Following the passing of Resolution #6 during Haverford College’s Spring Plenary to change the name of Lutnick Library, President Wendy Raymond decided not to convene a review committee, prompting dissatisfaction from the school community after a nearly unanimous vote at Plenary for the resolution.
During Spring Plenary on March 29, students Ian Trask and Jay Huennekens brought forth a resolution that would prompt the college’s administration to reevaluate its ties to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick (HC ‘83), one of the names found in connection to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein earlier this year. While the resolution passed with more than its required one-half majority, the decision to begin the renaming process was one that was ultimately up to President Raymond.
On April 29, President Raymond sent a notice to Student Council Co-Presidents Sarah Weill-Jones and Ben Fligelman detailing her responses to the resolutions passed the month prior. While she conveyed that she was “grateful to the leaders behind this resolution and to the student body”, she denied the resolution to rename Lutnick Library.
“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,” she explained in her statement.
Later that day, an email sent out by Weill-Jones and Fligelman relayed this information to the student body and included a statement from the Co-Presidents, which included the following:
We wanted to express, as co-presidents, our deep disappointment in President Raymond‘s decision not to convene a review committee to rename the campus’s central library. At Plenary, the student body made clear that we were in favor of such a committee. 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.
Raymond’s decision came in the wake of months of student organization pushing for the renaming of Lutnick Library. There were two town halls co-hosted by E-Haus, Haverford’s environmental organization, and Haverford Survivor’s Collective (HSC). The first, on February 18, introduced an open letter to President Raymond and the Haverford Board of Managers imploring them to take the proposed Plenary resolution seriously. The open letter has since garnered over 500 signatures.
The second town hall on March 4, occurring in Stokes Auditorium with a turnout of around 30 people, was a follow-up on the first townhall from the month prior. It consisted of a reflection from the E-Haus and HSC boards on a meeting they had conducted with President Raymond in which they had voiced their concerns about Lutnick’s connection to Epstein and what it meant for survivors and allies of victims of sexual assault.
Milja Dann (HC ‘28), one of the hosts of the town hall, said that in the meeting concerning Lutnick, Raymond had emphasized the importance of “Quaker values” and encouraged the attendants to find the light in everyone.
“I found that offensive. Asking a student to look for the light in someone who is connected to someone who perpetrated intense sexual violence is a terrible approach,” Dann said.
Director of Health and Wellbeing Education Sabrina Glass-Kershaw, who was also in attendance at the meeting and the town hall, echoed Dann’s statement, calling Raymond’s words a “weaponization” of the ideas of Quakerism.
“Sitting in this place of neutrality is violent…our administration is actively engaging in institutional betrayal against survivors on campus,” Glass-Kershaw added.
Throughout the period leading up to Plenary, numerous signs were posted intermittently on the library doors and bulletin boards. Posters saying “CHANGE THE NAME” and “HAVERFORD LOVES EPSTEIN” were pasted on the main library doors on two occasions, but both were swiftly removed.
Raymond’s decision was sent out a couple hours later.
Shortly after the release of President Raymond’s verdict, HSC published a response on their instagram. The group had been informed of President Raymond’s decision not to convene a renaming committee prior to the email from Weill-Jones and Fligelman.
“This decision is simultaneously disappointing, unsurprising, and categorically insulting,” HSC wrote. They added that President Raymond’s action would continue to uphold Haverford’s long “legacy of rape culture,” referencing the historical case of sexual violence that took place in 1980, in which a female student was sexually assaulted by eight male students in Barclay Hall. They also pointed out the extra blow of the timing of President Raymond’s response–April 29 was Denim Day, an annual day dedicated to promoting awareness about sexual assault.
An email from Director of Health and Wellbeing Education Sabrina Glass-Kershaw also pointed out the significance of the release of the statement on Denim Day. The email encouraged students to “stay connected with resources as we collectively process the ongoing harm being exacerbated by this decision.”
In the days following the release of President Raymond’s decision, flyers reappeared on library bulletin boards featuring blacked out copies of President Raymond’s statement, pictures of Lutnick and Epstein together, and statements that included “It’s not just Wendy–it’s institutional. Rename the library.”
