Photo: James Rojas/WBZ NewsRadio
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Harvard University has no plans to rename a building and a museum that are named after the late Arthur M. Sackler, who is a member of the family accused of fueling the opioid crisis.
The Sackler Family owns pharmaceutical company and OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma.
A petition to remove the Sackler name was introduced by campus group Harvard College Overdose Prevention and Education Students in 2022. Arthur M. Sackler died nearly a decade before OxyContin was developed, but the group argues that he had a role Purdue Pharma's marketing practices that pushed the drug.
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A review committee for Harvard University was not persuaded by the petition. In a report released on Wednesday, the committee said that "Arthur Sackler's legacy is not necessarily deplorable but rather is complex, ambiguous and debatable."
"Furthermore, in his own time, although he received some criticism, the committee does not find that his actions were broadly regarded as objectionable," the report said. "It is only in recent years, with the public reckoning of the role of other Sackler family members in the opioid crisis, that his actions have been widely scrutinized. Indeed, were it not for the modern-day tragedy of opioids, there is no reason to believe that the naming would now be questioned."
But, the review committee did say that their decision does not "exonerate" or endorse Arthur Sackler's actions. They recommend that the university makes efforts to explain Sackler's legacy to visitors of both the building and the museum.
In 2019, Tufts University removed Sackler’s name from its campus.
WBZ NewsRadio’s James Rojas (@JamesRojasMMJ) reports.
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