After 51 Years at Bard, Months of Scandal, Botstein Retires

Speaking before hundreds of graduating high schoolers and their families at a Bard High School Early College graduation ceremony in Manhattan, outgoing Bard College President Leon Botstein faced a chorus of boos. “To get anything done,” he told graduates, “you’re going to have to dance with the devil.” The New York Times reported that the ensuing roar was so loud Botstein paused, shook his head and then said, “The fifth piece of advice I would give is appropriate to your response: Don’t judge too quickly things in life.”

A Bard spokesperson told the Times that Botstein was not referencing his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender whom Botstein courted as a potential Bard donor for years. But several students interpreted his comments that way, the Times reported. Botstein’s advice to graduates echoed a remark he made to the external law firm that investigated his ties to the financier this past spring: “I would take money from Satan if it permitted me to do God’s work.”

Tuesday was Botstein’s last day as president of the New York liberal arts college. On Wednesday, executive vice president and vice president for academic affairs Jonathan Becker, who has worked at Bard for nearly 30 years, became acting president while the Board of Trustees seeks a permanent replacement. During his 51 years as president, Botstein racked up a long list of accomplishments—among them, establishing the Bard Music Festival, the Bard High School Early Colleges, several overseas partnerships and the Bard Prison Initiative, and raising a cumulative $3 billion for the college. Under his leadership, Bard’s enrollment swelled and its global footprint and impact expanded considerably.

But the final six months of his tenure have been marred by controversy over his ties to Epstein. Botstein’s name is mentioned thousands of times in the Epstein files, and correspondence between the two revealed that the president invited Epstein to dinner, to the opera and to the Bard campus. Botstein also visited Epstein’s infamous island and extended his sympathies when Epstein was being criticized in the press.

WilmerHale, the independent law firm the Bard College Board of Trustees hired to investigate those ties, determined in May that Botstein never took part in anything illegal but that he did minimize his relationship to the sex offender. As Botstein steps down from the presidency, lawmakers, students, alumni and employees are still seeking more answers and more accountability.

A Mixed Legacy

Just this week, a group of current and former employees at the college’s performing arts venue, the Fisher Center at Bard, published an open letter asking the board not to “further engage Leon Botstein in any contract related to music and performing arts activity at Bard College.” Upon retirement, Botstein planned to stay on as a faculty member and continue his leadership roles with Bard Music Festival, SummerScape and the Bard Conservatory.

“Botstein’s relationship with and cultivation of Epstein as a donor contributed to the legitimization of Epstein in the eyes of his victims and the public. We will not, in turn, continue to legitimize Botstein after it has been made clear … that he is unfit to serve in a position of leadership over the young people on this campus,” the letter said. “In our collective tenure here, Botstein has not treated his colleagues with respect, has enabled harmful behavior from our donors, and has regularly acted in ways counter to the values expressed in our Community Commitments.”

Concerns about the board’s leadership decisions and Botstein’s ties to Epstein are “not abstract” to the center employees, the authors wrote.

“As one of the most public-facing institutions within Bard College, we have been subject to repeated inquiries to cancel ticket orders to events featuring Botstein and demands for public statements in response to his behavior—the latter of which we have, to this point, responded to with silence at the College’s direction,” they wrote. “In the last four months, we have had staff decline to continue working with us, citing Botstein’s role as a factor in their departure.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 144 people associated with the Fisher Center had signed the letter, many of them anonymously. A college spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about the letter.

The open letter follows a June 17 request from Maryland congressman and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee Jamie Raskin, who asked outgoing Bard board chairman James Cox Chambers to “make Dr. Botstein available for a transcribed interview” with the committee. WilmerHale’s investigation fell short and failed to examine the full extent of Epstein’s connections to Bard and how Botstein and other college officials may have, knowingly or not, helped facilitate Epstein’s access to young women, Raskin wrote.

“Our review thus far shows that there is a significant risk that Bard’s relationship with Mr. Epstein may have caused still unexamined harms and consequences,” Raskin wrote. “Mr. Epstein benefited from a relationship with Bard and Dr. Botstein that was both financial and deeply personal … Bard courted Mr. Epstein aggressively, inviting him to campus and Bard High School to meet with Dr. Botstein, attend performances, and rub shoulders with Bard students at receptions. Although Dr. Botstein acknowledged ‘he was a convicted felon for a sex crime,’ he nonetheless had ‘about two dozen meetings’ with Mr. Epstein over the next four years, most of which involved visiting his New York City townhouse, the same townhouse in which he allegedly abused and raped countless young women.”

Raskin also asked Chambers to hand over materials from the WilmerHale investigation, notes and transcripts from board meetings related to Epstein and many other college documents to “demonstrate Bard’s commitment to change and to provide transparency and make amends for the survivors.”

Raskin gave Bard a response deadline of July 1. In June, a college spokesperson told The Guardian, “We have received the letter and are reviewing it.”