CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Harvard said on Saturday that a law professor who is representing Harvey Weinstein would not continue as faculty dean of an undergraduate house, bowing to months of pressure from students who had demanded the removal of the professor from his role as dean.

The professor, Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., and his wife, Stephanie Robinson, who is a lecturer at the law school, have been the faculty deans of Winthrop House, one of Harvard’s residential colleges for undergraduate students, since 2009. They were the first African-American faculty deans in Harvard’s history.

But when Mr. Sullivan joined the defense team of Mr. Weinstein, the Hollywood producer, in January, many students expressed dismay, saying that his decision to represent a person accused of abusing women made Mr. Sullivan no longer qualified to serve in a role of support and mentorship to students. </s> Harvard Won’t Renew Weinstein Lawyer As Student House Dean

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — A Harvard faculty member who decided to represent Harvey Weinstein at his rape trial is losing his position as head of a student house at the college.

Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana said in a written statement Saturday he would not renew the appointments of Ronald Sullivan and his wife, Stephanie Robinson, the school’s first black faculty deans, citing concerns about the climate at Winthrop House, which he described as serious.

Sullivan lives at the house and supervises students there.

Some students and faculty members have faulted Sullivan’s decision to represent Weinstein and his response to students’ concerns.

Khurana called the situation regrettable and said efforts to improve the climate were ineffective.

The couple said in an email they were surprised and dismayed. They said Harvard unilaterally ended discussions that had been progressing. </s> BOSTON — A Harvard Law School professor who became a lightning rod on the Ivy League campus for working on the legal defense team of Harvey Weinstein will not be renewed as a Harvard faculty dean, the university said Saturday.

Ronald Sullivan Jr. and his wife Stephanie Robinson will not continue as faculty deans for the school's Winthrop House when their term ends after next month.

Rakesh Khurana, dean of Harvard College, announced the decision in an email to residents of the school's Winthrop House, calling the situation "untenable" and saying it was "informed by a number of considerations."

Sullivan has been under fire from students since January when he emerged as one of the attorneys representing Weinstein in the media mogul's upcoming trial where he faces multiple sex-crime charges.

More: Harvard dean’s legal defense of Harvey Weinstein sparks controversy on campus

But the controversy surrounding Sullivan – who presides over the Winthrop House with Robinson, his wife and also a Harvard law professor – escalated further amid recent reports from the student-run Harvard Crimson newspaper about numerous complaints against the couple since 2016 about their handling of house affairs.

"Over the last few weeks, students and staff have continued to communicate concerns about the climate in the Winthrop House to the college," Khurana said in the email. "The concerns expressed have been serious and numerous.

"The actions that have been taken to improve the climate have been ineffective, and the noticeable lack of faculty dean presence during critical moments has further deteriorated the climate in the house. I have concluded that the situation in the house is untenable."

Harvard has faculty deans to lead and reside at each of its 12 buildings that house undergraduate students. It's considered a powerful and prestigious position. Sullivan and Robinson were the first African-Americans to serve as faculty deans at Harvard.

In response to the university's decision, Sullivan and Robinson said they are "surprised and dismayed."

"We believed the discussions we were having with high level University representatives were progressing in a positive manner, but Harvard unilaterally ended those talks," the couple said in a joint statement.

The couple added that they "will now take some time to process Harvard’s actions and consider our options. We are sorry that Harvard’s actions and the controversy surrounding us has contributed to the stress on Winthrop students at this already stressful time."

Harvard's action does not change their status as law school professors.

Khurana called the situation "regrettable" and said not renewing Sullivan and Robinson as faculty deans is a "very hard decision to make."

He said he has long admired their "commitment to justice and civic engagement" and the "good work they have done" to support diversity in the house community.

"This decision in no way lessens my gratitude to them for their contributions to the college," he said.

Sullivan, a prominent defense attorney nationally, had garnered calls for removal from Winthrop residents and other Harvard students who objected to his work for Weinstein, whose alleged actions helped ignite the #MeToo movement. At organized protests in recent months, students held signs that read,“Down with the Dean,” “Remove Sullivan” and “Harvard’s Legacy Ignoring Survivors.”

Sullivan had defended his work for Weinstein by touting due process for everyone, decrying the country’s “long history of mob justice” and arguing that it’s even more important that “unpopular, vile, or undesirable” defendants have their rights.

Protesters said they acknowledge the constitutional right for everyone, even unpopular defendants, to have a legal defense. But they questioned Sullivan’s ability to simultaneously carry out a house dean position whose duties they said include being a protector of students and ensuring they feel comfortable sharing concerns.

They accused Sullivan of dismissing their concerns.

