Harvard Kennedy School Faculty, Students File Denaming Proposal for Wexner Building

Updated June 23, 2026, at 12:15 p.m.

A group of Harvard Kennedy School affiliates formally asked Harvard on Friday to remove billionaire donor Leslie H. Wexner’s name from the school’s central building, citing his long-standing ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey E. Epstein.

The request — submitted under Harvard’s official denaming framework — calls on the University to strip Wexner’s name from both the Kennedy School’s main building, one of the school’s main buildings.

The proposal, filed by a group that includes two Kennedy School professors and several student leaders, marks the first formal attempt to remove Wexner’s name through Harvard’s denaming process, which typically unfolds over several months as the University reviews requests.

Matthew G. Bunn, a Kennedy School professor who signed the proposal, said the building’s name affects students and faculty who pass through it every day.

“Every day people — half of them women — are coming into the Kennedy School via the Wexner building,” Bunn said. “They’re eating. Their main place to eat is in the Wexner building. They’re taking classes in the Wexner building. And I think that, for many people, creates psychological harm.”

In the filing, the group asked Harvard for the “formal denaming” of the buildings, arguing that continuing to honor Wexner conflicts with the Kennedy School’s mission and harms members of its community.

“Having our main building named after Wexner does a disservice to this mission and harms our community,” the proposal read.

The filing also calls on Harvard to establish a digital exhibit documenting Wexner’s philanthropic contributions to Harvard and the Kennedy School and contextualizing his relationship with Epstein and the culture at companies he led.

An HKS spokesperson said the school takes concerns raised by members of the community seriously.

“We take concerns raised by members of our community very seriously,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Jeffery Epstein’s crimes are reprehensible, and the University is conducting a review of individuals – including donors – who are included in the newly released Epstein files to evaluate what actions may be warranted.”

A University spokesperson confirmed the proposal had been received but declined to comment further.

The proposal also asks Harvard to fundraise for an endowed faculty chair focused on sexual harm and violence, which the signatures said would help address a research gap on the issue at the Kennedy School and across Harvard.

Matthew A. Baum, a Kennedy School professor who submitted the proposal on behalf of the group, said he only recently learned about the extent of Wexner’s connections to Epstein.

“I had no idea of the Wexner-Epstein connection until pretty recently,” Baum said.

“Les Wexner was Epstein’s primary — certainly his largest — financier for much of his career, and appeared to have a pretty close relationship for a long time,” Baum added. “That’s a concern and really needs to be looked at closely.”

Wexner’s name on the Kennedy School’s central building has drawn criticism from some students in recent months. After newly released Epstein files in November renewed scrutiny of the financier’s network, several students began urging the school to reconsider the naming.

But HKS leadership has not publicly addressed the school’s ties to Wexner.

Lauren E. Barnes, a mid-career master’s in public administration student who helped organize the denaming proposal, said the lack of discussion on campus has been striking.

“We are the school of government, and this is the largest governmental, human trafficking scandal of modern times,” Barnes said. “It’s really difficult for me to be seeing the news, seeing this talked about elsewhere, but then not talked about in our classes.”

Barnes said many Kennedy School affiliates are unfamiliar with Harvard’s denaming procedures.

“There is no transparency and there is no timeline to it,” she said. “There’s a lot of question marks about what happens exactly once you submit it.”

The Kennedy School’s internal intranet includes a policy outlining the denaming process and the steps that follow a formal request.

The Friday denaming request came days after graduate student leaders raised the issue through another channel.

On Monday, the Harvard Graduate Council — which represents graduate and professional school students across the University — passed a resolution calling for a transparent, time-bound review of the Wexner building’s naming under Harvard’s denaming policy.

That resolution does not call directly for the name to be removed. Instead, it supports calls to initiate a formal review process and ensure that students and faculty have opportunities to participate.

Student leaders said bringing the resolution to the council was intended to formally place the issue on the record.

“I am heartened that Harvard has a denaming process, but I am concerned based on the outcome of the Sackler denaming process,” said Charlee N. Doom, an MPA student who backed the resolution. “That’s why we wanted to put the resolution forward through the Harvard Graduate Council — to raise the question of transparency in the process and inclusion of students and faculty in the process.”

Under Harvard’s denaming framework, requests are first reviewed by the Office of the President and Provost to determine whether they warrant further consideration. If they move forward, the relevant school conducts a full review through a committee appointed by the dean.

That committee — which may include faculty, staff, and students — evaluates the request and recommends whether the name should be removed, retained, or kept with additional context.

Harvard has used its denaming process twice in recent years. A committee declined to remove the Sackler name from the Arthur M. Sackler Building and Arthur M. Sackler Museum, even as critics pointed to the family’s association with the opioid crisis. In another case, the University shortened the name of Winthrop House to distance it from the slaveholding colonial governor John Winthrop.

Baum said the current proposal ultimately raises a broader question about whether Harvard’s honors reflect the values the University teaches.

“This is a 400-plus-year-old university,” he said. “It’s had relationships with unsavory characters, but this is the one that’s in our generation.”

Correction: June 23, 2026

Due to inaccurate information included in the denaming proposal submitted by the petitioners, a previous version of this article referred to the Sunshine Lobby as the Wexner-Sunshine Lobby. In fact, the Sunshine Lobby is not named for Leslie H. Wexner, though it is located inside the Wexner Building.

—Staff writer Sophia E. Alcacer can be reached at [email protected] and Signal at sophiaalcacer.88. Follow her on X at @sophiaalcacer.

—Staff writer Jen L. Phan can be reached at [email protected] and Signal at jenphan.74. Follow her on X at @jenllphan.