Bard College’s President, Leon Botstein, Will Retire After Epstein Revelations

The president of Bard College, who has run the unorthodox liberal-arts college for greater than a half century, introduced his retirement on Friday, after the discharge of paperwork that confirmed he had a better relationship with Jeffrey Epstein than beforehand identified.

The president, Leon Botstein, was identified for his fund-raising prowess and outsize character, however got here underneath scrutiny after the discharge of a trove of paperwork collected by the Justice Department associated to Mr. Epstein. The information confirmed Dr. Botstein had exchanged messages and visits with Mr. Epstein for years, together with after Mr. Epstein’s conviction on solicitation of a minor for prostitution.

In one 2013 word, Dr. Botstein signed off with “Miss you.” He spoke of his cherished “new friendship” with the financier, and wished him effectively after the publication of stories article that detailed his abuse.

The faculty commissioned an unbiased evaluate, performed by the regulation agency WilmerHale, and the findings were released on Friday.

The evaluate discovered that Dr. Botstein had carried out nothing unlawful however that his relationship with Mr. Epstein raised considerations about his management. The evaluate mentioned that Dr. Botstein had ignored the considerations of a senior school member who suggested him that Bard ought to keep away from Mr. Epstein.

“President Botstein forcefully argues that Bard’s need for funds was paramount,” the evaluate concluded. “His view was, ‘I would take money from Satan if it permitted me to do God’s work.’”

The evaluate famous that Mr. Botstein had visited Mr. Epstein’s island, invited Mr. Epstein to remain at Bard and to go to a highschool affiliated with Bard, and had taken payments from Mr. Epstein. Mr. Botstein mentioned he had in flip funneled these funds to Bard underneath his personal title.

Dr. Botstein has lengthy maintained that his relationship with Mr. Epstein was totally about coaxing him to offer cash to the college, which is about 100 miles north of New York City.

Dr. Botstein grew to become president of Bard in 1975, when he was solely 28 years outdated and the school was in dire monetary form. He earned a repute as a gifted fund-raiser, and is credited by his supporters with preserving Bard afloat at a time when many faculties are going through difficulties and some have closed.

In 2021, billionaire George Soros pledged to donate $500 million to Bard’s endowment, which now tops $1 billion.

The new paperwork didn’t present any legal wrongdoing on Dr. Botstein’s half, however Dr. Botstein is the newest highly effective individual to depart a prime place after their communications with Mr. Epstein had been revealed.

Dr. Botstein mentioned in a press release Friday that he believed it was within the “best interest of Bard” to attend till the evaluate was full earlier than he introduced his retirement.

In the assertion, he mentioned that he would proceed working as a professor and collaborating in music applications linked to Bard. Since 1992, Dr. Botstein has been the principal conductor and music director of the American Symphony Orchestra. In his assertion, he mentioned he would additionally dwell at Finberg House, an on-campus residence corridor.

Billing itself as “a private college in the public interest,” Bard has lengthy prided itself on bucking the conventions of upper training. The faculty doubled down on its bohemian sensibility underneath Dr. Botstein’s management.

The out-of-the-box considering prolonged to varsity admissions. Bard candidates, for instance, can skip the normal course of and as a substitute submit three prolonged essays.

And Dr. Botstein has lampooned the US News and World Report rankings, which many faculty leaders swear by.

He has additionally been a robust advocate for early faculty, creating among the first applications that permit youngsters, typically from underrepresented backgrounds, to earn faculty credit score tuition-free whereas nonetheless in highschool.

But when it got here to a different conference of contemporary greater training — the necessity to elevate personal cash — Bard embraced the follow. Dr. Botstein mentioned he hated elevating cash from the rich, describing it as a humiliating expertise.

Still, in his assertion Friday, he mentioned that the school underneath his watch had secured practically $3 billion in philanthropy. He mentioned he would keep as president till the tip of this educational yr, June 30.

It was fund-raising that introduced Dr. Botstein into contact with Mr. Epstein. Dr. Botstein has mentioned that the connection with Mr. Epstein started with a small, unsolicited donation by the intercourse offender in 2011. “A guy sent us money and we followed up,” Dr. Botstein told The New York Times in 2023. “It’s a simple story.”

But after the newest launch of paperwork, Dr. Botstein’s explanations for varied interactions with Mr. Epstein typically left group members with much more questions.

For occasion, after the paperwork confirmed that Dr. Botstein’s workplace had deliberate a visit to Mr. Epstein’s island in 2012, Dr. Botstein mentioned he had change into sick in the course of the journey and wasn’t positive whether or not he truly stayed on the island. When The Times reported an e mail from Dr. Botstein from the day after that 2012 journey, through which the president thanked Mr. Epstein and wrote “the place is great,” Dr. Botstein, via a spokesperson, mentioned he was referring to “the overall environment of St. Thomas.”

The WilmerHale report mentioned Dr. Botstein was not “fully accurate” in describing his relationship with Mr. Epstein in public statements.

The paperwork additionally confirmed that the 2 had labored collectively to purchase an costly watch. Dr. Botstein, a watch collector, defined that he was serving to Mr. Epstein, who had expressed curiosity in a watch, purchase one.

Dr. Botstein stored the timepiece for a couple of yr earlier than Mr. Epstein demanded Dr. Botstein return it or start making funds to cowl the $56,000 value.

In one e mail, Mr. Epstein even excoriated Dr. Botstein, describing his buy of the watch as “careless.”

The preliminary response to the information was subdued on the Bard campus, and it appeared many, together with board members, had been keen to face by a frontrunner seen by some as central to the school’s success over the many years. But the strain mounted after a sluggish drip of stories protection.

This spring, the board of trustees, headed by billionaire James Cox Chambers, introduced it had employed WilmerHale to analyze Mr. Epstein’s relationship with the president and Bard.

The school senate finally weighed in on the matter, urging trustees to “plan for a transition in leadership.” The school assertion additionally known as for envisioning a Bard after the person who had led it for greater than half a century.

The board on Friday thanked Dr. Botstein for “his countless accomplishments and the lasting impact of his leadership.” He mentioned it’ll quickly announce an interim chief and the small print of a nationwide seek for the following president.