Wendy Raymond, president of Haverford College, has issued her responses to the Spring 2026 plenary resolutions which were passed by students last month. Raymond accepted resolutions one through five. She did not accept Resolution 6, which proposed that Lutnick Library be renamed.
Resolution 6 arose as a response to the revelation that Howard Lutnick, a Haverford alum and the current Secretary of Commerce, was in communication with Jeffrey Epstein for many years. Even after Epstein was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008. Files released in January by the Department of Justice include communication between the two from as recently as 2018. Released documents also suggest that Lutnick visited Epstein’s private island in late 2012.
In 2014, Lutnick donated $25 million to Haverford to support the renovation of the college’s main library. He has donated over $65 million to the college in total and numerous buildings on campus are named after him, his family, or his friends.
In light of the findings on Lutnick’s relationship with Epstein, Haverford students Ian Trask ’28 and Jay Huennekens ’28 wrote a plenary resolution which proposed that Lutnick library be renamed. “We feel that it is important that the college reflect the values of the student body, and that those values do not align with the Trump administration or the associates of Jeffery Epstein,” Trask and Huennekens stated in an email to the Bi-College News. Under Haverford’s Gift Acceptance Policy, donors’ names can be removed if “circumstances change substantially so that the continued use of the name may be deemed detrimental to the College.” If the resolution had been accepted by Raymond, a committee to rename the building would have been formed.
Resolution 6 passed at Haverford’s spring plenary. In accordance with Haverford Students’ Council guidelines, Raymond had a month to issue a response to each of the passed resolutions. The president can choose to accept the resolution in full, accept the resolution should specific changes be made to it, or reject the resolution.
Raymond rejected Resolution 6, stating, “I am grateful to the leaders behind this resolution and to the student body for sharing your interest in having the president establish a review committee to consider the name of the Lutnick Library. At this time, and given the information that we have available to us, I do not believe this matter meets the threshold necessary to move forward with a committee.” Raymond also expressed solidarity with victims of sexual violence in her statement.
Raymond’s decisions were sent out to the student body via email by the Students’ Council co-Presidents, Sarah Weill-Jones ’26 and Ben Fligelman ’26. In the email, they expressed their “deep disappointment” in Raymond’s decision. “This committee would have been a valuable step in our college’s ongoing reckoning with sexual assault. We hope that in the coming weeks and months, President Raymond will reevaluate her decision and understand the profound importance of convening a review committee,” they continued.
The Haverford Survivor Collective, the school’s chapter of It’s On Us, released a statement on the decision. “This decision is simultaneously disappointing, unsurprising, and categorically insulting…In making this decision, the College has chosen money over principles.”
The decision was released on “Denim Day,” a day of events sponsored by the Collective to promote solidarity with victims of sexual assault and bring awareness to the issue. The Collective posted a message to their Instagram story alongside the event schedule, urging senior class members who would incidentally be attending a reception at Raymond’s house later that night to “Wear denim! or wear pins in support of survivors! Upset about the library resolution? Make your voice heard!”
