Some Bard College students will rally on the Annandale-on-Hudson campus Wednesday night.
Posters around campus during the day included the words, "Jane Doe lives in Annandale." The phrase seemingly alludes to the former Cornell University student who recently filed a lawsuit alleging she was gang raped at a fraternity affiliated with the Ithaca, New York, school. The gathering also seems to draw a connection between the current case in the Finger Lakes and the ongoing controversy at Bard surrounding the Hudson Valley college's former president Leon Botstein's relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The rally will take place just hours after members of the Bard community gathered on campus at Stevenson Library Wednesday morning for Community Conversations. The college describes the series as "open campus community conversations for students, faculty and staff." This was the first event in the series since Botstein formally resigned from all Bard-affiliated positions last week.
Botstein submitted his resignation on the same day the college received a letter from Maryland U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, laying out his latest findings in an investigation into Botstein's relationship with Epstein. That day, Raskin also sent a letter calling on federal law enforcement to investigate Botstein as a possible co-conspirator in Epstein's sex trafficking operation. He said the evidence meets the federal standard for opening a criminal investigation.
According to the committee investigation, an email was sent from the address president@bard.edu to Epstein in 2014 asking if a young woman being trafficked by Epstein was "for me, or are you keeping her for yourself." The committee said its investigation found Epstein used his relationship with Botstein to convince the unidentified victim "that she could have a successful musical career after modeling."
In a statement last week, Botstein said, "The allegations in this letter are untrue, including an email that I did not author or send. Any assertion that I knew of or was involved in Epstein's criminal behavior is wrong."
Botstein, who retired as president of Bard earlier this year, has maintained that his relationship with the late sex offender was solely for fundraising purposes. Botstein was mentioned thousands of times in Epstein's emails released by the Justice Department.
The poster around campus promoting Wednesday night's rally also said, "For every Jane Doe at Bard, for every story that deserves to be heard, we will not be silenced anymore."
Last week, Raskin also announced that the Judiciary Committee was separately provided allegations by more than a dozen whistleblowers of "decades of unpunished sexual misconduct at Bard, including allegations that Botstein groped women and intervened in Title IX proceedings to protect offenders."
In a statement last week, Brandon Weber, chair of the Bard College Board of Trustees, said, "The college president has not had unilateral decision-making authority over Title IX investigations or adjudications since the 2015-2016 school year."
Weber said in the statement that an independent external investigator reviews formal complaints alleging sexual harassment or assault. They then submit a report to an impartial hearing chair. The board chair said the college "maintains a fair, impartial, and accessible Title IX process," citing gender-based misconduct and sexual assault, including bystander intervention training, administered to all first-year students.
"Our message to everyone in the Bard community is simple: if you file a complaint, we will investigate it fairly, thoroughly, and with the utmost respect for your safety," Weber said in the statement.
The rally Wednesday is just the latest student reaction to the continued allegations surfacing against Botstein. Students protested last week outside the college president's residence — Gerry House — where Botstein was still living until he resigned from all Bard positions.
Third-year Bard student Yulon Espinal said Wednesday that Bard's Acting President Jonathan Becker spoke to students at a recent nighttime protest, pointing out that others on campus were trying to sleep.
"And he was like, 'People's kids are trying to sleep and stuff.' It's like, well, there's a pedophile right there, so ... I don't think sleep is the biggest threat to those kids," Espinal said. "And I wish there was more effort to separate Botstein from the institution. If he's like stepping down to distance himself and, like, make Bard look bad, then he should do it all the way."
The frustration Espinal expressed was echoed in conversations with a number of other Bard students WAMC has spoken to in the week since more news related to the Raskin-led investigation surfaced.
The college did not respond to another inquiry Wednesday about whether Botstein will still take up residence at another Bard building called Finberg House, which had been the plan for his retirement from the presidency.
Despite recent reassurances from college officials, students have told WAMC in recent days that they still see "a culture of fear" on campus when it comes to reporting sexual misconduct, particularly on the part of faculty members.
Bard student Adriano Piscopo told WAMC last week that while the college has these programs in place — whether it's Title IX representatives, anonymous tip lines or counselors — he still thinks there is a sense among students that those programs aren't having the desired effect.
Senior Valentine Jordan shared a similar sentiment with WAMC on Wednesday. She said she plans to attend Wednesday night's rally.
"Coming forward is like it becomes such a horrible, like, it becomes a worse situation for, like, the victim," she said. "Like the victim gets like an X on their back rather than the offender. Like, and that's why people don't come forward because, like, they know that they're not, like, nothing going to come out of it besides more trauma."
