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The Epstein Chronicles
Campus Unrest at Bard: Leon Botstein, Epstein, and the Fight for Accountability (4/1/26)
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Student protests at Bard College have intensified following revelations about longtime president Leon Botstein and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, reigniting scrutiny of the school’s history with sexual assault cases. Demonstrations in 2026...
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What's up, everyone? And welcome to another episode of the Epstein Chronicles. The halls of higher education are littered with people that were accepting Jeffrey Epstein's money and his friendship. And one of those people is Leon Botstein. And at Bard University, where he is the president and a professor, the students are calling for him to step down. And it was only a matter of time before the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein came looking for Leon Botstein. These guys were very close, and Epstein was somebody that was donating a lot of money to Botstein and was somebody that was in contact with him quite a bit. And now, rightfully so, people are demanding answers. So today we have an article from the Times Union, and the headline, epstein revelation revived decades of sexual assault controversies at Bard. This article was authored by Sarah Trafton. Carrying two way radios and bedding, dozens of students barricaded themselves inside Bard College administrative building. A banner hung from a window asked, why does Bard tolerate rape? Outside, more than 100 students gathered in solidarity, chanting, whatever we do, wherever we go, yes means yes, and no means no. Well, I think that's a pretty fair statement, huh? And is there anything worse than a scumbag that assaults somebody else? I don't think so. Here's an idea. Go home, get on the Internet, Take care of yourself. Leave everybody else alone, you sick degenerate. The year was 1991, and Bard students were protesting an alleged rapist on campus. An article in the student newspaper reported that the young man's father had donated money to the college. The college president denied having a close relationship with the donor, calling the suggestion childish. Oh, yeah, I'm sure you had no kind of relationship with any of your donors, huh? None whatsoever. 35 years later, tensions are rising again on Bard's campus amid demands for the resignation of longtime leader Leon Botstein after new evidence of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, one of the world's most infamous sex offenders. On March 11, about 40 students protested outside a building where Botstein was meeting with faculty. No more silence, no more fear, they chanted. A safer campus starts right here. A banner displayed inside the campus center building read, epstein is just the tip of the iceberg. Faculty know what is below. Look, they're not wrong. Jeffrey Epstein was just the tip of the iceberg. And if you think he's the only one doing what he was doing, you're crazy. There's already another Jeffrey Epstein operating right under our noses. And until we get serious about holding everybody that's involved in shit like this accountable, it's just going to continue to happen in the wake of the U.S. department of Justice January 30th release of millions of documents from its Epstein investigation. Botstein has acknowledged that he knew of at least some of the allegations against the financier, as well as being previously aware of the 2008 conviction that required Epstein to register as a sex offender and maintain contact with him anyway. Well, that's because he didn't care, just like the rest of them. But do you expect that from a professor? We shouldn't, right? A professor should be somebody that steps up and protects people that are under his charge. But instead, you have this dude hanging out with Epstein, converting with Epstein, taking money from Epstein, doing God knows what with Epstein, meanwhile not giving a damn about the young people that Epstein is absolutely brutalizing. And for what? Another building on campus, Another couple of bucks for you to funnel to one of your friends so you can launder money. Because I know damn well that money isn't going towards the betterment of humanity, just another income source for these people to pilfer. In the February edition of the Bard observer, the student newspaper, Botstein told reporters he should have stopped communicating with Epstein after Virginia Roberts accusations that she was trafficked to men became publicly known in 2005. Instead, Botstein sent his condolences because that's how he truly felt. Now, retroactively, he might feel bad because he's facing scrutiny, but at the time, his actions speak louder than his words. And there's no doubt that people like him were more concerned about Jeffrey Epstein having to go to jail than they were about the girls who were abused. And you can see that from the contemporaneous emails between the two. Considering Botstein's half century leadership at Bard, these revelations have raised concerns about the college future, but they have also prompted questions about its past. Look, man, when you have a school like this that's already been, you know, under the microscope previously, and then you have somebody like Leon Botstein opening the doors and having Epstein be involved, people are going to have questions, especially now when all of this is coming out. And I hate to say it again, but I have to. A lot of this has to do with the legacy media failing you. They should have been on these stories. People like me only have so much reach, and then you have these global outlets that could have broke this story at any time, but they chose not to. So it's not that there was a lack of knowledge or information. There was a lack of willpower on behalf of the legacy media to inform you about what was going on. Several students and alumni Interviewed by the Times were referred to Botstein's ties to Epstein as all too emblematic of Bard's long standing issues with sexual assault. That history, laid out in lawsuits and media reports, as well as accounts of members of the student body and former Bard employees, points to a darker portrait of the idyllic Hudson Valley campus where as recently as 2023 faculty could sleep with students as long as they disclosed their relationship. And look, I get it. People are 18 of age. If they want to do whatever they want to do, not really my business. But