Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell’s name is being stripped from a University of Maine System center, fund and scholarship program after it appeared more than 300 times in files related to the late financier and convicted child sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
The decision came after lengthy discussion from University of Maine System Board of Trustees members during a meeting Monday about the system’s role in removing a person’s name based on allegations. The final vote to approve the renaming was 9-5 with one abstention.
Mitchell, 93, resigned as honorary chair of the Mitchell Institute, a scholarship organization that supports Maine students, and his name and likeness was removed from the Maine State House and various institutions across the state and Ireland after his name was found in the Epstein files released seven months ago. During the fallout, UMaine created a taskforce to review renaming the programs.
The George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, a research facility on the University of Maine campus focused on sustainability issues, and its accompanying fund, the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions Fund, were renamed. The George J. Mitchell Peace Scholarship program, which provides two scholarships per year for students to study at UMaine or University College Cork in Ireland, was also renamed.
They are now named the University of Maine Center for Sustainability Solutions, University of Maine Center for Sustainability Solutions Fund and the University of Maine Peace Scholarship, respectively. The name changes were recommended to stay in place for the “foreseeable future,” according to a report from UMaine’s Mitchell Naming Review Task Force.
The taskforce’s recommendation was based on a system policy that allows for renaming if “continued use of the honoree’s name would compromise the public trust and reflect adversely upon the university and/or UMS and its reputation.”
Made up of eight members, the taskforce wrote in its recommendation that “while no findings of wrongdoing by Senator Mitchell have been made,” his inclusion in the files would compromise the public trust, according to its report submitted in April.
During the half hour of discussion before the vote was taken, board members stressed how “difficult” the decision was to vote on the recommendation because Mitchell had not been convicted of any wrongdoing.
“This is a very difficult, extremely difficult situation we find ourselves in,” trustee and former Congressman Mike Michaud said, adding that the vote may set a precedent for board actions based on unproven allegations.
Trustees Michaud, Trish Riley and Donna Loring said they would vote against the recommendation for various reasons, mostly that the allegations that he was friends with Epstein after he was convicted on sex-trafficing charges in 2008 are unfounded and have been denied by Mitchell.
Mitchell’s positive influence on students through his donations, which was brought up by board members who voted for and against the renaming, and the allegations were not what the board was voting on, but rather if his name being associated with UMaine programs would diminish the university’s reputation, member Roger Katz said.
“There clearly is potential reputational damage from continued presence of the name. This is a huge tragedy,” Katz said, later adding that he would vote to approve the renaming but it “will not color how we view the incredible work this man did.”
The name change is effective immediately but updating institutional websites, materials and signage — including on Norman Smith Hall on the Orono campus where the Center for Sustainability Solutions is located — may take several months, University of Maine System spokesperson Samantha Warren said after the vote.