(Lawrence Lessig) Epstein at Harvard: We're Not Finished Yet

[brooklynite]

Harvard Crimson

Harvard has apparently concluded its review of its relationship to the convicted child sex offender, Jeffrey E. Epstein. In September 2019, after expressing that he “profoundly regret[s]” Harvard’s association with Epstein, University President Lawrence S. Bacow promised “to review how we prevent these situations in the future.” In May 2020, the University released a report completing the first steps of that review. The report found Harvard had taken no money from Epstein after his conviction, though there were further questions that merited study. Two weeks ago, after completing that study, Harvard determined to shutter the research center Epstein’s money had founded, and “disciplin[e]” its academic director.

Yet in these steps, Harvard has still not given us a fair accounting of our past. And worse, in this latest step, it hides that account behind a scapegoat.

There are three chapters in the evolving relationship between academic institutions and Jeffrey Epstein. In the first, before his conviction in 2008, everyone loves Epstein. In the third, after the 2018 article in the Miami Herald detailing his depravity, everyone hates Epstein. But in the second, there is an ambiguous dance between this generous funder and universities that recognize complexity in taking his money.

In 2008, former University President Drew G. Faust resolved that complexity with clarity, but incompletely. Unlike others, such as MIT, Faust determined that Harvard would take no more money from Epstein, according to the May 2020 report. But very much like others, including MIT, she gave no directive about how the many other ways that Epstein was connected to the University should be affected by her determination. In particular, she gave no guidance about how the center that Epstein’s main contribution to Harvard had established, the Program on Evolutionary Dynamics, should negotiate its continued interactions with Epstein.