Maine university severs ties with embattled former U.S. senator

Ted Cohen/Patch.com

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, according to Bangor Daily News.

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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 paper's Kasey Turman reports.

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 Mitchell Institute board has declined to remove Mitchell's connection from its masthead, despite his having resigned for no specific reason.

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, have been 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, the Bangor paper said.

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 task force'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.

Source: Bangor Daily News