More: Harvard bans ex-professor Jorge Dominguez after finding 'unwelcome sexual conduct' spanned four decades

Other concerns about Sullivan that apparently predated the Weinstein controversy.

The Harvard Crimson reported this week that more than a dozen Winthrop tutors, students and staff have brought concerns about Sullivan and Robinson to Harvard administrators over the past three years. The complaints have involved questions about their leadership, a "revolving door" of staff administrators at the house, and "threats" to push out residents deemed as disloyal by Sullivan and Robinson.

The trial for Weinstein, whose alleged crimes helped set off the #MeToo movement, is tentatively set to begin in June.

Amid protests earlier this year, Khurana had offered support for Sullivan's legal defense of Weinstein.

“I think a faculty member is given academic freedom to make decisions that are right for them,” Khurana said in February. “I also think that every individual is entitled to a vigorous defense. It's a cornerstone of our justice system.”

Sullivan also serves as director of the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute. He's no stranger to controversial legal clients, having represented former and now-deceased New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez defeat a double-murder charge.

In another high-profile case, Sullivan represented the family of Michael Brown in reaching a $1.5 million settlement with the city of Ferguson, Missouri, following his shooting death in 2017. </s> The Harvard law professor representing Harvey Weinstein is being removed as a faculty dean

(CNN) — A Harvard University law professor who faced criticism on campus for representing Harvey Weinstein in his sexual assault trial is being relieved of his position as faculty dean of an undergraduate house.

Professor Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. and his wife, Harvard law lecturer Stephanie Robinson, will no longer be faculty deans of Winthrop House — one of 12 undergraduate residential houses at the Boston-area university — after their term ends June 30, Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana said.

The couple are the first black faculty deans in Harvard’s history.

Khurana, in a letter explaining his decision not to renew the couple’s deanships, wrote generally about a deteriorating climate in the 400-student house but did not specify the underlying issue.

“Over the last few weeks, students and staff have continued to communicate concerns about the climate in Winthrop House to the college. The concerns expressed have been serious and numerous,” Khurana wrote.

“This decision in no way lessens my gratitude to them for their contributions to the college.”

Sullivan made waves on campus in January when he decided to represent Weinstein, the former movie mogul whose downfall helped launch the #MeToo movement.

That same day, Sullivan sent a lengthy email to undergraduate students and resident tutors at Winthrop House, defending the idea of representing people deemed to be “guilty, unpopular, vile or undesirable.”

“It is particularly important for this category of unpopular defendant to receive the same process as everyone else — perhaps even more important,” Sullivan wrote.

“To the degree we deny unpopular defendants basic due process rights we cease to be the country we imagine ourselves to be. In fact, most of the due process rights we hold dearest derive from lawyers who represented unpopular defendants.”

The decision to represent a high-profile defendant in an assault case was fraught on Harvard’s campus, where sexual assault and harassment have been a major issue.

Just in the past year, Harvard’s head diving coach resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct, and a university government professor announced his retirement also over sexual misconduct allegations.

Sullivan is a longtime criminal defense attorney and criminal justice reform advocate. He represented the family of Michael Brown, who was fatally shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri, and he spent his early legal career at the Public Defender Service in Washington.

The tenured Harvard Law School professor also is the faculty director of the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute.

Weinstein is accused of raping a woman in a New York hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on another woman at his Manhattan apartment in 2006.

The former film executive faces five felony charges: two counts of predatory sexual assault, one count of criminal sexual act in the first degree, and one count each of first-degree rape and third-degree rape. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Weinstein has denied all accusations of nonconsensual sex.

The trial is to begin September 9. </s> Harvard announced Saturday that law professor Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., who represented embattled film producer Harvey Weinstein until recently, would not continue as faculty dean of an undergraduate house after his term ends on June 30, following pressure from students, according to the New York Times.

Weinstein is set to stand trial on rape and other charges in June. Sullivan’s decision to represent Weinstein highlighted the tension between the principle of affording legal counsel to the accused and college staff standing on the side of the victims of sexual abuse.

Sullivan, along with his wife Stephanie Robinson, who is a lecturer at the law school, have been faculty deans of Winthrop House, one of the university’s residential houses for undergraduates since 2009. They were the first black faculty deans in Harvard history. Faculty deans are tasked with supporting students academically and personally, as well as helping with social activities.

Students began voicing their disapproval of his decision to join Weinstein’s defense team in January of this year, believing his decision disqualified him from supporting and mentoring students.

A wave of protests eventually pushed administration to say they would conducted a review of the climate in the Winthrop House, which has hosted a student sit-in and seen a lawsuit stemming from a fracas between a protest leader and a pair of staff members who supported Sullivan.

Sullivan told the Times that he was aware that race was playing a role in the school’s handling of the issue.

