Harvard IOP Director, Alumni Rebuke Student President’s Call to Drop Nonpartisanship

Harvard Institute of Politics Director Setti D. Warren said the organization will remain nonpartisan, issuing a sharp rebuke of his own student president, Pratyush Mallick ’25, who called on the IOP to drop its nonpartisan mandate in the wake of Donald Trump’s reelection.

Mallick’s proposal, shared in an op-ed published in The Crimson on Friday, urged the IOP to “resist platforming anti-democratic voices in the guise of nonpartisanship” and sparked national backlash from critics who decried the idea as unaligned with the IOP’s values.

Hours later, Warren affirmed in a letter to the editor, which was also published in The Crimson, that the IOP was committed to nonpartisanship, calling it a foundational principle for the organization.

“As the director and leader of the IOP, I believe that for it to be successful, experiential learning must happen on a nonpartisan basis,” Warren wrote.

Mallick, who did not consult Warren before publishing his op-ed, said in an interview on Saturday that he intended to warn against “platforming violent rhetoric or calling for rigged elections” — not suggest that the IOP “should get rid of nonpartisanship.”

But in the op-ed, Mallick explicitly called on the IOP to move away from nonpartisanship.

“In my personal view, nonpartisanship — a founding principle of the IOP — is no longer a tenable position in today’s political environment,” he wrote. “Donald Trump’s imminent return to power underscores the importance of the IOP finally breaking from our long-standing commitment to it.”

Warren did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this article. IOP spokesperson Brigid O’Rourke declined to comment on Mallick’s op-ed.

But in interviews with The Crimson, 11 current and former IOP student leaders said Mallick’s statements were not reflective of the IOP’s mission and priorities.

Janna E. Ramadan ’23, a former IOP president, said that during her time leading the organization being nonpartisan “reflected the values we appreciated” without inhibiting the IOP from commenting on important issues.

“During my tenure at the IOP, we had to navigate a really challenging situation with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and we managed to navigate both creating an online virtual community space and releasing a statement that reflected our student body,” she said. “That’s not to say it’s easy work, but it can be done.”

Ramadan added that if the IOP were to become a partisan organization, it could jeopardize its tax-exempt status as a nonprofit organization.

“To become partisan would then change the way in which we are able to get funding and the way in which we’re able to operate,” she said.

Mallick’s op-ed was also heavily criticized by students involved with conservative groups at the IOP and Harvard.

Michael Oved ’25, the IOP’s Conservative Coalition chair and Harvard Republican Club president, called Mallick’s comments “a disappointing display of extreme partisanship from someone tasked with cultivating an environment welcome to all political perspectives.”

The IOP was established as a living memorial to former U.S. President John F. Kennedy '40. Harvard IOP Director Setti Warren said the organization will remain nonpartisan. By Zadoc I.N. Gee

Abigail L. Carr ’25, the former co-chair of the Conservative Coalition, wrote in a statement that other student organizations such as Harvard College Democrats and the HRC offer partisan spaces for students — and that the IOP already leans liberal in its programming.

“Never mind that a random sampling of the IOP Student Advisory Council would likely yield a student who worked in some capacity on the Harris campaign,” Carr wrote.

The call to drop the IOP’s commitment to nonpartisanship comes three years after the IOP removed Rep. Elise M. Stefanik ’06 (R-N.Y.) from the organization’s Senior Advisory Committee for challenging President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 elections.

Mallick’s op-ed also comes less than a week before the IOP holds an election for its Senior Advisory Committee which will elect his successor. Both tickets for the SAC’s president and vice president positions distanced themselves from Mallick’s op-ed.

Tenzin R. Gund-Morrow ’26 and Summer A. L. Tan ’26 — who are running as a ticket for IOP president and vice president, respectively — wrote in a statement that “protecting nonpartisanship at the Institute of Politics is more important than ever.”

“The IOP was founded not only to foster mutual respect across party lines, but most importantly to encourage productive debate and discussion among students and civic leaders who disagree,” they wrote.

Thomas A. Tait ’26, who is also running to succeed Mallick, wrote in a statement that “it is imperative the IOP maintain its nonpartisan mission.”

“The IOP’s mission is to provide a path to public service for all students — regardless of political perspective,” he wrote. “While I consider Prat to be a good friend and respect his leadership, I disagree with an institutional rejection of an ideology that has resonated with a majority of our country.”

Still, some former IOP student leaders said that while they believe the IOP should remain non-partisan, they thought that Mallick’s op-ed did not reflect the message he had intended to make.

Amen H. Gashaw ’24, Mallick’s direct predecessor, said his op-ed suffered from an “imprecision in language” and that she believed Mallick had meant that the IOP “can’t use nonpartisanship as an excuse to platform and elevate people who have demonstrated a disregard for democracy.”

“I may have worded it differently just to get across like nonpartisanship is not the enemy of standing for democracy,” she said. “I don’t think that that’s what Prat meant either.”

Tabitha L. Escalante ’23, a former IOP vice president, wrote in a statement that “effective political leadership cannot coexist” with values of authoritarianism and “otherwise violent rhetoric” — an idea she thought Mallick was endorsing through his op-ed.

“I take Prat’s stated concern with the Institute’s non-partisanship to be signaling a broader fear that it will remain neutral when faced with persistent attacks on democracy,” she wrote.

Still, former IOP Treasurer Carter G. Demaray ’25 cautioned that instead of pushing away Republicans by becoming a partisan organization, the IOP should be active in hearing working class voices ahead of the next election.

“Coming from a working-class background, I believe the IOP and Harvard would benefit from hearing this group’s perspective to better understand why so many supported Trump despite his threat to democratic institutions,” he said.

“That should be the IOP’s takeaway from the election and next focus,” Demaray added.

—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.