BOSTON (MA)
USA TODAY
July 12, 2019
By Sabrina L. Schaeffer
Now that financial mogul Jeffrey Epstein is charged with sex trafficking girls — including minors as young as 14 years old — his relationship to Harvard University and Harvard’s hypocrisy and failure to respond adequately to the Epstein scandal deserves our attention.
Epstein did not attend Harvard. Nor is he a faculty member. In fact, he doesn’t have a college degree. But for decades he has been a substantial supporter of Harvard’s programming, faculty, and social institutions. Prior to his 2008 plea deal in Florida, Epstein made sizeable grants to the university, including a $6.5 million donation in 2003 to the university’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics and additional pledges of up to $30 million. During this period, he supported several professors and he frequently described himself as a “Harvard investor.”
After Epstein was charged with soliciting sex in 2006, Harvard’s interim president made clear — as reported in The Harvard Crimson — that the university would not return his gift. He added that only in “extreme cases” would the university refuse contributions from questionable sources. But that prompts the question: Does Harvard not consider involvement in sex-trafficking girls to be an “extreme case?”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.