{"id":201461,"date":"2026-02-24T13:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T13:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/epstein-files-cast-pall-among-us-faculty-and-students-i-just-feel-a-deep-disappointment-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T13:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T13:02:10","slug":"epstein-files-cast-pall-among-us-faculty-and-students-i-just-feel-a-deep-disappointment-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/epstein-files-cast-pall-among-us-faculty-and-students-i-just-feel-a-deep-disappointment-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Epstein files cast pall among US faculty and students: \u2018I just feel a deep disappointment\u2019 – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ties to the disgraced financier run deep through the academic world, documents released by the DoJ show
Major institutions of higher education in the US are reckoning with the latest release of the Epstein files after discovering the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>\u2019s relationships with board members, professors<\/a> and administrators on campuses across the country.
In some cases, professors have been placed under review,<\/a> research centers closed<\/a> or conferences canceled<\/a>. Students and staff have responded in different ways, including petitions, open letters and campus forums.
The Guardian spoke with students, employees and alumni at some of the universities implicated.
On 9 February, faculty at Barnard College, the private women\u2019s liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University, published an open letter<\/a> signed by more than 70 faculty members calling on the university to \u201cacknowledge and investigate\u201d recently released correspondence referencing a connection between Epstein and Francine LeFrak, a prominent donor and member of the school\u2019s board of trustees. LeFrak appears in the Epstein files 15 times<\/a>, according to reporting from The Barnard Bulletin.
In one appearance, a third party for LeFrak asked<\/a> via email \u2013 in 2010 \u2013 to join a close friend and Epstein during \u201cthe holidays\u201d; in another, later that year and also via a third party over email, she invited<\/a> Epstein \u201cas her guest\u201d to a trip to Rwanda, where she founded an initiative that provides occupational training and employment for female survivors of that country\u2019s genocide.
The letter notes that the connection between Epstein and LeFrak is \u201crepugnant\u201d, particularly since the interaction took place following Epstein\u2019s 2008 conviction of soliciting prostitution from a minor.
\u201cWe do not believe that people who maintained contact with a notorious sex trafficker and convicted sex offender express our values, nor have they behaved as proper trustees of Barnard College,\u201d the letter states. It also calls on Barnard to remove LeFrak\u2019s name from the newly constructed Francine A LeFrak Center for Well-Being, which houses the school\u2019s sexual violence education, prevention and outreach program, among other initiatives.
Many faculty members expressed confusion and outrage specifically regarding LeFrak\u2019s relationship to a program that is meant to encourage the health and wellbeing of young women.
\u201cI just feel a real, deep disappointment, because I think, as a women\u2019s college, our mission is directly antithetical to every revelation of those files,\u201d a Barnard professor, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
\u201cIt is some very privileged, powerful, in many cases secretive and nefarious men controlling the lives and narratives around a wide swath of women. How can a women\u2019s college \u2013 with its stated commitments to women\u2019s health, wellbeing, excellence \u2013 have a prominent name on campus that is now associated with a sex offender?\u201d
A Barnard spokesperson said the school had \u201cretained independent counsel to review the facts and advise the college accordingly\u201d, and noted that \u201cBarnard is a place where women\u2019s education is championed and where women are supported, uplifted and given the tools to become the best versions of themselves. Barnard has never accepted money from Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>, and we are not aware of any connection to the college.\u201d
Elsewhere, Columbia University disciplined two people affiliated with its dental college after documents revealed that they helped Epstein\u2019s girlfriend get into the school. Dr Letty Moss-Salentijn<\/a> was stripped of her title as vice-dean of the dental college while Dr Thomas Magnani<\/a> was removed from the school\u2019s admissions review committee and volunteer leadership roles.
The university also noted that it would be making a donation of $210,000<\/a>, the same amount it received from Epstein and related entities, to two New York-based non-profit organizations supporting survivors of sexual abuse and human trafficking.
On the other side of country, UCLA community members have been reeling at a swath of email correspondence between Dr Mark Tramo, an adjunct professor of neurology at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, and Epstein over a 12-year span. While UCLA removed Tramo\u2019s profile page from its website, he is still teaching classes at the university.
\u201cAs an academic, I am absolutely outraged by how [Tramo] abused his position,\u201d a UCLA alumnus who asked for anonymity wrote to the Guardian.
In 2010, Tramo forwarded Epstein messages<\/a> from two female students \u2013 one at UCLA and the other at Harvard \u2013 who had written to him to express interest in research opportunities through the Institute for Music and Brain Science, to which Epstein had donated money.
The next day, Epstein replied: \u201care either of these cute.\u201d Tramo responded: \u201cwe\u2019ll see! (you\u2019re terrible!)\u201d
A petition<\/a> calling on the university to fire Tramo has garnered more than 10,000 signatures. UCLA declined the Guardian\u2019s request for comment.
