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How Epstein’s Shadow Is Reshaping Donor Legacy on College Campuses · The Vault: The Epstein Files

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  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
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  Epstein Chronicles. There's a debate that's currently raging about whether
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  people like Les Wexner should have their names pulled off
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  of buildings on college campuses such as Ohio State University,
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  and in this episode, I have a few thoughts about
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  the topic that I'm going to share with you, because
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  what we're witnessing right now isn't even a debate. It's
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  a delayed eruption of outrage that should have exploded years ago.
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  The presence of Les Wexner's name plastered across college campuses
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  is in some neutral artifact of generosity. It's a monument
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  how effectively wealth can purchase reverence, silence, and institutional loyalty.
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  For decades, universities didn't just accept money. They sold their
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  credibility in exchange for it. They took checks, handed over
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  naming rights, and in doing so, turned the campuses into
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  billboards for men whose backgrounds they either ignored or deliberately
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  chose not to scrutinize, and folks, it was in ignorance,
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  It was convenience. It was easier to celebrate the donor
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  than to ask the uncomfortable questions about how the donor operated.
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  And now that the Epstein scandal has ripped open the curtain,
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  that convenience looks exactly like implicity. Look, the outrage isn't new,
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  it's just no longer being suppressed. And the truth is,
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  every single one of those buildings with Wexner's name on
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  it is a physical reminder of that failure. Not a
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  legacy of philanthropy, but a legacy of wilful blindness. And
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  let's be crystal clear about something. Charitable giving in this
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  context was never just charity. It was strategy. It was
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  a calculated move to embed influence into institutions that shape
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  public perception, education, and cultural authority. When someone like Wexner
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  writes massive checks, he isn't just funding buildings. He's buying insolation.
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  He's buying prestige, and he's buying a buffer between himself
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  and scrutiny. And universities were more than willing to play along.
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  They didn't just accept the money. They celebrated it, amplified it,
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  and wrapped it in moral language that made criticism feel inappropriate.
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  That's how the shield gets built, not overnight, but brick
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  by brick, donation by donation, Gallo by gala, and once
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  that shield's in place, it becomes incredibly difficult to penetrate.
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  Anyone who questions it is framed as ungrateful, reactionary, or uninformed.
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  That's the machine that people are finally pushing back against.
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  And it's about time. Look, the Epstein scandal didn't create
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  this problem, it exposed it. It's forced people to look
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  at relationships that had been hiding in plain sight for years.
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  Wexner's connection to Ebstein is not some obscure footnote. It's
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  central to understanding why his name is now under scrutiny.
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  The question isn't just what he knew, it's how that
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  relationship was allowed to exist without triggering alarm bells at
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  the highest levels of the institutions tied to them. Universities
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  don't get to pretend that they exist in a vacuum.
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  When you attach your identity to a donor, you inherit
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  the scrutiny that comes with that donor's actions and associations.
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  That's the price of taking the money, and for years
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  that price was conveniently ignored. Now it's due, and suddenly
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  institutions that once proudly displayed that name are scrambling to
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  figure out how to respond without admitting they got it wrong.
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  That's the real tension here, not complexity, but accountability colliding
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  with ego. The idea that these names should remain in
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  place is not just indefensible, it's insulting. It tells students, faculty,
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  in the public that the institution values financial contributions more
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  than ethical clarity. It says, as long as the check clears,
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  everything else is negotiable. That's the cross of message, especially
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  in environments that claim to be dedicated to truth and integrity.
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  You can't preach values in the classroom while ignoring them
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  in your donor relations. That contradiction is exactly what people
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  are reacting to and their right to react, because every
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  day that name stays on those buildings is another day
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  the institution is signaling that it's more comfortable protecting its
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  past decisions than correcting them. And can we please stop
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  pretending that tearing down a name is some radical act.
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  It's the bare minimum. It's lowest possible threshold of accountability.
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  Nobody's asking universities to rewrite history. They're asking them to
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  stop glorifying it. There's a difference between acknowledging that someone
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  existed and honoring them as a pillar of your institution.
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  Right now, those campuses are doing the latter. They're continuing
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  to elevate a name that is now inextricably linked to
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  one of the most disturbing scandals in modern history. People
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  are done accepting it. The patience is gone, the benefit
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  of the doubt is gone. What's left is a very
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  simple question, why is that name still there? And the answer,
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  of course, is not a mystery. It's fear. Fear of
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  setting a precedent, fear of alienating other donors, fear of
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  opening the door to further scrutiny. But let's be honest
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  about what that fear really represents. It represents a system
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  that's more concerned with protecting its funding model than upholding
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  its stated values. It represents an unwillingness to confront the
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  possibility that the way these institutions have operated for decades
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  is fundamentally flawed, and instead of addressing that flaw, they stall,
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  They issue statements, they promise reviews, they hope the outrage
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  burns out. That's the playbook, and it's been used over
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  and over again. The only difference now is that people
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  aren't buying it anymore, And the argument that it's complicated
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  is one of the most tired deflections in existence. It's
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  the rhetorical equivalent of a smoke screen. Yes, institutions are complex, Yes,
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  donor relationships are layered. None of that changes the core issue.
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  A name tied to a deeply troubling network remains honored
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  on campuses that claim to stand for something better. It's
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  not a complicated moral question. It's a very simple one
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  that is being deliberately obscured by bureaucratic language and institutional inertia.
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  And the longer that language is used, the more it
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  sounds like what it actually is. An excuse, not a reason,
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  not a justification, an excuse to delay action that should
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  have already been taken. And for me, there's something deeply
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  offensive about the way the institutions continue to frame these
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  discussions as ongoing evaluations, valuations of what exactly. The facts
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  are already out there, the associations are already known, the
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  public sentiment is already clear. What is being evaluated is
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  not the situation. It's the risk, the risk of backlash,
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  the risk of donor fallout, the risk of financial impact.
