The President of Harvard receives many invitations to attend inaugurations and special ceremonies at institutions of higher education around the globe. When he is unable to attend, the Marshal's Office work to identify a suitable substitute to serve as Harvard's delegate. Often, faculty who have a meaningful affiliation with the inviting institution, or a local alumnus/a, are asked to represent Harvard.   

Delegates participate in various activities, including a traditional academic procession. Since those institutions participating in the academic procession are typically arranged by founding date, the Harvard delegate often leads the procession. Harvard will also send a formal greeting to the celebrating institution.  In the few cases when we are not able to identify an appropriate representative, our office will sent a letter of congratulations.  Feedback is consistently positive, and delegates often report how honored they were to be asked to represent the University.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, from March 2020 through the summer of 2021 only a handful of Inaugural events took place around the world, and most were virtual. Harvard did send greetings to some of those institutions, and those are listed in the 2020 and 2021 tabs below. We are happy to report that as of the fall semester of 2021, inaugural events have resumed (albeit in somewhat different formats), and Harvard has once again been represented at several such events. Those are also listed in the 2021 tab below. We expect a return to pre-pandemic levels of engagement with other institutions by 2022.