Higher Education in the Epstein Files Exposes Soullessness

The Epstein files reveal a dark underbelly of humanity in the most vile, unconscionable, evil ways. The people involved lack a moral compass, flout the law and treat human beings horrifically to fulfill some despicable sense of power and greed that knows no bounds. With influence, power and money, they soullessly buy others to benefit themselves. Representing the worst of what can be labeled as “transactional people,” they base relationships on reciprocal exchanges (“quid pro quo” or “tit for tat”) and scorekeeping.

Names in the Epstein files include those in higher education—professors, administrators and board members. Their involvement leaves ripples of abhorrence, disbelief and anger. Some in the sector may believe the people named represent anomalies, asking, How can they be so blatantly morally corrupt and shameless? Don’t those in higher education believe in the promise of individuals to meet their potential, individual agency and that education is the great equalizer in society? How could they treat girls as slaves and objects, in direct opposition to all that is human?

Whether one believes it or not, transactional people are everywhere, including in higher education. They may not act as abhorrently as those implicated in the Epstein files, but they can do real damage. Benefiting others or the institution they purportedly serve isn’t top of mind. Institutions exist to do their bidding. They don’t believe it’s in their self-interest to help anyone unless it benefits them tangibly and directly.

Transactional people can be found among faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, donors and board members. Here are four signs of potentially transactional people at your institution.

Cult of Personality (Self-Promoters)

People who:

1. Spend more time socializing than working. Attend all campus events, especially ribbon cuttings and dedications. Establish their office as a hub for members of numerous departments.
2. Find ways to ingratiate themselves with administrators and board members. “Coincidentally” show up when and where board members are meeting, dining or socializing.
3. Have personal friendships and vacation with the director of human resources, controller, major donors and/or board members.
4. Insert themselves in publications and social media photographs to virtue signal.
5. Frequently send pitches to the public relations office about their achievements and activities.
6. Have thousands of friends on Facebook, including donors and board members.
7. Throw parties at work for themselves or people they seek to influence.
8. Host lunches, dinners and benefit event tables and invite personal friends and university colleagues under the guise of “university business” using university funds.

Remember: It’s not about you; it’s all about them.

Invisible Webs of Communication and Tribally Based Subcultures

Very little, if anything, is confidential on a college campus. Communication doesn’t follow the chain of command and the organizational chart. It follows alliances, allegiances and mutually beneficial relationships. To understand how information travels through a university, watch for patterns that may point to transactional people, including those who:

1. Regularly have lunch with the same people.
2. Attend events together.
3. Socialize with colleagues, donors and board members outside work.
4. Have numerous relatives working at the institution.
5. Enjoy deep bonds with senior leaders, board members and donors because of mutual affiliations such as attendance at a particular college, sharing membership in a fraternity or church, and long-standing business partnerships.
6. Espouse beliefs and values as a means of excluding others.
7. Believe those with the same attributes (i.e., race, gender, political party, religion) equate with trust, loyalty, competence and value. This belief becomes manifested in phrases like “I don’t know those people,” “They’re not one of us” and “They aren’t from here.”

Notice/identify:

1. Similar phrases or information coming from various people. This is not a coincidence. Consider the pathways of who may have found out first, second or third, based on the connections noted above.
2. Ulterior motives such as seeking promotions or business deals with the university.
3. Out-of-the-ordinary remarks and actions, along with behavioral pattern changes toward an individual, are red flags; something is afoot.

Remember: If you aren’t with them, they’re against you.

Relationships Over Right and Wrong

For transactional people, the means justify the ends, the self is above others and ethical, moral and legal considerations don’t apply to them. Countless cases of abuse, sexual assault, discrimination, maleficence, conflict of interest and misuse of funds in higher education regularly cross headlines to shocking effect. Then the truth comes out and people say, “Everyone knew what was going on and no one did anything about it.” People wonder “why?” and “how?” The reason is simple. The transactional offender kills the messenger and unleashes their circle of influence to attack the accuser without mercy.

Methods of killing the messenger:

1. Implement the DARVO technique—deny, attack, reverse (roles of) victim and offender.
2. Employ gossip, rumors and innuendo to undermine the reputation and credibility of the accuser.
3. Disseminate insults, defamatory statements and derisive and discriminatory nicknames to break the spirit of the accuser, render the accuser unable to fulfill their job responsibilities and force the accuser’s resignation and/or termination (also known as mobbing).
4. Gaslight the accuser with labels like “crazy,” “difficult,” “unlikable” and “dramatic.”
5. Countercharge the accuser with an offense to deflect and redirect accusations.
6. Engage powerful “transactional friends” in the circle of trust (i.e., donors, board members, senior administrators, alumni) to stand with the offender (also known as closing ranks).
7. Enlist transactional friends to “befriend” the accuser, only to gather information for the offender (See above: Invisible Webs of Communication).

