Sherri Charleston Urges Harvard Affiliates to ‘Disagree Without Being Disagreeable’ at Morning Prayers

Harvard’s chief Community and Campus Life officer Sherri A. Charleston called loneliness as deadly as smoking — citing decades of Harvard research — and argued that learning to disagree without hostility is part of the cure, in a Memorial Church address Tuesday morning.

Charleston traced the history of pluralism at the University in her brief remarks before asserting that Harvard cannot pursue its academic mission without affiliates who can disagree and still work alongside one another.

She emphasized the importance of learning, creativity, and achievement, but contended that none of those pursuits could be accomplished alone.

“Our ability to do that cannot be separated from our responsibilities in the person beside us,” Charleston said. “That means in community — real communities — not the absence of just difference or disagreement, but the discipline of holding both together.”

Charleston praised Harvard’s pluralism, which she said had deepened over the centuries as the University’s gates opened to people it had once excluded.

“Over this four centuries since our founding, we’ve evolved into this beautifully pluralistic, multi-faith, multi-ethnic, and secular community with people from every nation on the planet, walking through our gates,” she said.

“Over time, those gates have gradually been opened, sometimes willingly, sometimes by the force of winds of change, sometimes by members of our own community who have asked us to think deeper and broader about how far others can actually go,” she added.

Charleston also brought up the loneliness epidemic, pointing to the Harvard Study of Adult Development — one of the longest-running studies of adult life — which found that the strength of people’s relationships is the clearest predictor of how healthy and happy they will be.

“Loneliness kills. It’s as powerful as smoking or alcoholism,” she said.

She said the effects of isolation and political division were measurable, while challenging attendees to consider their own role in reversing them.

“We are realizing that the epidemic of loneliness is continuing to make us sicker and sicker,” she said. “But what can we do about it as a community beloved?”

Connection across difference has become a defining feature of cultural programming at the University over the past several years. At the April 2026 Community and Campus Life Forum, administrators emphasized the importance of competing perspectives, and the College now requires incoming students to complete an online module on constructive disagreement developed by Harvard Kennedy School professor Julia Minson.

At the same time, Harvard has shifted away from identity-specific programming. The College closed its offices for minority, LGBTQ, and women students in July 2025, folding their staff and programs into a consolidated Harvard Foundation housed within the then-new Office of Culture and Community.

College Dean David J. Deming urged the Class of 2030 to spend more time with each other in person in his Convocation address last week, announcing that the College would experiment with phone pouches to create tech-free social spaces and pointing to extended after-dinner hours and food drops in Annenberg dining hall.

In remarks at the April forum, Charleston shared results from an annual survey showing that 45 percent of Harvard affiliates reported feelings of isolation. While 59 percent said they had formed satisfying relationships with people holding different views, respondents in several groups fell below 50 percent when asked whether they felt comfortable expressing opinions across ideological lines.

—Staff writer Sebastian B. Connolly can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at sbc.23. Follow him on X @SebastianC4784.

—Staff writer Summer E. Rose can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at ser.85. Follow her on X @summerellenrose.