Harvard Salient To Resume Publishing in January After President, Editor-in-Chief Resign

The Harvard Salient will resume operations in January following the resignation of its president and editor-in-chief, the magazine’s board of directors announced Monday, marking the end of a months-long standoff over the publication’s future.

Julia G. Grinstead ’27, the Salient’s president, and Richard Y. Rodgers ’28, its editor-in-chief, stepped down from their roles, according to a post published on the organization’s official substack.

In a statement announcing the leadership changes, the Salient’s board said Sarah Steele ’18-’26 — who served as president during the 2024-2025 school year — agreed to return as interim president until students select new leadership later in the spring.

“The Board looks forward to the Salient’s continued success as the voice of conservative thought on Harvard’s campus,” the statement read.

The board did not announce on Monday who would replace Rodgers as editor-in-chief.

Rodgers wrote that he was proud of the direction the publication took under his leadership in a text to The Crimson Monday night.

“Right-wing media matters when it’s anchored in first principles: Christian truth, care for our cultural and civilizational inheritance, and a clear-eyed scrutiny of forces that would erode that inheritance,” he wrote.

Grinstead did not respond to a request for comment about her resignation.

The resignations follow a prolonged battle between The Salient’s undergraduate leaders and its 10-member board of directors over the board’s authority to suspend the magazine’s operations. In October, the board halted publication after determining that the Salient had printed material they found “reprehensible, abusive, and demeaning,” though it did not specify which articles prompted the decision.

The board — composed of four alumni alongside ex officio officers — later issued a cease-and-desist order after Rodgers announced that the Salient would continue to publish anyway.

Rodgers publicly challenged the board’s authority following the initial announcement, calling the suspension “an unauthorized usurpation of power” in an email to the Salient’s mailing list. But he confirmed in a statement to The Crimson in November that the Salient would abide by the cease-and-desist order once it was formally issued. The Salient has not published since.

As one of the magazine’s two executive officers, Rodgers has led efforts to resist the board’s intervention. According to the Salient’s constitution, the president and editor-in-chief share equal executive authority: the president oversees administrative and financial operations, while the editor-in-chief directs the magazine’s editorial vision and approves content for publication.

Grinstead did not respond to previous requests for comment on either the initial suspension or the cease-and-desist order.

Though the board declined to identify specific articles in its suspension announcement, the Salient drew campus-wide criticism in September after publishing an issue that included an article mirroring language from an Adolf Hitler speech, as well as another arguing that Harvard should return to gender-segregated classes.

Rodgers defended the former article, writing that the author had not intentionally quoted Hitler and was unaware of the similarities.

Harvard administrators have largely avoided involvement in the controversy. College Dean David J. Deming declined to comment on the article in an October interview with The Crimson, saying that the College would step in only once they had received complaints from students.

In addition to concerns about published content, The Salient’s board cited issues with the magazine’s internal culture in its initial suspension announcement, referencing what it described as “deeply disturbing and credible complaints about the broader culture of the organization,” without providing further details.

Correction: December 15, 2025

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Sarah Steele ’18-’26 graduated last week. In fact, Steele is a mid-year graduate and will formally graduate in May with the Class of 2026.

—Staff writer Sebastian B. Connolly can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @SebastianC4784.

—Staff writer Summer E. Rose can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @summerellenrose.