Students approved a resolution urging Haverford College to consider stripping Howard Lutnick’s name from the library
The resolution favored by a majority of students at the session asks Haverford President Wendy Raymond to establish a committee that would consider removing Lutnick's name from the library.
Haverford College would consider removing mega donor Howard Lutnick’s name from the library if it takes an action the student body urged on Sunday.
The students passed a resolution asking President Wendy Raymond to establish a committee that would consider removing U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutnick’s name.
Concern has been mounting about Lutnick, the former chair of Haverford’s board of managers, since Department of Justice documents were released earlier this year showing he had contact with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as recently as 2018, long after Epstein pleaded guilty to obtaining a minor for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute.
While 15 to 20 students opposed the measure, the overwhelming majority voted for it, said Cade Fanning, the associate editor of the Clerk, Haverford’s student newspaper, who attended the session, called plenary. The vote came after just under 20 minutes of discussion.
The resolution’s passage brought loud and long applause from those in attendance, Fanning said.
At least 66% of the student body living on campus has to be present at the session for discussion and votes to occur, and to pass, the resolution needed to win a simple majority. That 66% represents just under 900 students.
“Students feel harmed and hurt by the presence of his name and association on campus,” said Milja Dann, a sophomore psychology major from Woodbury, N.J., who attended the session.
The event was closed to outside media. Fanning, who was reporting on the session for the student newspaper, summarized the sentiments expressed during the session by those supporting the resolution. They indicated, he said, that the measure’s passage “sends a message that sexual violence is not OK and abusers will not be put on a pedestal.”
The school should not be associated with Lutnick, given his ties to Epstein, they said, according to Fanning, and survivors of abuse have been feeling re-traumatized since the Epstein files were released and Lutnick’s ties highlighted.
A student who spoke against the measure expressed concern about whether it would bring backlash to the college and its students from President Donald Trump’s administration, Fanning said.
But “history shows that trying to lay low doesn’t work, appeasement doesn’t work,” Fanning said, summarizing the response from a student who favored the move.
Raymond, Haverford’s president, has 30 days to accept the resolution in full or part or reject it.
Raymond in a statement Sunday evening called plenary “a time-honored tradition” at the small liberal arts college.
“I look forward to considering student resolutions and responding within the 30-day period, as is customary,” she said.
If Raymond convenes a committee, she would then consider its recommendations and make her recommendation to the external affairs committee of the board of managers, as well as to its chair and vice chair. The external affairs committee then would make its recommendation to the full board of managers.
Under Haverford’s gift policy, the school can rename a building if “the continued use of the name may be deemed detrimental to the college, or if circumstances change regarding the reason for the naming.”
Dann called the resolution vote a “very exciting first step.
“There’s definitely more work to be done,” Dann said.
Raymond did not attend the session, though she has been at other student plenary sessions, Fanning said. Two members of her senior staff, however — including outgoing Dean of the College John McKnight — were there, Fanning said.
Sabrina Glass-Kershaw, Haverford’s director of Health and Wellbeing Education, noted at the start of plenary that the library resolution discussion would be treated as a confidential event “to protect the privacy of survivors and those who choose to share their experiences,” according to a copy of their remarks shared by Fanning.
Given the sensitive nature of the discussion, the college offered support resources for students in the lobby outside the session, Glass-Kershaw told students before the session’s start.
» READ MORE: Haverford president is considering convening committee to review Howard Lutnick’s name on campus library
Raymond said last month she is considering forming a review committee to consider whether Lutnick — a 1983 Haverford graduate who has given the school $65 million and is one of its biggest donors — should keep his name on the library. She said at that time she had heard from “a growing number” of Haverford alumni “who have written to express their dismay” about Lutnick’s ties to Epstein, which included a visit by Lutnick and his wife to Epstein’s private island.
During congressional testimony, Lutnick said he visited Epstein’s island with his family in 2012. Lutnick previously said he had not been in a room with Epstein, whom he found “disgusting,” since 2005.
A Commerce Department spokesperson told the Associated Press in January that Lutnick had had “limited interactions” with Epstein, with his wife in attendance, and had not been accused of “wrongdoing.” Lutnick told lawmakers during his testimony: “I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with him.”
The student resolution asks the college to include student representation on the review committee along with staff from several offices including institutional diversity, equity, and access. It calls on college leadership “to stand in solidarity with victims of assault.”
And it asks Haverford’s board of managers to consult directly with students before making final decisions to rename the library and on whom it would be named for.
The resolution also calls into question Lutnick’s leadership at Cantor Fitzgerald, the New York City financial firm where he formerly served as chairman. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged the firm in 2024 with violating laws related to regulatory disclosure, and Cantor agreed to pay a civil penalty. Cantor Gaming in 2016 agreed to pay $16.5 million in penalties to the federal government “to resolve a criminal investigation into the company’s past involvement in illegal gambling and money laundering schemes,” according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
In addition to the library, which also bears Lutnick’s wife Allison’s name, the indoor tennis and track center is named for his brother Gary Lutnick, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee who was killed on 9/11, and the fine arts building carries the name of his mother, Jane Lutnick, a painter. Lutnick also funded the college’s Cantor Fitzgerald Art Gallery.
Students, however, said they were focusing on the library in the resolution because of its prominence, Fanning said.