Remember: Transactional people never admit wrongdoing. Nothing matters more than themselves and what they get from the institution.

Wielding Power, Money and Influence as a Weapon

Whether to receive material gain or protect their transactional circle of trust, transactional people always push limits of authority, keep score and use threats to receive personal benefit. This is as true for employees as it is for board members, alumni and donors. Conflict of interest means nothing to them.

Indicators that a board member, alum or donor is transactional:

1. Promises a contribution if the university hires their company to conduct work.
2. Requests the university to invest in a friend’s business with the promise of a windfall to the university.
3. Considers the university their own fiefdom, entitling them to resources and treating employees as personal servants. Transactional people shamelessly insist on preferential treatment for themselves, family members and friends, whether through admissions, scholarships, travel, accommodations, parties, access to athletics and so on.
4. Insists on an appointment to the board’s investment or advancement committee but never makes contributions, attends full board meetings or participates in university events.
5. Threatens to withdraw support if the administration won’t fire someone they don’t like or their employee “friend” doesn’t like because they were accused of wrongdoing.
6. Nominates someone to serve on the board because “they are a good guy” (aka, a fraternity brother), even though they don’t meet the criteria for appointment, nor are they able to contribute financially.
7. Contributes to the governor’s election campaign in exchange for a seat on the board but doesn’t contribute to the institution. Only focuses on personal and political agendas often not aligned with the institution’s mission, vision and values.
8. Constantly questions why the underrepresented, underserved and differently abled deserve scholarships or other types of support.
9. Only makes contributions associated with special, high-profile events like exclusive golf outings or galas to impress friends, ingratiate themselves with those more powerful and woo potential clients. Their attention focuses on the size of their logo, the number of perks, how many friends they can invite as guests and who’s sitting at the head table. Whatever they attend, consider it a circus to placate egos.
10. Relentlessly pressures university administrators to abandon the humanities in favor of majors that result in careers, boost the workforce and ignite the economic engine.

Remember: Money, influence, prestige and power represent the sole focus of transactional people. If you aren’t facilitating those needs, you aren’t needed.

The Ultimate Problem

The concept of the educational enterprise as a revenue-driven business and as a transaction between students and an institution (also known as the corporatization of education) gained traction in the 1970s and 1980s under President Ronald Reagan. Reagan believed the cost of an education should be shifted from the state and federal government to the student, who ostensibly “buys a product” (a degree). The degree can then be exchanged for a job that pays a salary.

The tension between universities as corporations and universities as an entity for the public good now reaches a critical juncture. With the corporatization of education, only those individuals with enough money may access education. Thus, the system perpetuates a transactional society valuing sameness and groupthink. A person’s value is based on the value of their labor. A person’s contribution to the economic engine and the building of wealth for the few becomes paramount, negating their value as thinking human beings with agency and inalienable rights. Students are bought, sold and subjugated in corporate systems. People become pawns in service of money, power and prestige rather than society at large.

The corporatization of education attracts transactional people in direct opposition to many in the sector who believe education serves the public good. Education in the service of the public good isn’t always for tangible, monetary effect. It is a pathway for self-actualization, knowledge development, independent thought and agency. It provides tools for communicating, problem-solving and betterment. Students are seen as individuals with innate value and potential for success, defined by their capacity, strengths and beliefs. Here, education is society’s great leveler—egalitarian and democratic.

If an institution and the people running it focus on transactions that benefit the self and the acquisition of power, prestige and money, education for the greater good becomes impossible. Transactional people in higher education hold the greater good hostage by using scarce resources for themselves, withholding resources if they don’t receive tangible benefits and retaliating against individuals who question the ethics, morality and lawfulness of their actions. If leaders don’t do their bidding, they defame and terminate. Fear rules in corporate higher education. Without governmental checks and balances and financial support, desperate leaders have made deals with transactional devils. Our nation’s soul has been shamelessly traded for money, and it must stop.

Kathy Johnson Bowles is the founder and CEO of Gordian Knot Consulting.