After Student Resignations, IOP Passes New Policy Outlining Guidelines for Issuing Statements

The Harvard Institute of Politics’ Student Advisory Committee voted on Monday to approve a new policy outlining how the group can issue statements, a move that comes after the body faced internal divisions over whether to issue a statement after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

The SAC overwhelmingly voted in favor of being able to publish statements on any issue — Harvard-related or not — and narrowly approved requiring unanimous support to do so.

The policy comes as part of the SAC’s response to the resignation of three members of the group in early October after the SAC opted to not make a statement about the Israel-Hamas war. The members who resigned, however, continued to hold their positions as chairs of some of the IOP’s programs until the end of the semester.

Robert Fogel ’25 and Ryan P. Tierney ’24, former co-chairs of the JFK Jr. Forum Committee, and Theo J. Harper ’25, a former chair of the Harvard Political Union, wrote in their resignation letter from the SAC that they were “ashamed” the body remained silent following Oct. 7 and criticized their peers’ reluctance to issue a statement directly condemning Hamas.

Last semester, the SAC voted in November to approve a policy that stipulated that any member that resigns from the SAC must also resign from any program chair role they hold.

IOP Vice President Ethan C. Kelly ’25 called Monday’s vote a “standard procedure” to change the SAC’s bylaws in order to create new guidelines for issuing statements.

“There was no previous constitutional mention of statements,” Kelly said. “And so we wanted to make sure that there would be for generations of IOP leadership.”

The SAC’s decision to develop guidelines for issuing statements comes as other parts of Harvard are also grappling with the question of when and how to issue statements about world events. Former Harvard President Claudine Gay faced fierce backlash last semester after many criticized Harvard for being too slow to issue a statement in the days after Oct. 7.

Tierney called the newest policy “fair.”

“Good on them for taking steps as a group to self-reflect on the importance of SAC, the fact that they represent the largest student group on campus,” Tierney said.

Under the new policy, IOP leaders are restricted from issuing statements using their IOP-affiliated titles.

Kelly said the new policy also bars individual IOP programs from making statements, except for coalition programs because they are “often centered around identity groups.”

The SAC also voted to establish a 48-hour period for editing statements after the SAC votes in favor to issue them. At the end of the period, the SAC has to vote again to approve the publication of the statement, according to the policy.

While a statement needs unanimous approval to be released, IOP President Pratyush Mallick ’25 said before the vote that dissenting statements were a possibility.

“I think there is a route where that’s possible,” he said. “At any point, people individually are allowed to speak.”

“Overall, it was a very, very collaborative process,” Kelly said.

—Staff writer William C. Mao can be reached at william.mao@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @williamcmao.

—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.