‘He Should Resign’: Harvard Undergrads Take Hard Line Against Summers Over Epstein Scandal

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Harvard students decried former University President Lawrence H. Summers’ relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey E. Epstein, with some calling for his resignation after documents released last week showed the two maintained a close correspondence until Epstein’s final arrest in July 2019.

Summers announced late Monday night that he would step back from public commitments while continuing to teach at Harvard. But more than a dozen students told The Crimson they thought Summers should also resign from his post as a University professor after the documents revealed his regular exchanges with Epstein over women and Harvard-related initiatives.

In the messages, which surfaced among thousands of documents from the Epstein estate published last week by House Republicans, Summers turned to Epstein for advice while pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman he claimed saw him as a mentor. In one March 2019 exchange, Summers told Epstein that “She must be very confused or maybe wants to cut me off but wants professional connection a lot and so holds to it.”

Summers and Epstein also joked about the probability that Summers would have sex with the woman, whom they sometimes referred to by the code name “peril.”

Summers — who has served as a University Professor, holding Harvard’s highest faculty distinction, since 2011 — is teaching four courses this semester, including a General Education course and an Economics elective for undergraduate students.

On Tuesday, Summers briefly addressed the scandal during Gen Ed 1120: “The Political Economy of Globalization,” which he co-teaches with Harvard Kennedy School professor Robert Z. Lawrence. Summers referenced his public comments expressing regret over the messages, but said he placed a high value on continuing to teach undergraduates.

“Some of you will have seen my statement of regret, expressing my shame with respect to what I did in communication with Mr. Epstein, and that I’ve said that I’m going to step back from public activity part time,” Summers said in a video posted by students to social media.

“I think it’s very important to fulfill my teaching obligations. And so, with your permission, we’re going to go forward and talk about the material in the class,” he added.

Daniel C. LaPointe ’26, a student in the course, said in an interview following the lecture that he expected Summers’ remarks to be more extensive, saying Summers gave a much longer address when discussing the September murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk — another heavily-discussed issue that fell outside the scope of the class.

Logan G. Ashby ’26, who also attended the lecture, said Summers’ statement was a “thin concession,” but that “it doesn’t ease any curiosities from myself.”

Other students said Summers’ close relationship with Epstein and his decision to seek Epstein’s advice about a romantic interest made him unfit to continue teaching undergraduates.

“It’s incredibly easy — maybe one of the easiest things in the world — to not have a long-standing relation with maybe the world’s most notorious pedophile and human trafficker,” Anna J. Guerrini ’29 said. “I think it’s disgusting that he was asking for advice from another man on how to cheat on his wife and how to best win the affection of this woman.”

“That is not a man that should be teaching underclassmen,” she added. “He’s already proved that he can’t have a mentorship relationship with people.”

Guerrini said she was also concerned by Summers’ ability to teach female students fairly. Summers’ Harvard presidency fell apart following 2005 comments where he suggested innate disparities led to gender gaps in science, and a 2017 email with Epstein showed Summers apparently joking that women are less intelligent than men.

Summers also suggested in the email that people should not face diminished career prospects because they previously “hit on” women in the workplace. “DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT,” he added following the remark.

A spokesperson for Summers declined to comment on Tuesday, referring The Crimson to Summers’ Monday statement in which he said he was “deeply ashamed” of his actions and that his continued communication with Epstein was “misguided.”

Guerrini said Summers should resign of his own accord rather than waiting for Harvard to take action against him.

“I don’t know why he seems to be playing the long game, waiting for Harvard to fire him,” she said. “I feel like just to respect his own dignity — whatever’s left of it — and the dignity of the school as a whole, he should resign.”

A spokesperson for Harvard said on Tuesday night that the University would open a new probe into Summers’ connections with Epstein over the information in the recently released documents.

Students pointed out that even if Harvard wished to cut ties with Summers, the school could have a hard time doing so given the strong protections afforded by faculty tenure, which can only be revoked in rare and exceptional cases. Only one Harvard professor — behavioral economist Francesca Gino, who was accused of manipulating data across four studies — has publicly had her tenure revoked since norms around tenure status solidified in the 1940s.

Fred L. Klein ’28 said he thought Summers’ decision to step back from his public commitments could hardly be interpreted as a sign of a change in character.

“I have a very hard time believing that he’s had some moral reversal. I think it’s more likely that he’s just been caught,” Klein said. “It’s not good enough to just cancel your speaker series — no one cares.”

“Harvard, in the meantime, should figure out whatever they have to do to terminate him, whether that’s suspend him and investigate him and find more information and then fire him, or if they’re able to just fire him,” he added.

Ajay “Jay” Gupta ’27 labeled Summers’ correspondence with Epstein and pursuit of a woman in his profession “pretty bad,” though he added that he was not sure whether the conduct violated University policy. But he said it would not be a good look for Harvard if it ended up being the only institution that did not cut ties with Summers.

“It does look, on optics, pretty bad if he chooses to leave everything, but then Harvard can’t do anything about it as the only job he has left,” Gupta said.

Spokespeople for the University did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday evening.

By Tuesday, Summers had either stepped down or been let go from roles at several prominent organizations, including his positions at Bloomberg, the New York Times, and the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.

Gupta called on Harvard to undertake a comprehensive review of Summers’ actions throughout his time at Harvard, back to when he first became president in 2001.

Christopher “Luciano” Galan-Duran ’28, who said he sent Summers an email earlier in the semester “begging” to conduct research under him, said on Tuesday that he did not “want to be taught by somebody with such a record and somebody who has, not a hatred, but a dark past and a dark view of the world that we live in.”

Yavuz S. Atlamaz ’29 said Summers’ stature within the University could complicate efforts to hold him accountable.

“Larry Summers obviously has a lot of say within the Harvard community. He’s a past president,” Atlamaz said.

“I personally would like to see Larry Summers face consequences for this, but I would be unsurprised if he didn’t,” he added.

—Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at shawn.boehmer@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @ShawnBoehmer.

—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at hugo.chiasson@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.

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