I'm not going to go into a super-deep-dive on Epstein, because some of the things I could say "cannot be proven" and are just things that I have heard. So I'll try to stick to the known knowns.
---No one can argue that leaks never occurred. There was VERY specific information that arose in BOT meetings which made it into various media reports. You can do a rough correlation between certain reports, the opinions of certain factions on the BOT, and the motivations/goals of the leaks. You could then reasonably conclude who did what. But it's not "provable", unless the sportswriters reveal their sources, which they will not do.
---You can then compare the HC/AD leaking to decades of prior BOT activity and norms. Simply, you have NEVER seen that level of leaking from the UM BOT ever, it was unprecedented. Why? Athletics is just a fraction of what the BOT oversees. Why does someone put a lifetime appointment to the BOT in jeopardy over spilling the tea on an AD and a HC hire? And this is where I respectfully submit that certain Trustees saw this as a much larger jihad, the "old guard" vs. the "youngsters", the "glacial/conservative pace approach" vs. the "get it done now approach".
---Then you look at "if not Epstein, then who?" Honestly, there aren't that many people on the BOT who are as active, who are as invested, who are as powerful, who are as threatened, and who are as motivated as Epstein was to leak information. Sure, we could all play some kind of "well, there are 100 BOT murder suspects in this room that we need to interrogate" game, but the reality is that there are only a couple of likely suspects. Or one.
---Finally, you look to the sportswriters. In particular, Ferman's case is very instructive because myself and multiple other people called him out by name for being a pawn of certain Trustees, in that they were using him to publicize their side of the narrative. First, Ferman denied that he even knew Epstein. Later, Ferman changed his tune, when he began to realize that Epstein had used intermediaries to do his dirty work. So while you can't directly prove what Epstein did, you get the impression of what he did indirectly when Ferman stops playing along when he realized that he had been used.
To sum up, I believe that Epstein's behavior was reprehensible for two reasons. First, he violated the secrecy/confidentiality of the BOT proceedings. I am the first to call for GREATER transparency in BOT meetings and deliberations, but in a fair and uniform fashion. No Trustee should be allowed to weaponize the confidentiality (or lack thereof). Second, Epstein and his intermediaries disclosed things related to personnel, which is much more complicated and problematic than, say, "UM wants to build an 8-story building but Coral Gables will only approve a 5-story building". There were issues with Mario's ongoing employment, there were issues with the New Mexico AD, you even had motherfvckin' Lane Kiffin publicly submitting his verbal resume because everyone recognized the process as a "****e show". The reality is that there were 2 shows, the very organized show (outside consultant, involvement of Joe Echevarria and Rudy Fernandez) and the ****e show (separate camps, ongoing leaks, petty jealousies).
I wish I could provide times and dates and phone logs for Epstein. I think he used other people as buffers and as usually happens after a war, he smiled and shook hands with everyone afterwards. I can't say if some rogue Trustee pulled this kind of crap back in the 1950s, but I can tell you that it is unprecedented in the 35 years that I've been a UM student and alum. I do hope that Epstein "retires" soon (as a Trustee), but I also hope we reduce the size of the Board and we start becoming more transparent, at least to the students, faculty, and alums.
Maybe Athletics can lead the way, showing the rest of the UM administration that greater outreach and communication and respectful treatment of all of the stakeholders will produce better results across the spectrum. And I don't care if people think I'm overly optimistic and/or idealistic, but we have to start making changes and improvements somewhere sometime.
