The Boston Globe - 11.09.2019

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2019 The Boston Globe Metro B

Epstein-related matters, such
as developing a written propos-
al for funding from Microsoft
founder Bill Gates that Epstein
said he could arrange.
Cohen said he had no per-
sonal relationship with Epstein
and his interactions with him
were few and brief.
“Notwithstanding my per-
sonal discomfort regarding Mr.
Epstein and his involvement
with MIT, I did not believe I
was in a position to change
MIT’s polices and practices,”
Cohen said in an e-mailed
statement. “I did not witness
anything I understood to be il-
legal, and I never solicited gifts
from Mr. Epstein.”
Cohen has been working at
Brown University as its director
of development for computer
and data science initiatives
since 2018. On Sunday, Brown
placed him on paid leave after
reports that he helped secure
money from Epstein. Cohen
said he hopes to eventually re-
turn to his position.
Ito resigned Saturday after
an explosive report in The New
Yorker alleged that he and oth-
er Media Lab employees had
deliberately masked the full ex-
tent of the center’s ties to Ep-
stein and worked with the con-
victed sex offender even though
the university had listed him as
a “disqualified” donor.
According to e-mails that
circulated in 2014 and 2015
among university officials, at
least two top MIT fund-raisers,
along with a finance depart-
ment administrator, were
aware of Epstein’s involvement
in the Media Lab and knew

uMIT
Continued from Page B

that his donations were to be

treated as anonymous in the

university’s donor-tracking sys-

tem.

The e-mails were provided

by Whistleblower Aid, a Wash-

ington, D.C., nonprofit repre-

senting Signe Swenson, a for-

mer alumni coordinator and

development associate at the

Media Lab. Swenson worked

with Cohen.

MIT president L. Rafael Reif

said Monday that the university

had retained the law firm

Goodwin Procter to investigate

Epstein’s interactions with

MIT. Epstein was convicted as a

sex offender in 2008 for solicit-

ing a minor for prostitution

and sentenced to a 13-month

jail term. Despite that criminal

history, Ito said he wooed Ep-

stein as a donor for the lab

when he met him in 2013.

Ito has said that the Media

Lab took $525,000 from Ep-

stein, and media reports sug-

gest that he took $1.2 million

from the financier for his own

venture funds. Ito has also said

that he traveled to Epstein’s

homes.

But Epstein’s involvement

with the Media Lab extended

far beyond that, according to

the e-mails.

Ito and other MIT employ-

ees wrote in the e-mails that

Epstein had acted as an inter-

mediary to help the Media Lab

secure major donations, includ-

ing $5.5 million from investor

Leon Black, founder of one of

the world’s largest private equi-

ty firms, and $2 million from

Gates.

Epstein was also included in

an intimate dinner planned

with Silicon Valley bigwigs, Ito,

and other Media Lab staff at an

exclusive Palo Alto restaurant

in the summer of 2015. Cohen

was not on the invited list.

Media Lab officials were al-

so in talks with Epstein and

other donors about creating fel-

lowships and prizes for recog-

nizing and cultivating genius

and creativity outside the tradi-

tional disciplines, including a

society of “Antidisciplinary

Scholars,” according to e-mails

from 2014 and 2015.

According to the e-mails, Ito

would typically communicate

directly with Epstein about do-

nors and his financial contribu-

tions and ask Cohen to provide

follow-up material and ideas.

Epstein was found dead in

August in his jail cell at a feder-

al detention facility in Manhat-

tan, where he was being held

on charges of sex trafficking of

minors.

Deirdre Fernandes can be

reached at

[email protected].

Follow her on Twitter

@fernandesglobe.

Ex-MITfund-raisersayshefollowedpolicyonEpsteingifts

By Sarah Wu

GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

CAMBRIDGE — The resig-

nation of the head of the MIT

Media Lab has prompted soul-

searching on the campus, as

students and staff consider

broad questions around the

sources of university funding.

Joi Ito, the Media Lab’s di-

rector since 2011, resigned on

Saturday shortly after the pub-

lication of an explosive report

in The New Yorker that he had

hidden the full extent of the

lab’s ties with convicted sex of-

fender and financier Jeffrey

Epstein.

On Monday, junior Prateek

Kalakuntla said the allegations

have made him question the

funding behind his own biolo-

gy research and the ethical

standards around accepting

donations.

