President Rosenbury and Barnard administrators address Epstein files, campus security, and financial transparency

President Rosenbury and College administrators held a press roundtable on March 13, answering questions from The Barnard Bulletin and other campus publications.

Photo by Haley Scull/The Barnard Bulletin

By  Sunaya Mueller and Jaya Shankar 

March 31, 2026

On March 13, President Laura Rosenbury, Provost and Dean of the Faculty Rebecca Walkowitz, Vice President of Inclusion and Belonging Akilah Rosado, Vice President of Community Engagement and Lifelong Success A-J Aronstein, and Vice President for Strategic Communications and Government Affairs Robin Levine hosted a press roundtable for publications at Barnard and Columbia. Administrators discussed dorm security, alumni donations and financial transparency, and College affiliates mentioned in the Epstein files.

‘We’ll be taking no action’: Epstein files and concerns from faculty

The names of several Barnard affiliates — including Francine LeFrak, trustee and financier of Barnard’s Center for Well-Being, and the Milstein and Blankfein families — appear in the Department of Justice’s “Epstein Library,” a collection of communications between convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.

On February 27, President Rosenbury and Laura Blankfein (BC ’75), chair of Barnard’s Board of Trustees, announced that an independent legal review determined that no College affiliates named in the Epstein files “engaged in wrongdoing or activities at odds with Barnard’s mission and values.” Rosenbury reaffirmed this to The Bulletin, stating that the legal review had considered “everything in the publicly available files as of February 12” and found that “no current representative of Barnard, including LeFrak, had a direct relationship with Epstein.”

As of March 30, 90 Barnard faculty have signed an open letter calling for LeFrak to step down from the Board of Trustees and for the College to remove LeFrak’s name from public display on campus. Students have also called for the College to remove LeFrak from the Board of Trustees and sever ties with all Barnard affiliates mentioned in the Epstein files, including the Milstein and Blankfein families. 

“My understanding from faculty about their concerns was that the letter, above all, wanted there to be an investigation, and there was,” Provost Walkowitz stated. “And the [review] said, ‘look, we looked into all of this, and there’s no direct connection.’”

“I think the primary impetus of the letter was asking us to conduct a review, to really understand the facts. And we do understand the facts, at least as they exist right now,” said President Rosenbury. “We’ll be taking no action.”

Residence hall security

Since the College laid off 77 staff members last July, entrances to on-campus residence halls, which primarily house first-years, have been accessible via swipe-only turnstiles and are not staffed by access attendants. In December, a break-in at West 116th Street, an off-campus Barnard residence hall, raised concerns from students about campTurnstiles and tension: Barnard reimagines campus security in 2025us and dorm security, both on and off campus. 

“Ever since that incident back in the fall, we have made sure, whether it’s through overtime or through new hiring, that we have people in the access attendant desk of those exterior residence halls at all times,” President Rosenbury said.

She referred to Barnard’s investment in “infrastructures of excellence,” one of the five priorities of her “Bold History, Fearless Future” plan for Barnard, which includes the modernization of buildings and dorms. 

“We’ve had some test scenarios, as well as, unfortunately, real-world scenarios, where our new procedures, protocols, and staffing plans have worked,” President Rosenbury stated. “We’re really satisfied with that and want to continue that strategy.” 

In February, federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security entered an off-campus Columbia University dorm and detained Ellie Aghayeva (GS ’26). Other Columbia students have been targeted by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, including Mahmoud Khalil (SIPA ’24), Mohsen Mahdawi (GS ’25), and Yunseo Chung (CC ’26), and students have protested ICE’s presence on the University’s campus.

Days after Aghayeva’s detention, in early March, an email to the Barnard community announced that “local law enforcement officers arrived at one of Barnard’s residence halls looking for a student,” but were “not granted access to the building or its residents.”

When asked about the possibility of ICE entering campus, President Rosenbury said the College is “very focused on making sure we have adequate coverage in our off-campus residence halls … There has been robust training of access attendants and our CARES officers, as well as members of our General Counsel’s office on protocols for responding to any requests from any law enforcement agency.” 

“We remain vigilant,” President Rosenbury concluded.

Changes in the Barnard-Columbia relationship and Foundations curriculum

In March of 2025, the College announced that students in the class of 2029 and beyond will only be able to fulfill their Foundations requirement with courses offered at Barnard. First-years are also required to take a majority of their courses at Barnard, with access to “a small number of Columbia courses.” 

Provost Walkowitz stated that the first-year enrollment changes are part of an effort to “reaffirm … Barnard as a women’s college” and to ensure that first-years cultivate relationships with Barnard faculty, which will “develop over time and allow them to have advisers later.”

During the roundtable, President Rosenbury said that the Barnard-Columbia relationship “is fluid and evolving,” but acknowledged that “money is continuing to flow” to the University. “Whenever someone implies that we’re somehow subsidized by Columbia, I just want to make it very clear that we’re not,” she stated. 

Barnard retains its status as an affiliated college of Columbia University per the Intercorporate Agreement, which allows Barnard and Columbia students to take classes across colleges while separating most administrative matters.

Alumni relations and financial transparency

Several Barnard alumni have canceled their donations to Barnard, citing a lack of transparency from administrators, limited opportunities to interact with President Rosenbury, and discontent with the College’s response to antisemitism and student protests. President Rosenbury acknowledged that “there are some alumni who have paused either payments on pledges or giving.”

“We are working very closely with [alumni] and trying to open up even more avenues of communication … We have a very robust travel schedule to meet with and communicate with alumni … in their hometowns and communities,” President Rosenbury said, mentioning an upcoming trip with A-J Aronstein, Vice President of Community Engagement and Lifelong Success, to visit states including California, Texas, Florida, and Louisiana.

President Rosenbury acknowledged that previous alumni reunions had “relatively low turnout,” referring to the 2023 reunion as an example. “This is something that we needed to work on even before world events made things more complicated,” she said.

For the 2025 fiscal year (FY), Barnard reported total operating expenses of $275.7 million, funded by approximately $274 million in operating support. The College reduced its operating deficit to $1.7 million, a significant decrease from deficits exceeding $20 million in FY 2023 and FY 2024. According to the FY 2025 financial report, private gifts and grants comprised approximately four percent of the College’s total revenue. 

“I'm happy to report that in terms of overall dollars, our fundraising for the past year is up compared to the last two years,” stated President Rosenbury. “I think we’re on a very positive trajectory.”