“It is not lost on me that I’m the first African-American to hold this position,” he said earlier in the year. “Never in the history of the faculty dean position has the dean been subjected to a ‘climate review’ in the middle of some controversy.”

The tension prompted Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana to send an email to students and staff at the house, informing them that they would not be renewing Sullivan.

“Over the last few weeks, students and staff have continued to communicate concerns about the climate in Winthrop House to the college,” Khurana wrote. “The concerns expressed have been serious and numerous. The actions that have been taken to improve the climate have been ineffective, and the noticeable lack of faculty dean presence during critical moments has further deteriorated the climate in the house. I have concluded that the situation in the house is untenable.”

During the review of the Winthrop House, current and former staff members told the Harvard Crimson they experienced “a workplace climate of hostility and suspicion” while Sullivan and Robinson were at the helm.

Sullivan and Robinson said they were “surprised and dismayed by the action Harvard announced today,” according to a joint statement. “We believed the discussions we were having with high-level university representatives were progressing in a positive manner, but Harvard unilaterally ended those talks.”

“We are sorry that Harvard’s actions and the controversy surrounding us has contributed to the stress on Winthrop students at this already stressful time,” the statement continued.

Sullivan and Robinson will still retain their positions at the law school. Sullivan is the director of the school’s Criminal Justice Institute. He also represented the family of Mike Brown. </s> Harvard University has declined to renew the contracts of “faculty deans” Ronald S. Sullivan, Jr. and Stephanie R. Robinson because Mr. Sullivan, an attorney, is representing disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein in court.

A decade ago, the couple became the first African-American “masters” of a Harvard “house” — namely, Winthrop House, one of twelve undergraduate dormitories modeled after the “colleges” of Oxford and Cambridge. (The title was changed from “master” to “faculty dean” in 2016, after complaints that “master” might “trigger” hurt feelings in black students, despite Harvard’s abolitionist past.)

When Ron Sullivan accepted a position on Weinstein’s criminal defense team, students began protesting, and the college launched an investigation into the “climate” at Winthrop House.

That culminated in a capitulation by the university this week, as the Harvard Crimson reported Sunday:

Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana announced that he will not renew Winthrop Faculty Deans Ronald S. Sullivan, Jr. and Stephanie R. Robinson after their term ends on June 30 in an email to House affiliates Saturday morning. The decision comes after more than three months of activism and outcry surrounding Sullivan’s decision to represent Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein — who stands accused of rape — and a day after The Crimson reported allegations brought by Winthrop students, tutors, and staff of a toxic environment under Sullivan and Robinson stretching back years. Khurana wrote in his email to Winthrop residents that he decided not to renew Sullivan and Robinson’s faculty dean appointments because the environment in the House was “untenable.” Sullivan and Robinson wrote in an emailed statement to The Crimson they were surprised by the College’s decision and that Harvard “unilaterally” ended discussions they were having with University representatives.

Khurana has been at the center of other controversial decisions, such as a new policy barring students from joining same-sex organization — a decision aimed at elite all-male “final clubs” that had the effect of banning women’s groups.

Sullivan and Robinson will remain professors at Harvard Law School.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. </s> Harvard University yanked dean status from a long-serving law professor amid student unrest over his serving on disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s defense team.

The announcement came the day after the professor had already quit Weinstein’s legal team, a report said.

Professor Ronald Sullivan will no longer supervise the Ivy’s Winthrop House undergraduate residence program with his wife, also a law lecturer at the university, because of an “untenable” environment in the dorm, the school said Saturday in a message to the student body, according to The Harvard Crimson school newspaper.

“The actions that have been taken to improve the climate have been ineffective, and the noticeable lack of faculty dean presence during critical moments has further deteriorated the climate in the House,” wrote Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana. “I have concluded that the situation in the House is untenable.”

Sullivan’s removal as dean came just one day after he had already told the Manhattan judge hearing the case that he would be leaving Team Weinstein, according to ABC News.

Sullivan and his wife, Professor Stephanie Robinson, made history 10 years ago when they were named Harvard’s first black faculty deans.

The couple will keep their appointments as professors at Harvard Law School but will not be asked to return as undergrad deans when their terms end next month.

Though Khurana’s statement kept the reasoning vague, it came after months of on-campus protests over Sullivan’s post as co-lead counsel for Weinstein, charged with a slew of sick sex crimes brought to light by the #MeToo movement.

Sullivan and Robinson said they were “surprised and dismayed” that Harvard gave them the boot — particularly as they were in talks with the Ivy to correct any issues.

“We believed the discussions we were having with high level University representatives were progressing in a positive manner, but Harvard unilaterally ended those talks,” the couple said in a joint statement to The Crimson. “We will now take some time to process Harvard’s actions and consider our options.

