Files released by the U.S. Department of Justice showed close contact between Steve Tisch (A’71), a Tufts donor and alumnus and the co-owner of the New York Giants, and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Two months later, quiet changes to campus facilities and literature have renewed questions about the university’s response to the revelations.
Over spring break, the university removed a plaque with an imprint of Tisch’s hands in the entrance vestibule of the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center. The facility was named after Tisch in 2013 following a $13 million donation.
The files, released in January as part of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, detail extensive email correspondence between Tisch and Epstein, in which Epstein solicited women for Tisch and the two used shorthand terms commonly associated with prostitution to describe them. Tisch denied visiting Epstein’s private island and has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Patrick Collins, the executive director of media relations at Tufts, said the plaque’s removal had been a “long-planned” change in order to create a Tufts Athletics Hall of Fame wall. Details about the wall or whether the plaque would be added back were not immediately clear.
“During spring break, the Athletics Department made long-planned design changes to multiple areas of the athletics center to accommodate remodeling and painting that is necessary for the creation of the Tufts Athletics Hall of Fame Wall,” Collins wrote in a statement to the Daily. “Some decorative objects that had been on display were removed as the space was refreshed.”
In the weeks following the release of the files, a portable Tufts Athletics banner was temporarily placed in front of the plaque, obscuring it from passersbyers. The banner highlighted the Brighter World campaign, which notably concluded in 2023. The university did not comment directly on the banner.
Information about the name of the Tisch Library was also added to the library’s website in recent months. Collins said the changes were intended to address “apparent confusion about the history of its naming.”
“The [Tisch] library is named in honor of the Tisch family, thanks to a contribution by the Tisch Foundation that was committed by Preston Tisch,” the website now reads. Statements about the library’s name or funding had not previously been present on the website.
Preston Tisch, who died in 2005, is the father of Steve, Laurie and Jonathan Tisch. Jonathan, the namesake of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, graduated from Tufts in 1976.
According to reporting from ESPN and The Athletic, earlier this month, an NFL memo stated that Steve, Laurie and Jonathan would be moving to transfer their stakes in the New York Giants to their children’s trusts. The change would require the approval of the NFL’s finance committee and would leave the siblings without any claim to the team. CNN previously reported that the shift was part of long-term estate planning and was unrelated to any other issue.
The Daily previously reported that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league would “look at all facts” in connection with Tisch and Epstein’s relationship.
Several other universities have faced pushback to connections between faculty, administrators or donors and Epstein. Harvard University launched a large-scale investigation into major donors Andrew Farkas and Gerald Chan. Columbia University disclosed that it received $210,000 from Epstein-related entities, cut all ties with former faculty member Thomas Magnani, stripped faculty member Letty Moss-Salentijn of her administrative duties and pledged two $105,000 donations to organizations supporting survivors of sexual abuse and trafficking.
The Ohio State University has rejected calls to remove the name of Les Wexner, a longtime associate of Epstein who helped jump-start his career in finance, from facilities on campus.
In 2019, Tufts removed the Sackler family name from its Boston health science campus due to a federal investigation into the family’s role in the opioid epidemic, which suggested that the family had used their relationship with the university to advance the interests of their company, Purdue Pharma.
The university also did not comment on whether or not it has plans to release a public statement regarding Tisch’s relationship with Epstein, whether it has spoken with Tisch or the NFL or whether it will lead its own investigation.
Josué Pérez contributed reporting.
