Hasty Pudding Theatricals Graduate Board Member Resigns, Calls Board’s Handling of Epstein Ties ‘Horrifying’

A member of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals Graduate Advisory Board resigned Friday, accusing the organization’s leadership of failing its students and alumni by not adequately addressing its ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey E. Epstein.

Michael S. Roiff ’01 announced his resignation in a letter sent to current undergraduate members of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, writing that he could no longer serve the institution while remaining silent on the issue.

“Simply put – I believe this board has lost its way and is no longer fulfilling its obligation to our undergraduate membership and our alumni,” Roiff wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Crimson. “By the most charitable interpretation, we have displayed significant and, at times, horrifying lapses in judgment.”

His resignation comes amid mounting pressure from undergraduate and graduate affiliates of the organization, who have circulated petitions calling for the removal of Farkas as chairman of the Hasty Pudding Institute Graduate Board, the redirection of donations linked to Epstein to an organization supporting survivors of sex trafficking, and the renaming of Farkas Hall, the home of the Pudding’s annual show.

Neither Farkas nor members of the Hasty Pudding Institute Graduate Board responded to requests for comment on Roiff’s departure.

The Hasty Pudding Institute Graduate Board oversees the organization’s three branches — the Hasty Pudding Club, the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, and the Harvard Krokodiloes — and is composed of two Club representatives, two Theatricals representatives, and is chaired by Farkas. The Two Theatricals representatives on the Institute board also sit on the Theatricals Graduate Advisory Board alongside other graduate representatives.

Roiff served on the Theatricals Graduate Advisory Board for four years, but did not hold organization-wide decision-making authority on the Institute Graduate Board.

In his letter, Roiff cited discrepancies between what he had been told as a board member about the organization’s relationship with Epstein and what has since been revealed in newly released documents.

“What was explained to me as a board member, which I repeated to others on our behalf, does not match what is now being reported,” Roiff wrote. “Our story kept changing – and I will forever wonder if it was simply well-intentioned damage control or something else altogether.”

Epstein, a longtime associate of Farkas, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Hasty Pudding Institute over more than a decade. Earlier this month, The Crimson reported that Epstein had contributed an additional $225,000 to the Institute, bringing the total amount of known donations to $375,000.

Farkas, a real estate mogul and prominent Harvard donor, has served as chairman of the Hasty Pudding Institute since its founding in 2012.

The Department of Justice’s January release of more than three million pages of Epstein-related documents revealed that Farkas and Epstein exchanged nearly 2,000 emails over more than a decade, maintained a business partnership in a Virgin Islands marina, and visited each other’s properties.

In a 2014 text exchange included in the Justice Department files, Epstein invited Farkas to his private island and referred to them as “two guardians of the Sphinx” — an apparent reference to Epstein’s top-tier donor status at the Pudding. Farkas responded, “That’s us. Nice, huh?”

Farkas wrote in a statement to The Crimson earlier this month that he regretted his association with Epstein and condemned his crimes, while maintaining that he nor the Pudding ever engaged in inappropriate conduct.

Roiff framed his resignation as a refusal to participate in what he described as an institutional effort to minimize accountability.

“We should not strive to minimize damage, we should not endeavor to preserve and persevere,” he wrote. “We should own our errors and move swiftly to correct them.”

Roiff’s resignation comes as undergraduate leaders have publicly pressed the Institute’s graduate leadership to take action. In a Tuesday statement to The Crimson, Hasty Pudding Theatricals President Daisy M. Nussbaum ’26 called the organization’s ties to Epstein “indefensible” and urged the Graduate Board to respond.

“The Graduate Board needs to act,” Nussbaum wrote.

Roiff ended his letter by framing his resignation as a moral line he could no longer cross.

“I cannot continue to be party to this,” he wrote.

—Staff writer Summer E. Rose can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at ser.85. Follow her on X @summerellenrose.

—Staff writer Claire L. Simon can be reached at [email protected] and Signal at csimon.13. Follow her on X @ClaireSimon.