One trustee called the decision to end Botstein’s tenure “the end of our college as we know it today.”
Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | nancykennedy/iStock/Getty Images | Jemal Countess/Getty Images
After an independent law firm completed its investigation into Bard College president Leon Botstein’s ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Botstein announced his retirement. He framed it as a decision he made on his own in a May 1 letter to the campus community: “After completing 51 years as the president of Bard, I am announcing that I will be retiring from the presidency at the end of this academic year, June 30, 2026,” he wrote. He plans to stay on the faculty as a music professor.
Neither Botstein’s letter nor statements from the Board of Trustees or the college made any mention that the board voted on Botstein’s future, and several faculty members told Inside Higher Ed they didn’t receive any communication about a vote. But according to an article in The Guardian on Friday, the board did decide to end the president’s decades-long tenure during a meeting in late April. In the weeks since, three board members—including the chair, billionaire James Cox Chambers—have stepped down. It is unclear why they decided to leave the board now.
