included recommendations to create a prayer space for Muslims on campus, audit academic resources on the Middle East, and fund a professorship in Palestinian studies.

But since their June report, both task forces have not issued further updates or released their highly-anticipated follow-up reports.

Correction: February 27, 2025

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 had not yet publicly implemented any of the other recommendations included in the July reports. In fact, Harvard expanded its kosher dining options and adopted new fact-finding procedures in student disciplinary cases after the preliminary reports were released.

—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.

—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.