MIT Scandal Highlights Thorny Ethics Of University Donations

While MIT grapples with new allegations about its financial ties to Jeffrey Epstein, other universities that accepted donations from the disgraced financier say they have no plans to return the money.

The turmoil at MIT has sent shockwaves through the world of education and highlights the challenges universities face as they screen potential donors and decide whether to keep money that’s tainted by its benefactor’s misdeeds.

Epstein was arrested in July on federal charges, drawing new attention to old allegations. He killed himself in jail in August while awaiting trial.

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.