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  And that tells you everything you need to know about
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  where their priorities actually lie, because if the priority was integrity,
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  the decision would have already been made, the name would
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  be gone, the statement would be issued, and the institution
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  would take the hit and move forward. Instead, we get
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  delay disguised as diligence, and people are tired of it,
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  and that's why their demands that the money be redirected
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  isn't just symbolic. I think it's logical. If those funds
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  help build institutions that are now grappling with the consequences
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  of that association, then those resources should be used to
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  address the harm connected to it. That doesn't require a
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  philosophical debate. It requires a decision, a decision to prioritize
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  restitution over reputation, a decision to acknowledge that the benefits
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  received came with a cost that is now being fully understood.
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  But again, that would require action, and action is exactly
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  what institutions have been avoiding because once you take one step,
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  you set a precedent, and once that precedent is set,
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  you can't easily walk it back. And I think that
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  what makes this moment different is that the public is
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  no longer content with statements. They want results. They want
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  to see names removed, policies changed, and accountability enforced. They're
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  no longer willing to accept vague commitments to do better.
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  That language has been exhausted. It's been used too many
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  times in too many contexts without producing meaningful change. So
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  now the expectation is clear, act or be exposed as
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  unwilling to act. And for institutions that have built reputations
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  on moral authority, that sure is a dangerous position to
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  be in, because once that authority is questioned, it is
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  very difficult to rebuild. The truth is, universities created this
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  problem by allowing donor influence to become so deeply embedded
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  in their identity. They allowed money to dictate honor. They
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  allowed generosity to override scrutiny, and they did so because
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  it was profitable, convenient, and widely accepted. But that acceptance
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  has fractured. The social contract that allowed this system to
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  operate is breaking down. People are no longer willing to
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  separate the donation from the donor. They are looking at
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  the full picture, and in many cases then only what
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  they see. Because there is a certain arrogance in the
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  way institutions assume that they can wait this out, as
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  if outrage has a shelf life, as if attention will drift,
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  as if people will just eventually move on. That assumption
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  has been true in the past, it is not guaranteed now.
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  The Epstein scandal has a staying power that other controversies
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  did not. It touches too many sectors, implicates too many figures,
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  and raises too many unanswered questions. It's not a story
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  that fades easily, and every time it resurfaces, so does
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  the scrutiny of those connected to it. And that includes Wexner,
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  that includes the institutions that honored them, and that includes
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  every decision they make moving forward. The continued presence of
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  his name is not a neutral choice. It is an
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  active one. It's a decision to maintain the status quo
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  despite everything that has come to light, and that decision
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  has consequences. It erodes trust, It fuels criticism, It reinforces
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  the perception that institutions are more interested in protecting themselves
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  than confronting reality. And these aren't abstract consequences. They're tangible.
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  They affect enrollment, reputation, and long term credibility. And yet
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  even with those risks, many institutions still hesitate, and that hesitation,
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  at least for me, speaks volumes. At some point, the
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  question becomes unavoidable. What exactly are these institutions standing for.
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  If the answer includes integrity, accountability, and truth, then those
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  values need to be reflected in action, not just rhetoric,
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  because right now the gap between what is said and
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  what is done is impossible to ignore, and that gap
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  is where credibility goes to die. You can't educate students
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  about ethics while simultaneously dodging ethical responsibility in your own operations.
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  That contradiction is not sustainable, and eventually it's going to
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  collapse under its own weight. The removal of Wexner's name
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  should not be controversial. It should be automatic. It should
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  have already happened. The fact that it hasn't tells you
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  everything about how entrenched this system is. It tells you that,
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  even in the face of overwhelming scrutiny, institutions are still calculating,
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  still hesitating, still trying to find a way to minimize disruption.
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  That instinct is exactly what got them into this position
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  in the first place, and until that instinct changes, nothing
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  else will look. There's no shortage of language available to
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  justify delay. There are committees, reviews, stakeholder consultations, and endless
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  internal discussions. All of it sounds reasonable on the surface,
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  but at the end of the day, it leads to
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  the same place in action, and unfortunately, that's a choice
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  to maintain honor where it's no longer warranted, a choice
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  to prioritize stability over accountability, and a choice that people
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  are increasingly unwilling to accept. What should happen is obvious.
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  The name should come down. The institutions should acknowledge their
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  role in elevating those names, the resources connected to those
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  donations should be redirected in ways that address the broader
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  harm associated with them, and policies should be implemented to
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  prevent this kind of entanglement from happening. Again, I don't
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  think that's radical. I think it's responsible. It's the kind
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  of response that aligns with the values that these institutions
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  claim to uphold. The only question is whether they have
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  the will to follow through. Because make no mistake, this
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  is a moment, a moment where institutions are being forced
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  to choose between protecting their past and defining their future,
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  a moment where the public is watching closely, not just
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  what they say, but what they do, and a moment
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  where the decisions made will have lasting implications for how
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  these institutions are perceived. They can either confront this head
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  on or continue to stall, but they can't do both,
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  and the longer they try, the worse it's gonna look.
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  Because at the end of all of this discussed isn't
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  just about one name on a building. It's about a
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  system that allowed that name to become untouchable in the
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  first place. It's about the realization that for years, money
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  dictated honor, and honor insulated power. And it's about the
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  demand that this cycle finally be broken, not with words,
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  not with statements, but with action, real, visible, undeniable action.
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  Anything less is just more of the same. All of
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  the information that goes with this episode can be found
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  in the description box.