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Updated October 28, 2025, at 2:37 p.m.
Harvard Salient editor-in-chief Richard Y. Rodgers ’28 announced on Tuesday that the conservative student magazine would remain active despite a Sunday statement from its board of directors suspending its operations pending a conduct investigation.
Rodgers wrote in an email to the Salient’s mailing list that the board’s decision to temporarily halt its operations was “an unauthorized usurpation of power by a small number of individuals acting outside the bounds of their authority.”
“This action was taken without notice to or consent from the duly appointed leadership of the organization and in direct violation of the bylaws governing The Harvard Salient,” Rodgers wrote. “The Harvard Salient continues to operate under its legitimate editorial leadership until further notice.”
Rodger’s message came two days after the Salient’s 10-member board of directors announced the suspension, citing material published in the magazine that the board found “reprehensible, abusive, and demeaning” as well as “deeply disturbing and credible complaints about the broader culture of the organization.”
The board’s statement did not detail the complaints, nor did it specify the published material at issue. It was unclear which pieces in the publication — which prides itself on standing against “liberal orthodoxy” and has not shied away from publishing material that some students find offensive or hateful — led the board to take the extraordinary step of ceasing the Salient’s operations entirely.
But an article in the magazine’s September edition drew controversy over language echoing a line from a speech Adolf Hitler gave in 1939. Rodgers defended the piece and wrote that the article’s author and editors did not intentionally quote Hitler.
A different Salient story, published online following the early September killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, described the left as “our enemies.”
The Salient’s bylaws, as they appear on Harvard’s internal student organization directory, describe its student leadership structure but do not contain any mention of the board of directors.
Rodgers, in the Tuesday email, wrote that “any future communication purporting to speak on behalf of The Harvard Salient but not issued by its authorized leadership should be disregarded as illegitimate.”
In a Tuesday afternoon statement to The Crimson, Rodgers called on board members to “consider resigning their posts in order to allow the organization a chance to rebuild in good faith.”
He wrote that “roughly sixty to seventy percent of The Salient’s active members and fellows have withdrawn from official channels of communication, citing a loss of confidence in the board members whose names appear on the disputed declaration.”
Rodgers alleged that the board did not follow its procedures for convening a meeting, which require 10 days’ notice before a meeting is convened and a meeting agenda set two days in advance, rendering the suspension illegitimate. Rodgers wrote in a separate email that he was not immediately able to provide a copy of a document containing the provisions he cited, which are not listed in the bylaws registered with the College.
Naomi Schaefer Riley, a conservative commentator and member of the board of directors, wrote in an emailed statement that the board is the Salient’s governing body and that Rodgers “is mistaken to accuse the Board, by pausing operations of the magazine, of usurping power.”
“The Board of Directors is investigating recent events as quickly and as responsibly as possible,” she wrote, but declined to comment further.
The current board members are chair Alexander Acosta ’90, treasurer Christopher Krug, Riley, William F. Long ’18, Alfredo Ortiz, and Sarah L. Steele ’18-’26, a former Salient president. The four ex-officio members are government professors Eric M. Nelson and Harvey C. Mansfield ’53; Ruth Wisse, a professor emerita in comparative literature; and Jacob A. Cremers ’24, a former Salient president.
Salient president Julia G. Grinstead ’27, who oversees the publication’s administration and finances and is considered the editor-in-chief’s equal under its bylaws, also did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.
—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.
