TEXAS — A former University of Texas at Austin professor with a history of sexual-related allegations requested thousands of dollars from Jeffrey Epstein’s charity foundation in 2015 saying it would fund a 2016 conference about campus rape, a letter reveals.

What You Need To Know

According to a letter from recently released U.S. Department of Justice documents, Thomas K. Hubbard, a historian and author who taught under UT Austin’s Classics Department, asked the J. Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation for a contribution toward a $10,000 to $20,000 funding goal for his conference titled “Theorizing Consent: Educational and Legal Perspectives on Campus Rape”

The 2016 symposium stemmed from Hubbard’s concerns over Title IX policies he felt had “low evidentiary standards and lack of due process safeguards”

This isn’t the first time Hubbard has made headlines for issues regarding sexual topics. In 2020, the former professor sued a UT Austin student — and later several more — for creating flyers alleging he supported and encouraged people “to prey on underage boys” and engage in “illicit acts,” according to the Austin American-Statesman

Months before the libel suit, students advocated for the university to fire Hubbard after discovering his writings on sexual relationships between minors and adult men in ancient cultures such as Greece. Some also held protests and vandalized Hubbard’s home, the Statesman reported

According to the letter from recently released U.S. Department of Justice documents, Thomas K. Hubbard, a historian and author who taught under UT Austin’s Classics Department, asked the J. Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation for a contribution toward a $10,000 to $20,000 funding goal for his conference titled “Theorizing Consent: Educational and Legal Perspectives on Campus Rape.” The 2016 symposium stemmed from Hubbard’s concerns over Title IX policies he felt had “low evidentiary standards and lack of due process safeguards.”

The at-the-time new directives, he wrote, led to the incorrect expulsion of students in several cases.

“This has prematurely terminated the careers of too many promising students who, because of the disciplinary expulsion, are unable to continue their education at any university,” Hubbard wrote.

Hubbard wrote to Epstein that his original $12,000 budget would not fund the conference. With money from Epstein’s foundation, he could invite more speakers, record the conference and publish its papers.

According to The Daily Texan, which first acquired and shared the letter, Hubbard said he did not receive any money from Epstein’s charitable foundation.

Hubbard attached a conference description to the end of his letter, which described its aim “to interrogate the concept of sexual consent” and examine the role of educational institutions in matters concerning rape.

“How does the ubiquity of alcohol and other intoxicants in student social life complicate assessment of consent, and should they be more stringently regulated in the interest of creating a rape-free environment?” the description reads. “How should educational institutions best balance the rights of the accused with the need to protect victims from a threatening environment?”

This isn’t the first time Hubbard has made headlines for issues regarding sexual topics. In 2020, the former professor sued a UT Austin student — and later several more — for creating flyers alleging he supported and encouraged people “to prey on underage boys” and engage in “illicit acts,” according to the Austin American-Statesman.

Months before the libel suit, students advocated for the university to fire Hubbard after discovering his writings on sexual relationships between minors and adult men in ancient cultures such as Greece. Some also held protests and vandalized Hubbard’s home, the Statesman reported.

Some of Hubbard’s writings include, according to a curriculum vitae document from UT Austin, “Boys’ Sexuality and Age of Consent,” “Sex in the Gym: Athletic Trainers and Pedagogical Pederasty” and “Sexual Consent and the Adolescent Male, or What Can We Learn from the Greeks?”

In July 2021, Hubbard reached a $700,000 settlement with UT Austin and “agreed to retire immediately and terminate all legal action against UT,” which also ended his libel lawsuits against the students, The Daily Texan reported.