It could seem, at first blush, an unlikely connection: Leon Botstein, the president of Bard, one of many nation’s most progressive schools, and Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced billionaire accused of sexually abusing teenage women.
But reporting from The Wall Street Journal this week confirmed that Dr. Botstein didn’t simply pursue Mr. Epstein hoping to boost cash, he did so repeatedly. He made frequent visits to Mr. Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse, and Mr. Epstein and his entourage hopped by helicopter to Bard’s lush campus within the Hudson Valley.
Dr. Botstein stated in interviews with The New York Times that the visits have been all about funding for Bard — for the varsity’s dedication to social justice, its prisoner schooling program, its liberal arts mission. Bard calls itself “a private college for the public good.”
“People don’t understand what this job is,” he stated, including, “You cannot pick and choose, because among the very rich is a higher percentage of unpleasant and not very attractive people. Capitalism is a rough system.”
In defending his pursuit of Mr. Epstein and candidly describing the burden of elevating cash, Dr. Botstein gave perception into how the necessity to entice {dollars} can seem to run headlong into a tutorial establishment’s acknowledged values.
Mr. Epstein gave prolifically to many charities and universities, together with Harvard and M.I.T., and the Wall Street Journal report confirmed that his community of contacts was wider than had been thought, together with outstanding figures just like the linguist Noam Chomsky and Lawrence Summers, the previous Treasury secretary and president of Harvard. Dr. Summers sought cash for a poetry basis, led by his spouse, Elisa New, a Harvard literature professor. Mr. Summers declined to remark.
“Would we accept money from Jeffrey Epstein today? No,” Dr. Botstein stated, describing the previous donor as a “monster” and “truly evil man.” “We had no idea, the public record had no indication, that he was anything more than an ordinary — if you could say such a thing — sex offender who had been convicted and went to jail.”
Mr. Epstein had been very publicly accused of sexually abusing women as younger as 14. However, he had minimized his authorized publicity with high-powered attorneys, settlements that silenced complaints, and a plea deal that short-circuited an F.B.I. investigation.
Bard College, about 100 miles north of New York City, was having a tough time after the 2008 monetary disaster. By 2016, a monetary rankings company had downgraded Bard’s financial outlook, partly as a result of the faculty had little money.
After Mr. Epstein gave Bard an unsolicited $75,000 reward in 2011, Dr. Botstein stated that he hoped for extra donations. The Times had beforehand reported the reward.
“A guy sent us money, and we followed up,” he stated. “It’s a simple story.”
Over the following 4 or so years, The Wall Street Journal reported, there have been two dozen or so visits scheduled with Mr. Epstein, largely on the financier’s Manhattan townhouse. Mr. Epstein visited Bard to attend an opera in 2013 and a live performance in 2016, planning to convey his younger feminine assistants and arrive by helicopter, based on the newspaper.
In an interview, Dr. Botstein stated he by no means witnessed younger feminine assistants round Mr. Epstein, that he was not current when Mr. Epstein’s helicopter arrived, and that he didn’t bear in mind whether or not he had met Mr. Epstein throughout these visits, which he stated occurred through the summer season when courses weren’t in session.
Dr. Botstein stated that it was his obligation to boost cash for the liberal arts establishment he leads, in a time when the nation is just not adequately funding increased schooling. Bard has a small alumni base, he stated, so a big a part of his job is persuading rich people who find themselves not affiliated with the establishment to provide cash.
“That is a humiliating experience to go back over and over and over,” Dr. Botstein stated, including, “We’re completely at the mercy of the very wealthy.”
At first, creating a relationship with Mr. Epstein didn’t appear far afield for Bard, based on Dr. Botstein. Bard has a program for convicted felons, and Dr. Botstein stated that the campus believes in second probabilities.
“That’s part of our educational mission,” he stated. “You wouldn’t criticize a priest for giving communion to a convicted felon.”
College presidents should usually mingle with unsavory characters to boost cash, stated Stephen Trachtenberg, a former president of George Washington University. During his tenure, Mr. Trachtenberg stated, he thought-about accepting donations from Scientologists and from the Libyan strongman, Col. Muammar Gaddafi, however finally rejected them.
In an interview, Mr. Trachtenberg, now 85, stated he by no means regretted his determination relating to Gaddafi, however nonetheless wonders whether or not he made the suitable name with the Scientologists, who he stated needed the college to confer an honorary diploma on their founder, L. Ron Hubbard, a George Washington alumnus.
“I could have put 10 students through college for that kind of money,” he stated of the supplied sum, and added, “You’re trying to figure out how to balance the source of the money with the purpose that you’re applying the money to.”
Mr. Epstein voraciously befriended rich executives, celebrities and politicians. As the accusations in opposition to him widened, although, establishments began investigating their ties to him and accounting for his presents, typically redirecting the cash. Mr. Epstein killed himself in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019, based on the New York City medical expert. At the time, Mr. Epstein was awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking prices.
All schools and nonprofit teams ought to ideally have a gift-acceptance coverage authorized by their trustees, addressing how you can deal with “tainted money,” stated Bill Stanczykiewicz, director of the Fund Raising School at Indiana University, referring to presents from disreputable folks.
There are not any arduous and quick guidelines about which donors are off limits, he stated; relatively, it’s as much as every establishment’s board of trustees and the neighborhood to carry fund-raisers accountable. He pointed to an previous maxim: “If this showed up above the fold in the newspaper, would we be embarrassed? Would we be able to defend this?”
Dr. Botstein stated Bard doesn’t have any restrictions about which donors it might settle for cash from, but it surely does have a rule that presents in extra of $10,000 require approval by the board of trustees. Efforts to achieve the chairman of Bard’s board, James. C. Chambers, weren’t instantly profitable.
Bard is in higher monetary form right this moment than it was when it was wooing Mr. Epstein. The school’s endowment acquired a $500 million reward in 2021 from the billionaire George Soros, a donation Dr. Botstein referred to as “the most historic moment” for the faculty since its founding in 1860.
No such presents got here from Mr. Epstein. Visits with him would at all times be accomplished in lower than half an hour, Dr. Botstein stated. And apart from Mr. Epstein’s donation of 66 laptop computer computer systems, efforts to extract cash from him proved unsuccessful.
“He enjoyed humiliating and dangling prospects,” Dr. Botstein stated, including, “He was sadistic. He absolutely strung me along.”
Susan C. Beachy contributed analysis.
Source: www.nytimes.com