{shortcode-e1ef90da3d1328825926d56a02faac9e792422bb}

Some people have a therapist, others have close friends. If you’re lucky, you might have a fundraiser. For all three, Larry Summers had Jeffrey Epstein.

A not-so-shortlist of what’s come to light over the past week: Summers asking Epstein for advice on a relationship with someone he called a mentee. Summers’s wife, Elisa F. New, and Epstein discussing a potential $500,000 gift to her Harvard-connected pet project. And in 2005, Summers and New honeymooning on Epstein’s island. Evidently, Harvard’s 2020 investigation into its Epstein ties only scratched the surface.

At this point, the only nice thing you can say about Summers is that he is good at economics. The revelations from the last few days — compounded by the reputation he’s accrued for decades — call into question Summers’s ability to perform every other aspect of his job.

For months, Summers traded messages with Epstein about pursuing a relationship with a woman he described as a mentee. Worse still, the woman he apparently referred to earned her Ph.D. in economics at Harvard partially while Summers was a professor (though the woman was a professor at another university at the time the messages were sent and Summers insists she was never his student).

The nature of their relationship remains opaque — but Summers’s communications with Epstein seem to indicate an alarming willingness to leverage his position of power for personal edification. How can students feel comfortable attending office hours with a professor who talks — to a pedophile, no less — about the probability of “getting horizontal” with someone he considered a mentee?

And Larry wasn’t the only member of the Summers family to appear in Epstein’s emails. Years after Epstein became a registered sex offender (and Harvard stopped accepting donations from him), Elisa New solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars from Epstein. Summers, in yet another addition to his long list of moral failures, apparently brokered this philanthropic relationship.

Not to mention, as sitting University president, mere days after a wedding reception at the Harvard Art Museum, Summers and his wife hopped aboard Epstein’s plane — alongside Ghislaine Maxwell — en route to Epstein’s island for their honeymoon.

The damage that Summers has done to the University’s reputation is irreparable — and that’s just based on the skeletons in his closet that we’ve uncovered so far.

Harvard needs a full accounting of Summers’s sins. Many of this week’s most shocking revelations did not see daylight the last time the University investigated its Epstein ties. In fact, Summers’s name appears just once in the entire 27-page summary of the University’s findings — buried inside a quotation, no less.

That investigation resulted in sanctions on Martin Nowak, the former Faculty Director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics. Summers, however, escaped scrutiny even though he established that program after Epstein proposed and funded it with a $6.5 million gift.

In a similar oversight, the investigation noted that Epstein’s foundation gave $110,000 to Verse Video Education, New’s non-profit — then brushed it off because it wasn’t a “gift to Harvard.” The only problem? That organization has contributed material to Harvard courses.

Suffice to say, Harvard’s initial investigation was hardly comprehensive.

Until days ago, Summers still bandied about his title as former president, weighing in on everything from the actions of other Harvard presidents and administrators, to the activities of student organizations. (Notably, he resigned the presidency after a faculty vote of no confidence.)

Today, Harvard cannot afford to send the message that if a member of faculty is brilliant enough, the University will look past deep moral failings — especially those that call into question their ability to carry out their role.

Harvard’s ongoing investigation must be rigorous. If what emerges is as damning as it seems, the consequences must match the misconduct: stripping Summers of the President Emeritus honorific, his University Professor title, and forcing him to take unpaid leave could all be reasonable. In the meantime, Summers has no place advising anyone — from University officials to American policymakers — on how to conduct themselves.

If Harvard wants to quash the culture that allowed Epstein and Summers to operate with impunity, it has to demonstrate that even its most decorated figures aren’t untouchable.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

Have a suggestion, question, or concern for The Crimson Editorial Board? Click here.