Harvard University says it already spent $6.5
million that Epstein donated in 2003. The
University of Arizona says it isn’t returning
$50,000 it received in 2017. The University of
British Columbia is not giving back $25,000 it
got from an Epstein charity in 2011.
Ohio State University has not said what will
come of its funding from Epstein, including $2.5
million donated in 2007. The school announced
a review of the gifts in July but declined to
provide an update.
Epstein’s ties to academia are coming under
renewed scrutiny amid allegations that a
prestigious research lab at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology had a more extensive
fundraising relationship with Epstein than it
previously acknowledged and tried to conceal
the extent of the relationship.
The allegations, first reported by The New
Yorker, spurred MIT’s president to bring in
an outside law firm to investigate. In a letter
to campus, President Rafael Reif called the
accusations “deeply disturbing” and
“extremely serious.”
Reif previously announced that MIT had
received about $800,000 from Epstein over two
decades and would donate the same amount to
a charity that benefits victims of abuse.
Other schools have said they didn’t even know
donations they received came from Epstein. His
$50,000 to the University of Arizona to pay for a
science conference came through a charity he
operated, Gratitude America, Ltd. School officials
said they were unaware of his ties to the charity
at the time.