Voting on Effort To Recall John Cooke ’25 Will Begin Thursday

The HUA Election Commission announced Tuesday afternoon that a recall election to remove outgoing HUA Co-President John S. Cooke ’25 will begin at midnight on Thursday.

Voting will remain open for a 24-hour period until midnight on Friday, with all College undergraduates eligible to cast a vote.

Students can begin campaigning on the recall election starting at midnight on April 10, according to an Instagram post from the HUA Election Commission.

The vote to recall Cooke comes just 10 days before his term as co-president is set to end on April 20, marking the end of a term mired with controversy.

Cooke was expelled from the Fox Club two weeks ago over misconduct allegations, which he denied in a meeting with Fox leadership. A day later, members of the HUA’s executive team met with the Dean of Students Office and discussed the possibility of Cooke’s resignation. Cooke said in front of the HUA’s executive team and DSO that he did not intend to resign from his position as HUA co-president.

His stance does not seem to have changed since.

The efforts to oust Cooke began with a petition circulated by the Harvard Feminist Coalition on March 31 calling for a recall election. The effort quickly surpassed the 391 signatures needed to trigger an election, receiving 527 signatures in 24 hours.

Since the successful petition effort, the HUA Election Commission did not provide any additional updates about the timeline for a recall vote before Tuesday. The petition signatures were verified by the HUA Election Commission and DSO.

Cooke’s co-president Shikoh M. Hirabayashi ’24 is also facing an ongoing petition to hold a recall election for his position, but the HUA Election Commission did not mention the effort in the Instagram post about Cooke’s recall election.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.

—Staff writer William Y. Tan can be reached at william.tan@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @william_y_tan.