Our essential international community

To the Harvard Chan community,

Our international students and scholars are integral members of this community.

You come from 74 nations. Your curiosity and compassion, your integrity and insights, your commitment to building a world where everyone can thrive — with all these qualities and more, you strengthen our research, enliven our classes, and help Harvard Chan School make a profound impact for good on the world.

At this most difficult and stressful of times, we will do everything we can to support you.

I hope you have read the letter from Harvard President Alan Garber. He announced that Harvard has just filed a lawsuit and a motion for a temporary restraining order to block the U.S. government’s unlawful and destructive action to strip Harvard of its authority to sponsor F- and J-visas for international students and scholars.

We hope for swift action from the courts. In the meantime, we are working to get answers to your many questions and to develop plans for supporting all our graduating, returning, and recently admitted international students and scholars.

This is an unprecedented and fluid situation. We are moving as fast as we can, thoughtfully, strategically, and with full awareness of how this unlawful action from the U.S. government has upended the lives of our international students and scholars. We will share more information as soon as we can. Please also continue to look for updates from the Harvard International Office.

I will close by quoting President Garber’s words to our international students and scholars:

“You are our classmates and friends, our colleagues and mentors, our partners in the work of this great institution. Thanks to you, we know more and understand more, and our country and our world are more enlightened and more resilient. We will support you as we do our utmost to ensure that Harvard remains open to the world.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Andrea

Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD
Dean of the Faculty