> Should society ban individuals from spending money on research? No Agreed. No one is saying otherwise! The actual question at hand is whether large institut

> Should society ban individuals from spending money on research? No Agreed. No one is saying otherwise! The actual question at hand is whether large institutions should allow their faculty to take money from arbitrary sources. This is a question both for the institutions and for the institutions' major stakeholders/clients (which, in the case of Harvard, includes the federal government). Epstein could've started a stand-alone research institute and hired a bunch of people away from their tenured faculty positions. I doubt many excellent researchers would've taken him up on that offer, but he surely could've recruited some bright young unknowns in any field other than CS with less-than-FAANG salaries! He could've also donated to someone else's research institute. I think it's fair to say that Epstein cost these institutions far more in reputational damage than he provided in cash. So the choice re: him seems pretty straight-forward.