Every mission statement encodes a question — the question an institution is asking itself when it decides what to do, what to build, and what to pursue.
HMS's current mission statement, which was last revised in 2018, asks a reasonable question. It isn't asking the right one.
Here is the current HMS mission statement in full: “To nurture a diverse, inclusive community dedicated to alleviating suffering and improving health and well-being for all through excellence in teaching and learning, discovery and scholarship, and service and leadership.”
HMS also publishes a Community Values statement that describes expected HMS community conduct, including commitments to inclusion, collaboration, and lifelong learning. Such commitments belong there. A mission statement has a different job: naming the academic work that gives those behaviors their purpose.
As written, the animating question of the HMS mission statement is: does this nurture the HMS community?
A serious medical school involves an inclusive community that draws from the broadest possible pool of talent. Expanding access and opportunity strengthens the search for the best students, clinicians, and scientists. It enlarges the intellectual capacity of the institution.
But at a University whose mission is academic excellence, the organizing principle of HMS’s mission should make its core academic work unmistakable: excellence in medical training and pushing the frontiers of medical knowledge.
When HMS’s own community is framed as the central object, the relationship between community and excellence risks becoming unclear. When excellence in training and discovery is placed at the center, the pieces fit together more coherently. It becomes clear that community is a condition that sustains demanding scholarship; inclusion widens talent pools and strengthens intellectual vitality; and service and leadership are the output of what well-trained physicians and scientists can deliver because of the judgment, skill, and command of evidence that HMS cultivated in them.
This kind of clarity of mission isn’t novel at HMS; it has articulated a version of an academically-focused mission before. In the late 2000s, HMS deans’ reports described its “common mission” as serving society “by training clinicians and scientists and by making discoveries and translating them into better healthcare.” That's the same “pathbreaking and life-saving” work Harvard has been committed to defending in its funding overreach lawsuit against the federal government.
Clarity of mission is always important, but the current moment drives home why. Between the rise of AI and shifts in research funding and policy, profound change is taking place in science and medicine. When so much is changing, a mission statement functions as a clear north star — an organizing principle that helps leaders set priorities, explain them, and return to them when the path forward is unclear.
As Harvard schools — whether HMS or elsewhere — consider revising their mission statements, the goal isn’t breadth, it’s a north star.
Ask 1636
Send us your Harvard and higher education questions!
Q: Last year, you recommended candidates running in Harvard’s Board of Overseers and Alumni Association elected director elections. Will you be doing that again this year?
Yes, we’ve reached out to all Board of Overseers and Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) Elected Director candidates, and we’ll be chatting with those who respond. We’ll share our recommendations in the next few weeks, and we’ll also revive our “ballot box” section in the Weekly Briefing.
Events
Cambridge, MA — February 25 from 6:00-8:30 p.m. ET: Meet Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Dean Jeremy Weinstein (PhD ’03) at this HKS on the Road series event. Prior to Weinstein’s talk, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and HKS Professor Meghan O’Sullivan will discuss nuclear policy. Register here.
Virtual — March 3 from 1:00-2:00 pm PT: The Harvard Club of Southern California is hosting Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow (chair) Penny Pritzker (AB ’81) for a fireside chat. Register here.
London, UK — March 17 from 6:00-8:00 pm GMT: Meet HKS Dean Jeremy Weinstein (PhD ’03) at this HKS on the Road series event. Register here.
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FYIs
FAS Dean Hoekstra Reportedly Removed Science Dean Jeff Lichtman After Clash Over PhD Admissions Cuts
While Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS) Dean Hopi Hoekstra announced in January that FAS Dean of Science Jeff Lichtman had “stepped down” from his administrative duties, The Crimson now reports that her January 14 email to faculty conflicted with Lichtman’s own January 13 message to Science Division department chairs, in which he wrote that he had been “relieved of my duties as Dean of Science.” The differing characterizations — Lichtman’s email coming first — have left faculty “attempting to make sense of conflicting accounts.”
