As the longtime president of Bard College, Leon Botstein has come under scrutiny for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. A coalition of students is drawing attention to the college’s handling of sexual assault cases over the decades.
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON — Carrying two-way radios and bedding, dozens of students barricaded themselves inside Bard College’s administrative building. A banner hung from a window asked, “Why does Bard tolerate rape?” Outside, more than a 100 students gathered in solidarity, chanting, “Whatever we do, wherever we go, yes means yes and no means no!”
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’s president denied having a close relationship with the donor, calling the suggestion childish.
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Thirty-five years later,tensions are rising again on Bard’s campusamid 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.”
In the wake of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Jan. 30 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 maintained contact with him anyway. In theFebruary edition of the Bard Observer, the student newspaper, Botstein told reporters he should have stopped communicating with Epstein after Virginia Giuffre’s accusations that she was trafficked to men became publicly known in 2015. Instead,Botstein sent his condolences.
Considering Botstein’s half-century leadership at Bard, these revelations haveraised concerns about the college’s future. But they have also prompted questions about its past.
Several students and alumni interviewed by the Times Union referred to Botstein’s ties to Epstein as all too emblematic of Bard’s longstanding issues with sexual assault. That history — laid out in lawsuits and media reports, as well as in the accounts of members of the student body and former Bard employees — paints 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.
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More:Bard President Leon Botstein’s Epstein ties explained
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For decades, the college has faced scrutiny for how its administration — and Botstein in particular — has handled sexual assault and rape allegations. From 2015 to 2017, Botstein served as the final arbiter in Title IX cases, meaning he was in charge of setting the punishment for students and faculty accused of harassment or even sexual assault.
During that period, two female students attempted to take their own lives after the administration permitted their alleged rapists to remain on campus. Botstein stepped back from this role in 2017 following student protests, but Bard’s2025 Title IX policystates that the president and/or the dean still ultimately oversees the punishment of accused faculty members.
