Dealing With Disreputable Donors

When Bard College (NY) president Leon Botstein first met financier Jeffrey Epstein, Epstein was a convicted and registered sex offender. That didn’t stop Botstein from accepting a personal gift of $150,000 from Epstein, which the president then directed to the college as part of his own $1 million gift, The New York Times reported. Epstein’s gift—which Botstein has downplayed—raises questions about how colleges should handle criminal donors and whom presidents should engage with in their fundraising duties.