when we're talking about the power dynamic between professors and students, probably not a good idea. And if I was running a university, I would have a policy in place against it because you just open yourself to all kinds of craziness, right? For decades, the college has faced scrutiny for how its administration, and Botstein in particular have has handled sexual assault and rape allegations. From 2015 to 2017, Botstein served as the final arbiter in Title 9 cases, meaning he was in charge of setting the punishment for students and faculty accused of harassment or even sexual assault. Jeffrey Epstein's good buddy Leon Botstein is in charge of sexual assault. I mean, you can't make this up. You couldn't write a storyline that's this nefarious. During that period, two female students attempted to take their own lives after the administration permitted their alleged rapist to remain on campus. Botstein stepped back from his role in 2017 following student protests. But Bard's 2025 Title IX policy states that the president and or the dean still ultimately oversee the punishment of accused faculty members. So basically what they're saying there is that the Skull and Bone Society or whatever the going on is going to be in charge of who's going to stay and who's going to go and what allegations have merit. I'm sure that's a very comforting fact for everybody who's been abused, especially these girls who are on campus with the rapist who hurt them. You don't throw that dude off campus. You don't kick him out of there forever. Sure, let's let him run around the campus and do whatever he wants. Over the past 35 years, Bard has faced at least three Title IX complaints and five lawsuits alleging the administration mishandled sexual assault cases, two of which named Botstein in his individual capacity. December 2015, the U.S. department of Education's Office of Civil Rights launched an investigation into Bard, a probe the college said was closed in 2024 after no systemic issues were found. Attempts to confirm this information with the federal office were met with an automated message stating that it was temporarily closed. Oh, yeah, everything's fine here. We did an internal investigation and everything came back on the up, says every organization that's ever been involved in. For many students, the college board's recent decision to hire an outside law firm to review Botstein's communication and financial dealings with Epstein is not enough. In a Feb. 22 letter, a coalition of students called Take Back Bard laid out their concerns. There is no reason to trust that this independent review of the full scope of communication, financial contributions connected to Epstein, and any related matters will address or even interrogate the broader culture of sexual abuse on the campus, the letter states. There's no reason to believe that if this review truly does investigate the pervasive sexual misconduct on the campus, that Bard College will commit to any tangible changes. And if you know you have a problem on campus and you don't change, you should be sued. Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that every campus can control every student. That's crazy. We know that's not true. But if you're fostering an environment where this shit's acceptable, then you, my friend, have a problem. And it would seem to me that Bard has a problem. Bard College spokesperson Jennifer Strodel said the student group has not contacted college administration about the concerns they recently shared with reporters, but that the college set up a meeting to discuss as soon as we were made aware of them. Cool. Get rid of Botstein, cut his pension and be done with it. Until you do that, nobody cares. Another group of students, Bard Cher, is pushing back against Take Back Bard's calls for Botstein's resignation, stating that an abrupt change in leadership puts the future of the college in jeopardy and will gravely impact some students more than others. Oh, yeah, let's just keep the molester in charge. The molester's friend, molester's assistant, the diddler's dude, what are we doing here? You mean to tell me there's nobody that's better suited to take over that position? Nobody that's ever went to Bard. No professors or executives could do what Leon Botstein does. That's cool. I guess you learn something new every day. Bard's lifeline programs for students and scholars from war torn countries and dictatorships do not have counterparts in American higher ed, a March 10 letter on the group's Instagram account reads. The letter goes on to describe Botstein as a maverick who took political risks no other college president did. Oh, well, that just absolves him of everything that happened with Epstein. No big deal. So he's the only person that would have people coming over from war torn countries and talking about war torn countries. If you're so worried about them, boy, wait until I introduce you to the girls that Jeffrey Epstein and his pals were abusing. You want to talk about vulnerable? You want to talk about war torn countries? In addition to calling for Botstein's resignation, Take Back Bard has used organized protest and a petition to demand that the administration acknowledge what the group describes as a culture of sexual misconduct and institute a no tolerance policy for abusers on on campus. Well, that seems very fair to me. If you're abusing people, you probably shouldn't be on a college campus. And I'm sorry if that interferes with your pursuit of higher education. You should have thought of that before you raped somebody. The list of demands mirrors the one that students issued in the spring of 91. Alright, so the article goes on here talking about Bard and some of the issues that they've had with with sexual assault on campus. And like usual, that link will be provided in the description box. But for our purposes, we're going to finish up that article right here because the rest of it just goes into the backstory about what went down at Bard. Doesn't have to do with Epstein per se, but it just shows you the culture on the campus. Now when it comes to Botstein, there's no doubt that that dude needs to answer for his relationship with Epstein. He's never answered in any meaningful way. And I think that there's a lot more to come out as we move forward. So we'll keep our eyes open and when we have some more information about Mr. Botstein, we'll get that added to the catalog. All the information that goes with this episode can be found in the description box.