“It makes you wonder what

the value of getting funding

from sources whose money

may be tainted is, and whether

you can qualify that by saying

that this money is going to-

ward a good cause,” he said. “Is

that a good enough reason to

take the money?”

Cynthia X. Hua, a first-year

graduate student at the Media

Lab, said that while there

should be scrutiny of Ito’s ac-

tions, it is important to consid-

er broader problems, such as

the economic structures that

allow people to become billion-

aires and wield so much pow-

er.

“It doesn’t just need to be a

focus on what Joi did or when,”

Hua said. “I don’t mean to ab-

solve Joi of blame, but I don’t

want us to get tunnel vision on

what one man did when we

could be doing more for the

bigger problem.”

“Epstein’s not the first time

and MIT’s not the first univer-

sity. It’s prevalent across uni-

versities and museums,” Hua

added. “It’s become so normal-

ized to be dependent on super-

donors for intellectual, cultur-

al, and scientific efforts.”

Vivian Siegel, a biology lec-

turer at MIT, said she was

shocked that Ito had not fully

disclosed his ties to Epstein,

but was wary of vilifying him.

“It speaks to how hard it is

to fund certain types of re-

search,” she said. “More and

more people are going after

philanthropy, because we can’t

get that money from the gov-

ernment.”

Siegel said she would like to

think she would have rejected

Epstein’s money, but many or-

ganization’s donor rolls in-

clude people with questionable

backgrounds.

“People make challenging

choices all the time. This build-

ing is Koch-funded,” she said,

standing across from the Koch

Institute for Integrative Cancer

Research. “These amazing

things that happen at MIT

don’t happen for free.”

Several undergraduate stu-

dents on campus said they had

not heard of Ito or did not

know enough about the case to

share an opinion. Mitchell

Guillaume, a senior, said that

many of his classmates are

“not super political.”

“We’re kind of in a bubble,”

he said, noting that students

are gearing up for classes and

an upcoming career fair.

“Sometimes we as students are

not as connected with the out-

side world as we should be.”

Guillaume said he has ben-

efited from the opportunities

MIT offers and that the revela-

tions have made him think

more about the money that

made those opportunities pos-

sible.

“MIT has a lot of money,

but that all comes from some-

where — and you need to think

about where it comes from,” he

said.

Sarah Wu can be reached at

[email protected].

Oncampus,soul-searchingonfundingsources

‘Itspeakstohowharditistofundcertaintypesofresearch.’

VIVIAN SIEGEL,biology lecturer at MIT

By Alyssa Lukpat
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
Police in Maine captured
one suspect Tuesday morning
but were still searching for an
alleged accomplice wanted in
the shooting of a man Monday
in Presque Isle, a city in Aroos-
took County on the Canadian
border, police said.
Presque Isle police and
Maine State Police arrested Jo-
mo White, 31, of Atlanta, “with-
out incident” at a home in the
city, Presque Isle police said in a
statement. A manhunt was still
underway for Jason Alexander,
44, of Blaine, Maine.
The men allegedly shot an-
other man on Northern Road at
5:47 a.m. Monday, Stephen Mc-
Causland, a spokesman for
Maine State Police, said in a
statement.
The Aroostook County
Crime Stoppers is offering $
for information leading to Alex-
ander’s arrest, the statement
said.
The victim called police after
he was shot, and he was taken
to Northern Light AR Gould
Hospital for surgery, State Po-
lice said. He was flown to
NorthernLightEasternMaine
Medical Center in Bangor and
remains in critical condition.
Police have interviewed sev-
eral witnesses to the incident,
Presque Isle police said.
“Police are considering this
an isolated incident and believe
the victim and shooters knew
each other. The public is asked
to remain vigilant, but go about

their normal daily routines,” Pr-

esque Isle police said in another

statement.

Monday’s shooting follows a

double homicide Aug. 13 in

Castle Hill, a town about 10

miles west of Presque Isle. Rog-

er Ellis, 51, and Allen Curtis,

25, were found shot to death in

a pickup truck, Maine State Po-

lice said in a statement. The

murder remains unsolved, and

police are offering a $2,000 re-

ward for information about the

crime.

Presque Isle schools were

open Tuesday following Mon-

day’s lockdowns, said Rhonda

Kenney, an administrative as-

sistant to the superintendent at

Maine School Administrative

District #1.

