I've been a proud Bruin since 2010, and I'm outraged by UCLA's handling of Mark Tramo. 

Even if the pacifier email is as innocent as he claims, he still: 

1) forwarded students' information to Epstein

2) continued to send information about students to Epstein after Epstein responded inappropriately 

3) BCCed Epstein on emails to and about his students and classes  

4) was at the beck and call of a monster. 

I've now read almost all of the 1000+ mentions of Mark Tramo in the Epstein Files. I have a decent understanding of the relationship between Tramo and Epstein. Epstein was a narcissist who collected academics like trophies because they lent credibility to his "philanthropy." He used the reputation of esteemed institutions to make himself sound trustworthy. Every academic who thought they were benefitting from a "friendship" was used as a stepping stone, an anecdote at cocktail parties, and a way to boost his own ego. 

Epstein threw in just enough pseudo-intellectual buzzwords (and funding) that these academics convinced themselves that he was legitimate. He slowly tested the waters of their morality, pushing boundaries of inappropriateness to see what he could get away with, and pursuing relationships with the men who never said no to him. 

Tramo bent over backwards to appease him. It's actually gross to see the ease with which he code-switches, mirroring his language after Epstein. He uses correct grammar and punctuation when emailing people who can benefit him, but he sinks to the level of copying Epstein's misspellings (i.e. "shud" instead of "should") as soon as Epstein makes them. He ends his emails to Epstein with "xxx" kisses. Whether it was a patient appointment, a meeting with his peers, or his mother's funeral, Tramo was willing to de-prioritize other people to optimize his Jeffrey time. 

In a September 2025 email to Harvard, Tramo claimed that he didn't know about Epstein's offenses. If that's true, he must have felt very confused when, in their 20+ years of friendship, their NYC "meetings with academics" were joined by a girl/ woman from a seemingly endless roster. 

At UCLA, I benefited from learning from amazing professors who upheld the sacred relationship between instructor and pupil. Learning that any of them had forwarded my information or my queries about researching with them to a convicted sex offender would have shattered my faith in education. 

UCLA taught me to be a critical thinker who challenges inequities. UCLA taught me to critique the ways in which institutions perpetuate violence against vulnerable populations. UCLA taught me (I thought) that there is no number of publications that can compensate for an instructor's moral judgment and ability to make ethical decisions. We love to claim moral superiority over USC, but if his place at UCLA remains uncontested, we are hypocrites in a long tradition of academic corruption. 

Tramo has lost all credibility and authority to practice as a physician or work as a professor. How are students or patients expected to feel safe with him, knowing that he's willing to auction off their information to the highest bidder? How can he ever be trusted?