Harvard Will Not Dename Wexner Building at HKS, Citing ‘Legal Obligations’

Updated June 23, 2026, at 12:14 p.m.

The Harvard Kennedy School will not remove Leslie H. Wexner’s name from a central campus building after the University determined that “legal obligations” prohibit the denaming, HKS Dean Jeremy M. Weinstein wrote in a Wednesday afternoon email to affiliates.

The decision comes three months after a group of Kennedy School faculty, students, and staff formally asked Harvard to strip Wexner’s name from the school’s buildings, citing the billionaire donor’s ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey E. Epstein.

In the email, Weinstein wrote that Harvard’s Office of the President informed HKS and the request’s submitters that “the University’s legal obligations prohibit such a denaming.”

But Weinstein wrote that Harvard’s policy “leaves room” for HKS to consider “some form of contextualization of Wexner’s past association with Jeffrey Epstein.”

“I know this news will be disappointing for those who wish to rename the building,” Weinstein wrote. “As a school of government and public policy, we have a unique role to play in calling attention to the problems of sexual violence and exploitation and developing strategies to address them.”

The decision marks a significant setback for HKS affiliates who had pushed administrators to remove Wexner’s name from one of the school’s most visible buildings. The Wexner Building, located at 19 Eliot St., houses classrooms, common spaces, and dining areas, and sits near the Kennedy School’s main campus entrance.

The original denaming proposal also called on Harvard to create a new endowed faculty chair focused on sexual violence and harm. Weinstein’s email did not reference that request. A Harvard spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of the proposed chair.

Wexner had a decadeslong professional relationship with Epstein, who served as the retail magnate’s financial adviser and was among Epstein’s few publicly known major clients. Wexner has said he severed ties with Epstein in 2007 after learning of allegations of sexual misconduct against Epstein and discovering that Epstein had misappropriated funds from him.

Under Harvard’s denaming framework, requests are first reviewed by the Office of the President and Provost before they can advance to a full review by the relevant school.

The initial review committee considers whether the proposal is eligible for review, whether there is a “substantial and reasonably persuasive” case for denaming, and whether any “gift or other legal agreement” would prevent Harvard from removing the name.

In this case, the Wexner proposal was shot down before it made its way to the Kennedy School. Instead, Weinstein wrote that HKS will begin a process in the fall to consider ways to contextualize Wexner’s relationship with Epstein.

Affiliates who pushed for the denaming did not receive additional information clarifying the “legal obligations” to which the University was subject or the status of their ask for a new endowed chair, they said.

“The contact I received from the President’s office didn’t explain the reasoning, it just said that it had been determined that they can’t legally dename the building,” professor Matthew A. Baum who helped lead the effort said.

Baum said he was disappointed the proposal dead-ended at the University level and did not get the benefit of a school-level review.

“I had hoped that at minimum it would be poured into the school, and there would be an investigative committee that would look at the substantive case rather than dismissing it before it got that far on procedural grounds,” Baum said.

Weinstein also announced several initiatives Wednesday focused on gender inequality, women’s rights, and sexual violence, including an annual named lecture series featuring a scholar or practitioner who has advocated for women’s rights.

The lecture, organized by the Center for Public Leadership and the Women and Public Policy Program, will focus on areas related to sex discrimination, sexual harrasment, and sexual violence.

HKS will also host a Hauser Leader in residence through CPL for part of the coming academic year whose work focuses on systemic gender inequality, particularly related to sexual harassment and violence.

The Women and Public Policy Program will run two semester-long research seminars during the coming academic year. The fall seminar will focus on “women, power, and social change,” while the spring will focus on “gender and violence.”

HKS’s Office of Belonging, Community, and Connection will also hold online and in-person listening sessions this summer and early in the fall semester for affiliates to share feedback on how the school should acknowledge Wexner’s ties to Epstein. The first session is scheduled for July 9.

“These sessions are a starting point for conversations about how the School might acknowledge Wexner’s ties to Epstein and use our platform to further discussion about important issues related to gender and power, sexual violence, and the exploitation of women and girls,” Weinstein wrote.

The Wexner decision follows two other high-profile denaming requests at Harvard. Neither resulted in a full denaming.

Affiliates pushed in 2023 to dename Winthrop House over its namesakes’ ties to slavery. The University responded two years later by shortening the House’s formal name from John Winthrop House to Winthrop House, but declined to remove the Winthrop name altogether. That decision came at the recommendation of a faculty committee convened after the proposal passed an initial administrative review.

In March, Winthrop House hosted a ceremony to unveil a new plaque, where administrators detailed the histories of the two John Winthrops for whom the House was named and their ties to slavery.

Harvard also declined in 2024 to remove Arthur M. Sackler’s name from its art museum, ending a yearslong campaign to distance the University from the Sackler family over its role in the opioid epidemic. The committee reviewing the Sackler request was composed largely of senior administrators.

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 Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at hcc.35. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.

—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at elisespenner.82. Follow her on X @EliseSpenner.