State Police are asking any-

one with information about Al-

exander to call State Police at

207-532-5400, Presque Isle po-

lice at 207-764-4476, or the

Aroostook County Crime Stop-

pers at 1-800-638-8477, the

statement said.

“Anyone found to have aided

either of these men in evading

arrest will be subject to prose-

cution,” State Police said.

State Police, Presque Isle po-

lice, the Aroostook County

Sheriff’s Department, and the

Maine Drug Enforcement

Agency are investigating the

shooting, the statement said.

Alyssa Lukpat can be reached

at [email protected].

Follow her on Twitter

@AlyssaLukpat.

Oneoftwosuspects

capturedafter

shootinginMaine

By Matt Murphy
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
Next year, Ryley Copans
plans to get married.
But Copans, 25, has a linger-
ing worry that the state mar-
riage license documenting the
partnership won’t accurately
reflect their identity.
“Being nonbinary is a real
and valid gender identity,” Co-
pans told a panel of state legis-
lators on Tuesday. “We want to
be recognized as we are.”
Copans and other support-
ers of legislation to make a gen-
der-neutral designation avail-
able on state identifying docu-
ments like driver’s licenses,

birth certificates, and marriage

licenses testified before the

Joint Committee on State Ad-

ministration and Regulatory

Oversight.

The hearing in the Gardner

Auditorium drew an over-

whelmingly supportive audi-

ence, including many individu-

als who identified themselves

as nonbinary and explained to

legislators how a new law

would impact their lives.

Some said the legislation

would make them feel safer,

while others explained how it

would make it easier for them

to obtain relevant health care.

A bill to make a “gender X”

designation available as a third

option on driver’s licenses and

birth certificates passed the

Senate almost unanimously in

April, and advocates are push-

ing for a vote in the House as

they seek to move their legisla-

tion to Governor Charlie Bak-

er’s desk.

A similar bill passed the Sen-

ate last session but stalled in

the House, where Democrats

outnumber Republicans 127-

this session.

Copans told the committee

that lawmakers should not take

as long to pass the bill as they

did to approve a ban on conver-

sion therapy for minors, which

became law this year after

many years of failed attempts.

The bill that passed the Sen-

ate this spring would require

the Registry of Motor Vehicles

to make a third, gender-neutral

option available to applicants

for a license or learner’s permit

and would allow anyone over

18, an emancipated minor, or

the parents of a minor to re-

quest a change in the sex listed

on someone’s birth certificate to

male, female, or X. The birth

certificate component was add-

ed to the bill this year.

“No public policy good is

achieved by forcing someone to

lie about their gender identity.

But much good does come from

permitting the designation of

gender X,” said Arline Isaacson,

who cochairs the Gay and Les-

bian Political Caucus.

The Registry of Motor Vehi-

cles has already said that it has

been working to prepare soft-

ware capable of offering a third

“gender X” option on ID cards.

Critics of the legislation, in-

cluding former House lawmak-

er and Massachusetts GOP

chairman Jim Lyons, have

raised concerns regarding pub-

lic safety and confusion for law

enforcement, while Massachu-

setts Family Institute executive

director Andrew Beckwith said

a driver’s license should reflect

a person’s sex, not gender.

“The concept of ‘gender

identity’ is based on internal

feelings, but sex is binary [male

or female] and grounded in bi-

ology, and we believe that a

state ID should continue to re-

flect the objective fact of sex,

not gender,” Beckwith said.

Many testifying Tuesday,

however, noted that Massachu-

setts would not be at the van-

guard of the movement toward

gender-neutral documentation.

Fourteen states and the Dis-

trict of Columbia already allow

a third, gender-neutral option

on driver’s licenses.

GenderXsupporterspressHousetovote,addthedesignation

PHOTOS BY JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF

T

he Annual Senior Party in the Park, held

in Roxbury at Malcolm X Park Tuesday,

included music, dancing, and food as part

of the fun. Above, Smiler Haynes danced with

her son Randy under a tent. At left, Jose F.

Alvarez was all decked out in a striped suit and

matching hat, with a red bowtie and pocket

square. Starting out as a small picnic, the event

has gained popularity and is now the city’s

second largest annual event for seniors.

DANCINGIN

SEPTEMBER