IOP Leaders Scrap Co-Presidency Plan After Student Pushback

Institute of Politics President Lorenzo Z. Ruiz ’27 and Vice President William M. Smialek ’27 have abandoned their push to adopt a co-presidency model, backing away from a signature campaign proposal after encountering student opposition.

The decision, they said, reflects a broader shift toward priorities voiced by students — which, they acknowledged, did not include revising the IOP’s constitution.

“That’s the core definition of what being a leader is sometimes, where you have these things you really want to pursue and you really want to accomplish, but if the people you’re serving and you’re working for don’t want to accomplish that, then you have to pivot,” Smialek said.

“You have to tackle the things that they do care about,” he added.

Ruiz and Smialek first introduced the co-president proposal in December while running as a joint ticket. Their plan quickly ran into resistance within the Student Advisory Committee, culminating in a contentious meeting and a failed amendment effort that same week.

The amendment, introduced by former IOP Treasurer Kevin A. Bokoum ’26, was viewed by some students as an attempt to block the co-presidency outright. Ruiz and Smialek opposed the measure, urging SAC members to vote it down — a campaign that succeeded when the proposal narrowly failed to reach the required two-third supermajority.

“We were very vocal at that meeting of, ‘vote against this,’” Smialek said, “because that was only put up by a vote by someone who didn’t support the amendment.”

Smialek said their own proposal would have been “like a trial period,” and would have carried clear benchmarks for success and failure.

“A more collaborative effort as opposed to just kind of slamming it down on a paper,” he added.

In the months following their November election, Ruiz said, the pair reassessed their agenda through conversations with students and members of the organization.

“The period between the conclusion of any election cycle and the beginning of your term is when you can go around and workshop your ideas,” Ruiz said, “and decide which ones you want to take top billing and which ones you don’t.”

Some of that deliberation played out publicly during SAC debates, though Ruiz said “that wasn’t our desire.”

Now in office, both leaders say they are focused less on the failed proposal and more on governing.

“The IOP, like the nation as a whole, wants responsive leadership,” Ruiz said. “Will and I have really tried to do that at every step of our transition into leadership.”

Despite shelving the formal change, Ruiz and Smialek emphasized that their working relationship already functions as a partnership.

“We weren’t really waiting for a vote from SAC to tell us how we should balance out our personal and professional, working relationship,” Smialek said. “We do everything together as a team.”

Ruiz added that such collaboration is consistent with recent precedent within IOP leadership.

“The last three executive teams have been incredibly balanced and collaborative, and we’re just trying to bolster that spirit even further,” he said.

With the co-presidency effort behind them, Ruiz and Smialek said they have turned their attention to expanding experiential learning opportunities at the IOP.

“The big kick that Will and I have been on since taking office is this umbrella of experimental learning,” Ruiz said, pointing to a recent increase in funding for the Director’s Internship stipend as an early step.

“We want the IOP to serve as a supplement to the classroom learning that happens in the government department and across Harvard,” he added.

Smialek said improving access to those opportunities is another key goal, particularly for students without existing ties to IOP staff.

“Historically, what we’ve seen is that the students with the closest relationship to staff oftentimes are the ones that get chosen for these opportunities,” he said. “Lorenzo and I are very intentional about how we can expand the pool of access.”

—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.