The Washington Post - 18.09.2019

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 , 2019 THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

BY CAROLYN Y. JOHNSON

AND SUSAN SVRLUGA

Convicted sex offender Jeffrey
Epstein hobnobbed with some of
the world’s leading scientists and
thinkers, flying them on his pri-
vate jet to a TED conference,
socializing at exclusive soirees
and spawning a web of financial
relationships that have roiled two
of the world’s most elite univer-
sities. Harvard University and
the Massachusetts Institute of
Te chnology are still investigating
the extent of their financial rela-
tionships with Epstein. M IT Pres-
ident L. Rafael Reif is expected to
address the issue at a faculty
meeting Wednesday, and stu-
dents protested last week.
But the scandal has cast a light
on a social milieu of academic
superstars that burnished the
reputation and ego of a criminal,
forcing uncomfortable and divi-
sive conversations about who
should bear the blame, how phi-
lanthropy shapes universities
and whether the male-dominated
power structure in science and
technology helped enable Ep-
stein.
“Outside the university where
a lot of big money resides, we
have the Silicon Valley bro-cul-
ture, the venture capital culture,
the Biotech start-up culture, the
boy-genius culture — all of which
exclude women. Women can’t be
equal inside the university with-
out equal access at this nexus of
academia a nd philanthropy,” s aid
Nancy Hopkins, an emerita MIT
biology professor who document-
ed inequities at MIT in the 1990s,
which at t he time had tenured 197
men, but only 15 women.
While huge progress has been
made within universities, Hop-
kins said, “this new old-boy net-
work is even more difficult to
fight because it lies outside the
university.”
Harvard has disclosed it re-
ceived nearly $9 million from
Epstein, but the university’s pres-
ident, Lawrence S. Bacow, said
the school is not aware of any
gifts after Epstein’s 2008 guilty
plea for soliciting prostitution of
a minor. MIT has disclosed re-
ceiving $800,000. A New Yorker
story reported that $7.5 million
was given to MIT at the behest of
Epstein. MIT has retained an
outside law firm to investigate its
connections to Epstein. Both re-

views are ongoing.

The revelations around Ep-

stein and his contributions to the

schools precipitated the resigna-

tion of Joi Ito, the director of the

MIT Media Lab who received

funding from Epstein long after

the financier’s conviction as a sex

offender.

The fallout from the disclosure

of Epstein’s relationships with

leading intellectuals b egan piece-

meal this summer. One by one,

prominent scientists and think-

ers more accustomed to being

celebrated for their world-chang-

ing ideas and research answered

awkward questions about their

connections to Epstein.

George Church, a renowned

geneticist, apologized for receiv-

ing about $500,000 from Epstein

between 2005 and 2007.

“There is a feeling of revulsion

that I think is shared by most

people who were in direct con-

tact,” Church said.

Steven Pinker, a linguist at

Harvard and best-selling author,

said he never received money

from Epstein but met with him

three times over a dozen years —

including being flown on Ep-

stein’s p rivate jet to a TED confer-

ence along with other colleagues.

“I found him to be a kibitzer,

who liked to joke around with t he

guys, but had no serious interest

in pursuing ideas and argu-

ments,” Pinker said. After a sec-

ond meeting, Pinker said he was

told by a colleague that “Epstein

then ‘voted me off the island,’

banning me from future meet-

ings of the group, because I was

spoiling his fun by trying to keep

the conversation on track and

bringing up data from relevant

fields that got in the way of his

musings.”

The upheaval has intensified

as scholars debate publicly and

among themselves whether gen-

der biases and inequities in pow-

er within the academic culture

may have helped protect and

enable Epstein. Pressure to raise

money for research, the allure of

unrestricted donations for novel

ideas and the aura of star schol-

ars may have contributed to deci-

sions that in retrospect look taw-

dry. Faculty members described

responses ranging from horrified

reactions to arguments that

tainted money could be used to

promote social good through re-

search.

For years, leaders have been

working to make sure that tech-

nology and science become more

inclusive. But the Epstein scandal

is a reminder that despite prog-

ress, some circles may have been

more accessible to a known crim-

inal than to many women.

Te chnology scholar danah

boyd chose to talk about Epstein

last week when she was given an

award from the Electronic Fron-

tier Foundation.

