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Roughly 40 Harvard students and affiliates gathered in the Smith Campus Center Tuesday evening to commemorate the launch of Our Harvard College, a newly-formed organization seeking to bridge communication gaps between students of different cultural backgrounds.

The “Food for Thought” event was co-hosted by Our Harvard organizers and the Dean of Students Office and featured a group discussion followed by a food reception. The group discussion — which was moderated by Government professor Michael J. Sandel — centered around making friends from different identity groups and students’ comfortability with sharing opinions in class.

Our Harvard co-founder Nimrod “Nim” Ravid ’25 opened the discussion by introducing the group, which he said was born from campus tensions surrounding Israel and Palestine in the past year.

“After quite a difficult year, we came together and started asking ourselves some hard questions,” he said. “What can we do to ensure that more people in the College will forge these type of friendships across differences?”

“Taking a step back as a community to reflect on our norms and culture might be one way to move forward, and that’s what we’re going to be doing tonight,” Ravid added.

During the hour and a half conversation, students went around the room sharing their personal experiences of forging friendships across different nationalities or ethnicities, with some students referencing their religious backgrounds.

Sandel then asked the group to evaluate how comfortable they felt expressing their views on controversial subjects. While the majority of students said they were comfortable, a significant minority said they hesitated for fear of being judged or canceled.

Dean of Students Thomas G. Dunne praised the event, which he said was in the works with Our Harvard board members all year, in an interview following the reception.

“These are the types of conversations we hope to see at the College, so that people can both tell their own stories, but then also be inspired to replicate some of the growth and the points of connection and the vulnerability people shared in this room,” Dunne said.

Several students who attended the event said they found the conversation productive and interactive.

Kaitlyn “Katie” N. Culbert ’28 said the conversation gave her insight into students’ experiences navigating campus divisions the past two years.

“I didn’t realize how high the tensions were for students in the previous two years, so hearing people’s raw personal experiences — and speaking about either the experiences that they went through or what they saw their friends go through — really gave me a lot of insight into how difficult it was for people,” Culbert said.

Sylvie S. Wurmser ’27 said she found the conversation “a lot more interactive” that other Harvard talks she’s attended

“It was really cool to hear really diverse and vulnerable student opinions and in a very intimate setting,” Shealeigh M. Crombie ’26 said.

Sandel said he found the conversation “very impressive” in a post-event interview. Sandel has previously presented a talk for incoming freshmen as a part of the College’s Intellectual Vitality initiative, which seeks to promote free expression on campus.

“Students spoke honestly in their own personal experiences — acknowledging some of the challenges that, in many cases, they overcame, but acknowledging the challenge to taking full advantage of the diversity of Harvard,” he said.

“I was proud,” Sandel added.

—Staff writer Dionise Guerra-Carrillo can be reached at dionise.guerracarrillo@thecrimson.com.