The Crimson reports Hoekstra removed Lichtman after months of conflict over proposed science PhD cuts that Lichtman opposed as too steep. Amid frozen federal research funding and ongoing FAS budget pressure, Hoekstra reportedly considered eliminating 100% of science PhDs for the 2026-27 academic year; seeking to “align himself with faculty concerns,” Lichtman and his team instead developed an alternative plan that would preserve some PhD admissions (roughly a 70% cut instead).
Hoekstra rejected Lichtman’s plan and directed FAS to cut PhD admissions by 75%. In response, 100 FAS science faculty signed a letter to Hoekstra and Lichtman arguing that the cuts would “do permanent damage to our institution.” Less than a month later (and after we modeled the finances and risks of PhD cuts), FAS rolled back cuts to 50%.
FAS Hired McKinsey To Support Administrative Restructuring and Cut Costs
FAS hired McKinsey & Company to support its efforts to redesign the division’s administrative workforce and reduce costs.
This work is being run through the FAS Task Force on Workforce Planning, which FAS Dean Hoekstra first convened last spring.
FAS faces a longstanding, $350 million annual budget deficit, downstream funding loss from Harvard’s new $350+ million annual endowment tax; and a contracting federal funding pool.
McKinsey consultants have spent months interviewing administrators, staff, and faculty as they try to help the Task Force develop options and “best practices.”
The Task Force has been examining roughly 2,300 staff positions (about $300 million in costs) with an eye toward centralizing roles and likely eliminating some positions.
At a December all-staff meeting, the Task Force said it had identified 1,500 unique job titles and 60+ separate finance, HR, and administrative systems. It also said it was comparing FAS’s administrative structure to those at peer universities as well as law and consulting firms.
Judge Dismisses Tenure Lawsuit by Ex-HBS Professor Benjamin Edelman
A Massachusetts Superior Court judge has granted Harvard summary judgment and denied former Harvard Business School (HBS) associate professor Benjamin Edelman’s (AB ’02, AM ’02, JD ’05, PhD ’07) cross-motion — ending Edelman’s lawsuit over Harvard’s 2017 tenure decision without a trial.
Edelman had alleged that after conduct concerns arose during his tenure bid, HBS’s Faculty Review Board (FRB) conducted a review under its written “Principles and Procedures” (P&P) (which he alleges was created in response to his case), but that Harvard then failed to provide the P&P’s basic protections while still relying on the review’s findings when denying him tenure. Harvard argued the P&P was non-binding guidance and that the Dean retains discretion.
The judge ruled Harvard prevails on three grounds: Edelman didn’t show the FRB procedures were contractually binding (as Edelman had argued they were); he didn’t show Harvard violated any applicable provisions; and he didn’t show any alleged P&P process flaws had changed HBS’s tenure decision.
The ruling points to the HBS Dean’s discretion under HBS tenure policies — including authority to approve procedural variances — and, citing broader tenure caselaw, notes courts’ general reluctance to second-guess discretionary tenure judgments.
Yale Signals Grade Inflation Crackdown, Citing Harvard’s Proposed A Cap
Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis told the Yale Daily News that a Yale standing committee is reviewing Harvard’s recent faculty recommendations on grade inflation, including a proposal to cap A grades at 20% of students in a course — and that Yale faculty could see grading recommendations “within a year or so.”
Lewis said it was “very sensible” for Harvard to address the issue and noted Yale’s grading patterns are “very similar.”
He added that Yale has “good reason to keep an eye on what happens” at peers like Harvard and Princeton: “We’re competitors,” he said, and “I don’t want an A at Yale to be seen as a lesser A.”
This week, President Alan Garber (AB ’76, PhD ’82) signaled support for the grading proposal, saying that if the A cap works as intended, it may be worth the short-term discomfort for students.
For more on the Harvard faculty-led grading proposal, read our special edition analyzing it.