“We are sorry that Harvard’s actions and the controversy surrounding us has contributed to the stress on Winthrop students at this already stressful time.” </s> A Harvard law professor who joined the legal team defending Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein against sexual assault charges will not be allowed to continue as dean of a residential house on campus, a university official said on Saturday.

The Ivy League university's move to end the role of law professor Ronald Sullivan Jr and law school lecturer Stephanie Robinson, Sullivan's wife, at Winthrop House follows protests over his representation of Weinstein.

Sullivan and Robinson in 2009 became the first African-American faculty deans in Harvard history when they took their positions at Winthrop House, one of several undergraduate residences at the Cambridge, Massachusetts, university.

Their terms as faculty deans were scheduled to end on June 30. Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana said in a statement that he had decided not to keep them in their roles at Winthrop House beyond that date.

"Over the last few weeks, students and staff have continued to communicate concerns about the climate in Winthrop House to the college," Khurana said.

"The concerns expressed have been serious and numerous. The actions that have been taken to improve the climate have been ineffective, and the noticeable lack of faculty dean presence during critical moments has further deteriorated the climate in the house," Khurana said.

Khurana has previously said Sullivan's decision to join Weinstein's legal team was a matter of academic freedom and that everyone is entitled to a vigorous legal defense.

Sullivan and Robinson continue to hold their positions at Harvard Law School.

Sullivan and Robinson said in a joint statement that they were "surprised and dismayed" by the decision.

"We believed the discussions we were having with high level university representatives were progressing in a positive manner, but Harvard unilaterally ended those talks," they said.

In January, a judge approved Weinstein's request to have Sullivan join his legal team.

Prosecutors in New York accuse Weinstein, 67, of forcibly performing oral sex on a woman in 2006 and raping another woman in 2013. Weinstein faces five criminal charges, including rape, and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

More than 70 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct. He has denied all accusations and said any contact was consensual.

Students at Winthrop House staged a sit-in this month to protest Sullivan's defense of Weinstein, according to a report at the time in the Harvard Crimson student newspaper. Students denounced Sullivan in other actions earlier this year.

Get the latest election news, live updates and election schedule for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 on ndtv.com/elections. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram for updates from each of the 543 parliamentary seats for the 2019 Indian general elections. Election results will be out on May 23. </s> iStock/travelview(BOSTON) — In response to an uproar on campus, Harvard University decided this weekend to remove law professor Ron Sullivan from a dean’s post after Sullivan had signed on as a member of the team defending disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein. Ironically, Harvard’s decision comes just a day after Sullivan told the Manhattan judge overseeing Weinstein’s case that Sullivan would, in fact, be leaving the defense team.

Sullivan’s notice to the court is due to be made public Monday.

The lawyer and his wife, Stephanie Robinson, who also works at the school, will not be renewed as deans at Harvard’s Winthrop House once their terms expire next month.

Sullivan’s decision has no impact on Jose Baez, the noted criminal lawyer now leading Weinstein’s defense, or the rest of the team. Sullivan is a noted expert on criminal law and criminal procedure and is director of the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute.

Weinstein spokesman Juda Engelmayer told ABC News Saturday evening that Weinstein “is extremely grateful to Ronald Sullivan for his work with him until now, and for Ron’s offer to advise where he can going forward.”

“Mr. Sullivan believed that Mr. Weinstein deserved a vigorous defense, and it is a sad moment for us all right now,” Engelmayer said. “We, as a country, have now reached the point when a Harvard lawyer and professor cannot serve his duty to, and belief in, the law and defend a person who may be deemed unpopular or unworthy of a legal defense by segments of the public.”

The Harvard Crimson, the college’s newspaper, was the first to report on Sullivan’s exit.

The Harvard Black Law Students Association supported Sullivan’s decision to represent Weinstein, saying in a statement released March 31, “HBLSA finds it important that we speak to the controversy and make the ask of Harvard University to both unequivocally support survivors of sexual violence and to do so in a way that does not scapegoat Professor Sullivan for the University’s failings to address sexual violence on campus.”

Weinstein is due to go on trial in September on charges of rape and sexual assault. He was arrested nearly a year ago and is out on bail.

He is set to go on trial on accusations made by two women in New York, but has been accused of improper conduct by dozens of other women over decades.

Weinstein, 66, has been investigated by the New York City Police Department, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the New York Attorney General’s Office, the Los Angeles Police Department and U.K. authorities.

He has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex.
Harvard announces that they will not renew law professor Ronald S. Sullivan Jr.'s appointment as dean of Winthrop House after he joined the defense of Harvey Weinstein. He remains a regular professor.