The president of Bard Faculty, an unorthodox liberal-arts college in New York, introduced his retirement on Friday, after operating the varsity for greater than a half century.
The president, Leon Botstein, was recognized for his fund-raising prowess and outsize character, however got here underneath scrutiny after the discharge of paperwork that confirmed he had a more in-depth relationship with Jeffrey Epstein than beforehand recognized.
Dr. Botstein has lengthy maintained that his relationship with Mr. Epstein was totally about coaxing him to present cash to the varsity, which is about 100 miles north of New York Metropolis.
Dr. Botstein turned president of Bard in 1975, when he was solely 28 years outdated and the school was in dire monetary form.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 proficient fund-raiser, and is credited by his supporters with holding Bard afloat at a time when many schools are dealing with difficulties and some have closed.
In 2021, the billionaire George Soros pledged to donate $500 million to Bard’s endowment, which now tops $1 billion.
However this 12 months, a trove of paperwork launched by the Justice Division 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 a single 2013 be aware, Dr. Botstein signed off with “Miss you.” He spoke of his cherished “new friendship” with the financier, and wished him nicely after a information article that detailed his abuse was printed.
The brand new paperwork didn’t present any felony wrongdoing on Dr. Botstein’s half, however Dr. Botstein is the newest highly effective individual to depart a high place after their communications with Mr. Epstein have been revealed.
The school commissioned an impartial overview, carried out by the regulation agency WilmerHale, and the findings were released on Friday.
The overview discovered that Dr. Botstein had carried out nothing unlawful however that his relationship with Mr. Epstein raised issues about his management. The overview mentioned that Dr. Botstein had ignored the issues of a senior college member who suggested him that Bard ought to keep away from Mr. Epstein.
“President Botstein forcefully argues that Bard’s want for funds was paramount,” the overview concluded. “His view was, ‘I’d take cash from Devil if it permitted me to do God’s work.’”
Dr. Botstein mentioned in a press release Friday that he believed it was within the “finest curiosity of Bard” to attend till the overview was full earlier than he introduced his retirement.
Within the assertion, he mentioned that he would proceed working as a professor and collaborating in music applications linked to Bard.
Billing itself as “a personal faculty within the public curiosity,” Bard has lengthy prided itself on bucking the conventions of upper training. The school doubled down on its bohemian sensibility underneath Dr. Botstein’s management.
Bard candidates, for instance, can skip the standard course of and as an alternative submit three prolonged essays. And Dr. Botstein has lampooned the U.S. Information and World Report rankings, which many faculty leaders swear by.
However when it got here to a different conference of contemporary increased training — the necessity to increase personal cash — Bard embraced the follow. Dr. Botstein mentioned he hated elevating cash from the rich, describing it as a humiliating expertise.
Nonetheless, in his assertion Friday, he mentioned that the school underneath his watch had secured greater than $3 billion in philanthropy.
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 man despatched us cash and we adopted up,” Dr. Botstein instructed The New York Occasions in 2023. “It’s a easy story.”
However after the newest launch of paperwork, Dr. Botstein’s explanations for numerous interactions with Mr. Epstein typically left group members with much more questions.
As an example, 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 through the journey and wasn’t positive whether or not he really stayed on the island. When The Occasions reported an electronic mail from Dr. Botstein from the day after that 2012 journey, thanking Mr. Epstein and saying “the place is nice,” the president, by way of a spokesman, mentioned he was referring to “the general setting of St. Thomas.”
The WilmerHale report mentioned Dr. Botstein was not “totally correct” 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 few 12 months earlier than Mr. Epstein demanded Dr. Botstein return it or start making funds to cowl the $56,000 price.
In a single electronic 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, have been keen to face by a frontrunner considered by some as central to the school’s success over the a long time. However the stress mounted after a sluggish drip of stories protection.
This spring, the board of trustees, headed by the billionaire James Cox Chambers, introduced it had employed WilmerHale to research Mr. Epstein’s relationship with the president and Bard.
The school senate ultimately weighed in on the matter, urging trustees to “plan for a transition in management.” 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 numerous accomplishments and the lasting impression of his management.” It mentioned it should quickly announce an interim chief and the small print of a nationwide seek for the following president.
