We now commit ourselves to greater progress on race through five actions.

First, we will enhance our existing faculty development programs so that all faculty members are better prepared to lead sensitive discussions about race in the classroom. Faculty development may include discussions of case vignettes, notes on writing and teaching cases that engage issues of race, material that familiarizes faculty with Black experiences, and the interpersonal skill development described in section 2. The Senior Associate Dean for Culture and Community will create a team to oversee this effort, leveraging HBS’s Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning and the Case Research and Writing Group; the future Chief DEI Officer will also play an active role.

Second, efforts are underway for faculty to add cases with Black and other URM protagonists to their courses. Every faculty unit has made a commitment to greater protagonist diversity, and 93 faculty members have pledged individually to write a new case with a Black protagonist and to make the protagonists in their courses reflect the diversity of the student body, to the extent that educational objectives allow. The effort to diversify case protagonists, described in section 4 above, will be crucial in these efforts. Demographic information about protagonists in courses and programs and for all new cases written will be regularly reported.

Third, the leaders of our educational programs will be asked to establish and document how they approach diversity, equity, and inclusion in their programs. For instance, the program chair of the MBA Required Curriculum will be tasked to work with course heads and leaders of relevant student groups to produce a document that explains how the first-year MBA curriculum develops the knowledge, skills, and mindset to contribute to a more just world, with a focus on racial equity. This roadmap will guide the addition of prematriculation materials, class sessions, workshops, short immersive programs, and other components to the curriculum. Note that case protagonist identity is far from the only tool at our disposal for DEI education; for instance, cases and notes with non-Black protagonists (or no protagonist) can raise important racial issues and enhance our courses. We will use our learnings and process from the MBA Program to guide changes in our other programs.

Infusing our programs with education on matters of race is consistent not only with HBS’s mission and values but also with our educational aims and heritage. HBS has long been a school of general management, focused on training students to understand and influence complex systems. Changing the systems in organizations and society that create persistent adverse outcomes for Black members is a general management challenge very fit for the HBS classroom.

A task for the leaders of our educational programs, as they document their programs’ DEI approaches, will be to teach a global student body about a form of anti-Black racism that is uniquely American. Tragically, nearly every society in the world includes at least one group that endures systemic discrimination, as the Black community does in the United States. We will teach about anti-Black racism in America as a particularly reprehensible example of a global phenomenon that every leader, everywhere, must understand.

Fourth, we will strongly encourage everyone who organizes convenings at HBS to increase diversity as they invite speakers and attendees, construct panels, and choose topics.

Fifth, in light of the cultural change we seek, we will establish a working group to review the formal statements and physical environments that define our community. This group will, for instance, evaluate recommendations for revisions to HBS’s Community Values statement that have emerged in the course of constructing this action plan. It will also consider changes that have already begun in the artwork, displays, marketing and communications materials, and buildings of the HBS campus, with the aim of creating a setting where all community members feel that they belong, that they can thrive, and that they can express themselves freely and respectfully.

Our aim in these changes is to engage all students, faculty, staff, alumni and campus visitors—not just those who are Black or come from other underrepresented groups. We understand that meaningful changes in the knowledge and behaviors of non-Black community members are essential to improving Black community members' experiences. We also want to highlight the importance of, and our gratitude for, the partnership with student leaders and groups such as the Student Association, the African American Student Union, and the DEI Council in these efforts.