Jeanie Hannaman

By Anne Hendershott, Crisis Magazine - For years, most universities have cast themselves as moral sentinels of American life. They were the first to police speech, enforce ideological conformity, and dismiss ideas that challenge the dominant progressive orthodoxy on campus. Institutions that championed DEI frameworks have often treated conservative ideas with open suspicion, if not outright hostility, positioning themselves as arbiters of cultural virtue rather than as forums for genuine debate. Yet the release of the Epstein files has revealed a striking reversal: the same institutions that cast themselves as guardians of integrity now find their own leaders entangled in scandals they once felt safely distant from.