Donations Linked To Jeffrey Epstein Spark Outrage At Prestigious Universities

The future of a distinguished academic program with deep ties to the tech world is in doubt after the departure of its director earlier this month.

Joi Ito stepped down as the head of the MIT Media Lab after The New Yorker revealed he had taken donations from disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, and directed staff at MIT to conceal the identity of their donor.

Students are calling on the president of the university to resign. A similar debate is happening at Harvard University, where Epstein maintained relationships years after his conviction on sex crimes charges in 2008.

Here & Now‘s Robin Young speaks with Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), co-founder and editor at large for Recode, who says Ito’s “style of corner-cutting ethics is all too common in tech.”

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.