On Monday morning, the Harvard Institute of Politics (IOP) announced its newly elected executive board. Tenzin Gund-Morrow ’26 and Summer Tan ’26 were elected as President and Vice President, respectively, and will lead the IOP through 2025, alongside Kevin Bokoum ’26, Treasurer, and Lorenzo Ruiz ’27, Communications Director.
Looking ahead, Gund-Morrow and Tan are eager to expand the organization’s programs, forge partnerships, and make the IOP more accessible. Their platform focused on increasing career development resources and expanding opportunities for students to engage with politics beyond Harvard.
For Gund-Morrow, the IOP is “a place where you [can] not only think about and learn about politics but also start your public service journey by being part of the civic world around us. That sort of hands-on learning is definitely what I was looking for,” he said. “As I got older, I saw the things that at the IOP really need improvement and investment, and the ways that the community should be expanded to more people at Harvard.”
“To really love an institution is to be willing to challenge it and to change it when necessary,” Tan added.
Through their efforts to broaden the IOP’s impact, Gund-Morrow and Tan are committed to maintaining the organization’s nonpartisanship and fostering meaningful dialogue. “The very unique place that the IOP has at Harvard is being a bridge for people that disagree on important issues,” Gund-Morrow explained. “For me, it’s about expanding who feels comfortable so that they want to come and learn from people that have different experiences and beliefs than them through the programming we have to offer,” he added.
Reflecting on her experience growing up in Oregon’s only swing district, Tan expressed, “I learned that true nonpartisanship is about being able to debate and disagree productively.” She continued, “You can’t just hide your head in the sand and pretend like it isn’t happening because these conversations are happening with or without you.”
In light of a controversial editorial by current IOP president Pratyush Mallick ’25 in The Harvard Crimson, which suggested that the IOP abandon its nonpartisan stance after Donald Trump’s re-election, Gund-Morrow and Tan reaffirmed their commitment to preserving the IOP as a space for diverse perspectives and open dialogue.
“First and foremost, our priority is making sure that people of all different ideologies, political beliefs, and party affiliations feel comfortable,” Gund-Morrow expressed. “I think we fail as an organization if we’re not in touch with politics beyond the Johnston Gate and Harvard Yard,” he added, noting the contrast between Harvard’s predominantly liberal environment and the broader political landscape in the United States.
Gund-Morrow, who currently serves as co-chair of the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, emphasized the importance of including diverse perspectives at the forum, and more broadly at the IOP as a whole.
“This week, we’re having Kellyanne Conway come to the forum, which I know is someone that kind of represents the Trump field of politics, which is oftentimes excluded from the IOP,” he stated. “Exclusion only…pushes everyone further into their own echo chamber. So I don’t think there’s any benefit from doing that sort of exclusionary platforming at the IOP,” Gund-Morrow added.
While the new IOP board will prioritize the inclusion of diverse perspectives, Gund-Morrow stressed the importance of upholding respect and institutional boundaries. “If you’re a civic leader, you can have controversial opinions,” Gund-Morrow stated. “That’s a huge difference from someone that just wants to bash others and tear other people down. And that’s what we don’t have a toleration for at the IOP.”
Looking ahead, Gund-Morrow and Tan are focused on broadening the IOP’s reach by engaging students from underrepresented backgrounds. Specifically, they aim to create more opportunities for international students, veterans, and athletes. They also hope to increase diversity at the IOP by making the organization more financially accessible.
With the support of the rest of the board, Gund-Morrow and Tan plan to build partnerships within and beyond Harvard, such as with other Institutes of Politics throughout the nation and with international groups. Kevin Bokoum ’26, the new Treasurer of the IOP, aims to work alongside Gund-Morrow and Tan to expand opportunities for international students. Specifically, he hopes to fund a global affairs program and increase funding for global internships.
Bokoum expressed his confidence in the incoming executive board and excitement about his plans for his tenure. He is eager to expand fundraising initiatives, such as by strengthening existing donor partnerships and building new ones. Bokoum also hopes to expand revenue by exploring merchandise sales and more collaborations with companies, such as the new GovLab program, a partnership with venture capital firm XFund.
The IOP was a major factor in Bokoum’s decision to attend Harvard, and he got involved as soon as he first set foot on campus. “The IOP has changed from not just a club for me, but [to] a home and where I’ve met some of my closest friends,” he said. Having served in roles such as the IOP’s Director of Internal Affairs, he is eager to continue supporting the organization as Treasurer.
Bokoum echoed Gund-Morrow and Tan’s sentiment about keeping the IOP a hub for diverse dialogue. “Everyone on our current executive team, I know for a fact, are…committed to the values of nonpartisanship,” Bokoum said. “That’s what the IOP was founded on” he added, “we’re going to continue to remain nonpartisan, and we’re going to continue to have a wide breadth of speakers from every single ideology.”
Bokoum also expressed that more broadly, the coming spring will be a good opportunity to “take a step back from all the pomp and circumstance that’s happened with fall 2024 and going into 2025, reassess the membership of IOP, and see what we can do to support programs and mentorship retention.”
The IOP’s newly elected Communications Director Lorenzo Ruiz ’27 echoed the optimism of the rest of the new executive board. “I love the IOP so much,” he emphasized. “It’s a place that’s given me not only a sense of purpose but a family at Harvard.” Ruiz explained that he “came to the realization pretty early on that contributing in a comms capacity was going to be the most effective way that [he] could contribute to the IOP.”
Ruiz elaborated further on how special a place he thinks the IOP is, discussing how “there are few places like the IOP that give us a space to come face to face with one another, to talk about tough issues… and to really facilitate a rigorous and curious dialogue.” Ruiz expressed that this is especially important because “we’re constantly undergoing changes in the political wind as a country, and it’s amazing and invaluable to have a place like the IOP where we’re able to come together and understand political phenomena together.”
Ruiz emphasized the IOP’s commitment to the Harvard community, and he also felt confident about the new executive board. “The IOP has an amazing responsibility to the Harvard community to be responsible stewards of political education and discourse, and that’s always going to come first and foremost,” he said. He added, “I think this is going to be a tenure of extremely responsible and mindful stewardship.”
On maintaining nonpartisanship, Ruiz highlighted the IOP’s dedication to fostering a wide range of viewpoints. “We’re going to continue to be a place that is able to host diverse perspectives, and able to do so in a responsible and wide-ranging manner,” he explained.
Ruiz also outlined plans to revitalize IOP communications, focusing on more engaging strategies such as “smaller and more engaging emails,” an “online merch shop that ships directly to student mailboxes,” and “more student spotlights and features for programs.” Looking ahead, Ruiz is “excited to get down to work and make very tangible improvements for the lives of [IOP] members.”
“We aren’t just an organization that’s built around like-minded people working on how to achieve their vision,” Gund-Morrow emphasized. “We’re also about having dissenting opinions and discourse on tough conversations, so we really do welcome people that have any background, ideology, opinion, and party affiliation.”
Kayla Reifel ’26 (kaylareifel@college.harvard.edu) and Abril Rodriguez Diaz ’26 (abrilrodriguezdiaz@college.harvard.edu) write News for the Independent.