“I am here today in-no-small-

part because I benefited from the

generosity of men who tolerated

and, in effect, enabled unethical,

immoral, and criminal men,”

boyd said.

“Many of us are aghast to learn

that a pedophile had this much

influence in tech, science, and

academia, but so many more

people face the personal and

professional harm of exclusion,

the emotional burden of never-

ending subtle misogyny, the ex-

haustion from dodging daggers,

and the nagging feeling that

you’re going crazy as you try to

get through each day. Let’s

change the norms. Please help

me,” boyd said.

Pattie Maes, chair of the Media

Lab executive committee, said in

an email there could be a silver

lining — a renewed focus on

making progress in inclusion and

equality.

“We have already started that

process at the Media Lab and

have decided to conduct a thor-

ough review and a reinvention of

our funding, culture, research

values and governance struc-

tu re,” she said.

The debate over Epstein and

his connections with premier

universities has had its own rip-

ple effects, including the resigna-

tion of Ethan Zuckerman, direc-

tor of the Center for Civic Media

at M IT and an associate professor

of the practice at the Media Lab,

who announced in August he

could not ethically square his

own work with the institution’s

connections to Epstein.

J. Nathan Matias, a visiting

scholar at MIT who is on the

faculty at Cornell University, also

announced he would leave at the

end of the academic year because

he could not, with integrity, con-

tinue his research at a place so

entangled with Epstein.

On Monday, prominent com-

puter scientist Richard Stallman

resigned from his Free Software

Foundation and from MIT, citing

“pressure on MIT and me over a

series of misunderstandings and

mischaracterizations.” Stallman,

an outspoken advocate for online

freedom, had weighed in on the

Epstein imbroglio on a depart-

mental email chain.

He ruminated on what consti-

tuted sexual assault and rape in a

defense of Marvin Minsky, the

late artificial intelligence pio-

neer, who had been implicated in

the Epstein scandal.

Stallman responded to an an-

nouncement of an Epstein pro-

test with a complaint that it was

an injustice to Minsky. The pro-

test announcement said Minsky

was “accused of assaulting one of

Epstein’s victims.”

Stallman wrote: “The injustice

is in the word ‘assaulting’. The

term ‘sexual assault’ is so vague

and slippery that it facilitates

accusation inflation: taking

claims that someone did X and

leading people to think of it as Y,

which is much worse than X.”

Stallman wrote that if Minsky

and the girl did have sex, the

word “assaulting” presumes

force or violence was used to

coerce it.

On Saturday, Stallman wrote,

“I want to respond to the mislead-

ing media coverage of messages I

posted about Marvin Minsky’s

association with Jeffrey Epstein.

The coverage totally mischarac-

terized my statements.

“Headlines say that I defended

Epstein. Nothing could be fur-

ther from the truth. I’ve called

him a ‘serial rapist’, and said he

deserved to be imprisoned. But

many people now believe I de-

fended him — and other inaccu-

rate claims — and feel a real hurt

because of what they believe I

said.

“I’m sorry for that hurt,” he

wrote. “I wish I could have pre-

vented the misunderstanding.”

Stallman did not immediately

respond to messages seeking

comment.

An MIT graduate, Selam Jie

Gano, who called for Stallman’s

resignation, wrote in a post on

Medium that this was a chance

for institutions to act.

“This conversation about Ep-

stein, Minsky, and Stallman

should motivate other institu-

tions too. Even if they are certain

they took no money from Epstein

or never hosted Minsky or Stall-

man, this is a broader conversa-

tion about politics and ethics,”

Gano wrote. “Who else has gone

unchecked? When else have staff

or administration felt like what

they were doing was morally

wrong?”

More than 100 people gathered

Friday for a protest at MIT orga-

nized by students calling on the

university’s president and others

who were aware of Epstein’s do-

nations to resign.

[email protected]

[email protected]

Epstein, academia and questions about male dominance in science and tech

“Who else has gone unchecked? When else have

staff or administration felt like what they were

doing was morally wrong?”

Selam Jie Gano,

an MIT graduate, on university ethics

RUBEN SPRICH/REUTERS

Joi Ito resigned as the director of the MIT Media Lab after the revelation that he received funding from

Jeffrey Epstein long after the financier’s conviction as a sex offender in 2008.

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