Today (April 29th 2026) marks one month since the plenary resolution to form a committee to discuss renaming Lutnick Library (which was overwhelmingly passed by the student body), and the deadline for Wendy Raymond (president of the college) to respond to each resolution regarding its implementation. This would have been a valuable step in our college’s ongoing reckoning with sexual assault and its relations to Howard Lutnick, a current member of Trump's cabinet and someone who was on the Epstein files. Wendy has outright rejected the resolution, to much appall. This decision was also released on Denim Day, a day meant to promote awareness of sexual assault and solidarity with victims.
Here is what Wendy had to say on the matter in her plenary response:
Resolution 6: Rename the Library
I do not accept this resolution.
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.
Looking forward, as is the case with all matters governed by the Naming Policy, I–and future presidents–will retain the ongoing responsibility to consider the relevant facts at any given moment in time, and to act in consideration of the best interests of Haverford’s educational mission. By virtue of its role and authority, including as specified in the Naming Policy, the Board of Managers, too, will remain engaged. Any future review committee relating to any naming questions will require the best collective thinking of our community, consistent with our values and practices in shared governance across students, faculty, staff, Board, and Corporation, and its membership will be set accordingly. The development and presentation of this resolution lay a strong foundation for student participation in such a process.
This was also posted on the Haverford Survivor Collective Instagram today (text version):
Yesterday morning (Tuesday, April 29th), in a meeting between President Raymond, the StuCo co-presidents, and members of the Haverford Survivors Collective executive board, President Raymond gave us the "courtesy" of telling us she would be rejecting this resolution in advance of the formal notice published this morning. The resolution does not call for President Raymond to form a renaming committee; rather, it encourages her to merely consider it. In this meeting, she alluded to the fact that she deemed Howard Lutnick's actions and relationship with Jeffrey Epstein to not be "enough" for her to sign on to the resolution. When pushed (several times) by parties present, she stated that the "threshold" at which she would take action would be if Howard Lutnick had "direct ties to trafficking." Is spending time on Jeffrey Epstein's island not a direct tie? Is receiving money from Jeffrey Epstein not a direct tie? Are the hundreds of communications between the two and mentions of Lutnick in the files not a direct tie?
In addition, a Philadelphia Inquirer article was posted.