Emails released by a congressional committee last week showed that Summers — who holds the highest faculty title at the university— maintained close ties to Epstein prior to his arrest in 2019.
Earlier in the week Summers had announced he would step back from his other public commitments, which included posts at centers and think tanks such as the Center for American Progress and the board of directors at OpenAI, but would continue teaching.
But amid mounting pressure for Harvard to cut ties with Summers, he made the decision — first reported by The Harvard Crimson — not to finish teaching this semester.
“His co-teachers will complete the remaining three class sessions of the courses he has been teaching with them this semester, and he is not scheduled to teach next semester,” the spokesperson added.
A spokesperson clarified that Summers is not resigning from either post at Harvard, but is stepping away as the university conducts its investigation. Summers has also communicated his decision to the university, a Harvard spokesperson told the Globe.
He was teaching four classes this fall, according to Harvard’s course catalogue, some of which he shared with another professor. They range in topic from globalization to American economics to macroeconomic policy, according to the catalogue.
His announcement came hours after Senator Elizabeth Warren renewed her intense criticism of Summers, a longtime nemesis of hers over economic policy. In an interview with the Globe after Summers had told students he planned to continue teaching at Harvard, Warren said the decision to remain at the university was not his to make.
“Larry Summers has demonstrated that he cannot be trusted. Period. That includes no trust for the advice he gives or for teaching students anywhere,” said Warren, who is an emerita law professor at Harvard.
Warren said that “it’s a matter of their own integrity” for Harvard and any other institution affiliated with Summers to end their relationship with him.
Summers previously served as president of Harvard from 2001 to 2006, ultimately resigning amid controversy. He first joined the Harvard faculty in 1983 as an economics professor.
His ties to Epstein go back decades and had been disclosed prior to the cache of emails released last week by lawmakers. But the new emails showed just how extensive his communications with Epstein were.
Elisa New, a Harvard poetry professor emerita and wife of Summers, also corresponded with Epstein, including over a sizable gift that he helped broker, the Globe reported Tuesday. The gift was not included in Harvard’s 2020 report on Epstein’s ties to the university, but a Harvard spokesperson said in response to Globe questions that the school would begin a fresh breakdown of ties between Epstein and university figures mentioned in the recently released emails.
Epstein, a financier who had close ties to notable figures including President Trump and the former Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom, was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking crimes. He died in jail a month later in what officials ruled a suicide.
On Tuesday, Summers told students in his introductory economics class that while he regrets his correspondence with Epstein, he planned to continue teaching.
“I think it’s very important to fulfill my teaching obligations,” he told the students, according to a video recording of the class reviewed by the Globe. “And so, with your permission, we’re going to go forward and talk about the material in the class.”
Before Summers’ announcement Wednesday night, several Harvard students said his status at the school was being widely discussed on campus.
“Students are saying, with the tenure and everything, if he’s going to stop teaching, it’ll come by way of resignation,” said Daniel LaPointe, a senior and student in Summers’ class on globalization.
Other Harvard students spoke out against Summers, saying that some, particularly women, may not feel safe learning from a man who asked Epstein for romantic advice about wooing a woman Summers described as a mentee. (Epstein responded sympathetically, calling himself Summers’ “wing man.”)
Fred Klein, 18, a Harvard sophomore from Spotsylvania County, Va., said he is planning to major in economics and has taken three courses in the department, but none with Summers. He said students were disappointed the university had not put a halt to Summers’ teaching duties and said his resignation from Harvard would be more meaningful than his surrender of other commitments.
“It’s much more public-facing for you to be looking at 100 kids every week and telling them that you’re an authority on a subject when you shouldn’t be,” Klein said. “So I’ll be watching closely what Harvard does from immediately on.”
Harvard announced the new probe Tuesday following a Globe report on a donation Epstein brokered for Summers’ wife from a high-profile Wall Street financier. That donation, which New told Epstein in 2015 “changed everything” for her at Harvard, is not mentioned in a 2020 report by Harvard’s lawyers on the university’s ties to Epstein.
Some say a deeper breakdown by Harvard is long overdue.
“It’s necessary,” said Rachel McCleary, an associate with the Harvard University economics department, where Summers still teaches.
McCleary said she and others at Harvard were shocked by the content of some of the newly released emails, particularly between Summers and Epstein.
“It’s totally appropriate to breakdown the behavior of these faculty members,” McCleary said.
Scott Schneider, a higher education lawyer who has completed numerous investigations for universities, said you would never know Summers was interviewed for the previous investigation from reading the Harvard report, which he found odd given Summers’ stature at the school and longstanding connection to Epstein.
Learning that Summers was in fact interviewed, Schneider wondered how the donation that Epstein brokered on New’s behalf was omitted.
“I think it’s one of three things. One, [Summers] didn’t disclose it, either intentionally or because he didn’t know. Two, [Harvard] didn’t ask,” he said. “And then the third one is, he did disclose it and they didn’t put it in the report.”
Aidan Ryan can be reached at aidan.ryan@globe.com. Follow him @aidanfitzryan. Claire Thornton can be reached at claire.thornton@globe.com. Follow Claire on X @claire_thornto. Jim Puzzanghera can be reached at jim.puzzanghera@globe.com. Follow him @JimPuzzanghera. Deirdre Fernandes can be reached at deirdre.fernandes@globe.com. Follow her @fernandesglobe. Tricia L. Nadolny can be reached at tricia.nadolny@globe.com or on Signal at TriciaNadolny.07. Follow her on X @TriciaNadolny.
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