Harvard University yanked dean status from a veteran law professor amid student unrest over his role on disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s legal team — even though he stepped aside from the case one day earlier.
Professor Ronald Sullivan will no longer oversee Harvard’s Winthrop House undergraduate residence because of an “untenable” environment in the dorm, the school said Saturday in a message to the student body that was reported by The Harvard Crimson.
“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 Rakesh Khurana. “I have concluded that the situation in the House is untenable.”
The message was light on specifics, but Sullivan’s gig defending Weinstein against a slew of sex-crime allegations brought to light by the #MeToo movement had made him the target of months of protests around campus.
On Friday, Sullivan informed the Manhattan judge overseeing the Weinstein case that he was stepping down as co-lead counsel — with one source close to the matter telling The Post that the decision to walk away was over pressure at Harvard and threats against his family.
But Sullivan’s distancing himself from Weinstein apparently made no difference, as he was stripped of his dean’s post the next morning.
Also losing out on a dean’s title is Sullivan’s wife, Prof. Stephanie Robinson, who made history with Sullivan when they were named Harvard’s first black faculty deans 10 years ago.
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.
Sullivan and Robinson said they were “surprised and dismayed” that Harvard gave them the boot.
“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 statement to The Crimson. “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.”
But at least someone has Sullivan’s back: His former client.
“Mr. Sullivan believed that Mr. Weinstein deserved a vigorous defense, and it is a sad moment for us all right now,” said a spokesman for Weinstein. “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.”
With Post Wires