At Bard, the tiny liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, the latest release of Epstein files have struck a nerve at the center of campus.
A long-term relationship<\/a> was revealed between Leon Botstein, Bard\u2019s president, and Epstein, prompting students to pen an open letter<\/a> calling for Botstein to resign.
In his own letter to the Bard community, Botstein sought to clarify his relationship with Epstein, writing<\/a>: \u201cMy interactions with Epstein were always and only for the sole purpose of soliciting donations for the college. Mr Epstein was not my friend; he was a prospective donor.\u201d
In response to a request for comment, a Bard spokesperson referred the Guardian to a statement sent out by the school\u2019s board of trustees to the community on 19 February, in which they announced that the school had retained an external law firm to conduct an independent investigation<\/a> into communications between Epstein and Botstein. The independent review will include \u201cthe full scope of these communications, financial contributions connected to Epstein and any related matters relevant to understanding these issues fully\u201d.
\u201cBotstein has created the Bard that we know,\u201d a current student, who asked to remain anonymous, said. Botstein has been at the helm of the school for more than 50 years and is widely considered synonymous with the institution.
That student also said that the Bard community was conflicted over whether Botstein should resign. Those against his resignation have noted his longstanding tenure and role as a prolific fundraiser for the school.
\u201c[The Bard community] speaks out about a lot all the time, but this is something that people can\u2019t talk about because if they do, they lose their funding, their livelihoods,\u201d the student said.
Another student, who also requested anonymity, emphasized the significance of Botstein\u2019s fundraising efforts on campus.
\u201cPutting Bard in a transitional period, or a presidential search, would only hurt the more vulnerable parts of the institution,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re not a very wealthy college, and I think we\u2019ve done really amazing things with the money that Botstein has fundraised.\u201d
At Harvard, the former university president Larry Summers<\/a> announced in December that he was stepping down from his teaching position while the school investigated his ties to Epstein. The university also confirmed<\/a> that it was widening its investigation to look into donor relationships with the disgraced financier. A 2020 internal review<\/a> found that Epstein donated $9.1m to the Ivy League institution between 1998 and 2008.
Similarly, Yale University barred<\/a> the computer science professor David Gelernter from teaching while the school reviewed his connection with Epstein. In an email, Gelernter recommended a student<\/a> to Epstein for a software project, calling her a \u201cv small good looking blonde\u201d.
Ohio State announced<\/a> an investigation into the OB-GYN and university professor Dr Mark Landon after files revealed Epstein was sending regular payments to him. A Union College trustee, Brad Karp, resigned from his position<\/a> on the school\u2019s board over emails sent to Epstein, in addition to his role as chair of law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
Earlier this month, the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) confirmed in an email to the community that they suspended \u201ca FIT employee who has an alleged connection to the Epstein enterprise\u201d. While not named in the email, the professor was identified as Lawrence Delson<\/a>.
The latest release of the Epstein files has created seismic repercussions in a wide variety of industries in the US, the UK and beyond, including politics, business and entertainment.
In the UK, the long-term relationship between Peter Mandelson<\/a> and Epstein revealed in the files led to Mandelson\u2019s dismissal as British ambassador to the United States. Mandelson has since been asked to testify before Congress about the relationship. More notably, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former prince, was arrested on 19 February on suspicion of misconduct in public office by police investigating his dealings with Epstein.
Ramifications in the US business world were felt by the billionaire Thomas Pritzker, who stepped down as executive chair of the hotel chain Hyatt<\/a> after his ties with Epstein were made public. Top lawyer at Goldman Sachs Kathryn Ruemmler resigned<\/a> from her role after emails revealed a close relationship between her and Epstein, whom she referred to as \u201cUncle Jeffrey\u201d.
Dr Peter Attia stepped down from his position as chief science officer for David, a protein bar company, after his correspondence with Epstein, which included particularly lewd language<\/a>, was released.
Casey Wasserman, a leading Hollywood talent agent, decided to sell his agency after communications with Epstein\u2019s associate Ghislaine Maxwell were revealed. Wasserman is also the chair of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and has not stepped down from that role.
<\/span> This article was amended on 23 February 2026 to clarify that the emails to Jeffrey Epstein referencing Francine LeFrak were not directly with LeFrak but with a third party.<\/p>\n

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Ties to the disgraced financier run deep through the academic world, documents released by the DoJ showMajor institutions of higher education in the US are reckoning with the latest release of the Epstein files after discovering the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s relationships with board members, professors and administrators on campuses across the country.In some cases, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":201462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-201461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}