More News at Harvard
The Crimson: “‘Huge Problem’: Graduate Students Warn Harvard Ph.D. Cuts Are Hitting Classrooms and Labs”
The Crimson: “Legal Experts Say DOJ Lawsuit Over Harvard Admissions Records Faces FERPA Hurdle”
The Crimson: “Overseer Candidate Teresa Clarke Pledges to Reinforce Academic Core”
The Crimson: “From Kentucky to Cambridge, Overseer Candidate Trey Grayson Says Pragmatism Key to Harvard-Trump Standoff”
The Crimson: “Overseer Candidate Salvo Arena Says Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Are ‘Essential Pillars’ of Harvard”
The Crimson: “Sandel Criticizes Selective Admissions and Exclusive Student Clubs At Harvard Talk”
STAT News: “Breakup between Brigham and Dana-Farber is getting messier fast”
Military.com: “Why the Pentagon Is Cutting Off Harvard and What That Means”
Harvard Gazette: “How academia can help America heal”
Harvard Magazine: “The True Cost of Grade Inflation at Harvard”
The Crimson: “History and Literature Department Announces ‘Urban Studies’ Track”
The Crimson: “Harvard’s AAUP Set Out to Reform the University. Instead, It Went National.”
The Crimson: “Under Administrative Pressure, Faculty Committee Ends Women’s Research Symposium”
Boston Globe: “‘My scientific career is essentially over.’ A brain drain imperils Massachusetts’ biomedical future.” — feat. Harvard Molecular and Cellular Biology professor Sean Eddy, HSPH professor John Quackenbush, and HSPH professor Lisa Berkman
Wall Street Journal: “Black and Jewish Americans Can Find Unity Again” — by University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.
The Crimson: “Fulfilling Our Responsibilities as Instructors” — op-ed by Karen Thornberger (PhD ‘06), Harvard Literature and East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and Civilizations professor and Faculty Director of Harvard’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning
The Crimson: “Learning Is Not a Zero-Sum Game” — op-ed by Rohan Nambiar (AB ’27)
The Crimson: “For a More Ambitious Humanities” — op-ed by Jackson Barr (AB ’29)
The Crimson: “Don't Shoot the Messenger” — op-ed by The Crimson Editorial Board
More News Beyond Harvard
New York Times: “Epstein’s Ties With Academics Show the Seedy Side of College Fund-Raising”
Wall Street Journal: “The Ivies Are Having Second Thoughts About Investing in Private Equity”
Poets & Quants: “2026 Financial Times MBA Ranking: MIT Tops List For The First Time” — feat. HBS ranked 10th
Wall Street Journal: “For College Applicants, Pressure to Make Summers Count Has Gotten Even Worse”
The Atlantic: “The Harvard of the South … Of the West?”
The Stanford Daily: “Mistrial declared in Stanford pro-Palestine protesters’ case”
Daily Pennsylvanian: “Liz Magill named Georgetown Law dean nearly three years after historic resignation from Penn”
Jewish Journal: “The Hidden Cost of Campus Antisemitism: Faculty Mental Health”
Nature: “China to punish universities that fail to sanction research misconduct”
Nature: “How AI slop is causing a crisis in computer science”
Science: “Reimagining STEM doctoral training”
Higher Ed Dive: “University of Texas System adopts new teaching limits despite faculty concerns”
Chronicle of Higher Education: “Higher Ed’s Most Divisive Chancellor”
Yale Daily News: “In first year, civic thought center hosts small events on big questions”
Chronicle of Higher Education: “‘We’re Part of the Problem’”
Columbia Spectator: “Columbia students to participate in U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ first listening session for antisemitism investigation”
The Atlantic: “First Jobs Matter More Than We Think” — op-ed by founder of Teach for America Wendy Kopp
The Atlantic: “Stop Meeting Students Where They Are” — op-ed by Case Western Reserve University professor Walt Hunter (AB ‘04)
Washington Post: “A ‘revolution’ is coming for college accreditation” — op-ed by president of the Defense of Freedom Institute Robert Eite
Dorf on Law: “What I Plan to Tell the US Civil Rights Commission About Antisemitism on Campus and the Government Response Thus Far” — by Cornell Law professor Michael Dorf (AB ‘86, JD ‘90)
AEI: “Higher Education’s Internal Trust Crisis” — op-ed by American Enterprise Institute (AEI) nonresident fellow Thomas Smith
New York Times: “PEN Succumbs to the Anti-Free Speech Mob” — op-ed by James Kirchick