HUA Officers Discussed Cooke’s Resignation in Meetings with Harvard DSO

Harvard Undergraduate Association executive officers discussed the possibility of Co-President John S. Cooke ’25 resigning during a meeting Wednesday night following his expulsion from the Fox Club over misconduct allegations, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

But Cooke told the officers that he would not step down from his post as co-president, a person familiar with the meeting said.

The Crimson reported early Thursday morning that the Fox Club — a single-gender Harvard final club — expelled Cooke over misconduct allegations, though the nature or details of the allegations against Cooke were unclear.

Cooke denied the allegations in a meeting with the Fox’s undergraduate board on Tuesday, The Crimson reported. Cooke did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this article.

Shortly before The Crimson published its initial article, HUA officers discussed Cooke’s expulsion from the Fox and next steps with Andy Donahue — an administrator at the College’s Dean of Students Office and an adviser to the HUA — on Wednesday night.

According to an email obtained by The Crimson, the HUA and DSO held a follow-up meeting Thursday night, during which undergraduate student government leaders continued to express concern about Cooke’s position on the HUA.

At both the Wednesday and Thursday meetings, Donahue told the student government officers present that neither the DSO nor the HUA could force Cooke to resign.

HUA executive officers spoke with Donahue for three hours during the emergency gathering Wednesday evening, during which they determined that the organization would remain silent on the allegations against Cooke.

HUA officers and Donahue reconvened Thursday night. During the most recent meeting, the group backtracked — deciding instead to release a public statement on Friday.

A preliminary version of the statement obtained by The Crimson consisted of three main points: that the HUA had been made aware of the misconduct allegations against Cooke, had met with their DSO adviser about him, and will adhere to the HUA constitution in any next steps.

According to one person familiar with the meeting, Cooke was not present for the majority of the meeting, but joined towards the end after the group asked HUA Co-President Shikoh M. Hirabayashi ’24 to call him in.

During the meeting, HUA officers were advised to generally ignore broad Crimson inquiries about the organization, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

Palumbo wrote in an emailed statement that “Assistant Dean Donahue simply reminded students that they are not obligated to respond to the Crimson.”

But in a Thursday email obtained by The Crimson, Donahue told HUA executive team members that he was “incredibly disappointed that last night’s meeting was shared with The Crimson.”

“I was under the impression that what was happening and what was said would not leave the group or the space,” he wrote.

According to the publicly available HUA Constitution and Bylaws, the process to remove an officer in power requires a recall election initiated by a petition signed by 20 percent of the number of student votes cast in the last election for that position.

Cooke and Hirabayashi won the co-presidency last year in an election with 1,954 total votes cast, requiring 391 signatures to reach the threshold for a recall election.

If a petition passes, then a recall election is held, in which two-thirds of voters must vote in favor of the recall for the officer to be removed.

The HUA also has the option to temporarily suspend Cooke — releasing a public statement of “charges” — while a team of students reviews the case and “render[s] a judgment.” If a supermajority of the team votes to “sustain the charges,” the officer remains suspended and the process goes to the recall election.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.

—Staff writer William Y. Tan can be reached at william.tan@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @william_y_tan.