Students at a graduation ceremony on Monday for Bard College’s high schools in New York and New Jersey repeatedly booed the college’s outgoing president, who announced his retirement last month after it was revealed that he had a much closer relationship with Jeffrey Epstein than previously known.

The students booed after nearly every mention of the president, Leon Botstein, and heckled him when he offered advice for the graduates, especially his guidance for dealing with complex people who are not good or honest.

“To get anything done, you’re going to have to dance with the devil,” Botstein said.

The roar of the students became so loud inside the venue, the United Palace in upper Manhattan, that Botstein paused and shook his head. “The fifth piece of advice I would give is appropriate to your response: Don’t judge too quickly things in life,” he said.

Botstein did not mention Epstein by name, and Jennifer Strodl, a spokesperson at Bard College, said that he was not referring to him. From 2012-17, Botstein had exchanged messages and visits with Epstein despite a warning from a senior faculty member to stay away from him and after Epstein’s conviction on solicitation of a minor for prostitution.

“President Botstein was making the point that functional societies anywhere depend on speaking with those with whom we have differences, not giving in to Balkanization, and maintaining a commitment to dialogue, disagreement and debate always,” the college said in a statement Monday.

Several students said they had interpreted his remarks as a reference to the disgraced financier and said that the boos were prompted by his ties with Epstein.

“He was basically saying, ‘You gotta do what you gotta do,’” Fayana Butler, 18, a graduate of Bard High School Early College Brooklyn, said. “I don’t think he was sorry.”

Another student at the school, Moriah Khan, 18, said that she found Botstein’s advice to be “weird” and “creepy.” She said, “That was definitely a reference to the Epstein stuff.”

A prodigious fundraiser, Botstein met Epstein while seeking to raise money for the unorthodox liberal-arts school that he has led for more than five decades. The college, whose main campus is in Annandale-on-the-Hudson, New York, also operates several high schools across the country, including four in New York City and another in Newark, New Jersey.

Botstein had maintained a relationship with Epstein believing that he was “an ordinary sex offender” who had been rehabilitated, according to a report commissioned by the college.

“President Botstein forcefully argues that Bard’s need for funds was paramount,” the review had concluded. “His view was, ‘I would take money from Satan if it permitted me to do God’s work.’”

The commencement speaker Monday, Philip Murphy, the former governor of New Jersey, praised Botstein and his leadership, saying that they had known each other for about 15 years.

“May I say this without any hesitation: When the history of higher education in America is written, Chapter 1 will be an homage to the incomparable Leon Botstein,” said Murphy, drawing loud jeers from the crowd. “Period. Mark my words.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Matthew Haag and Caitlyn Freeman/Arden Wray
c. 2026 The New York Times Company