Editor’s Note: This article contains references to sex offenses, including against minors, which some readers may find disturbing.

A UCLA professor who communicated with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein about his class and students will retire in June and canceled his spring quarter class, he said in a Friday email.

Mark Tramo – an associate adjunct professor in UCLA’s department of neurology – communicated via email at least semi-regularly with Epstein from 2010 until 2019, the year that Epstein died by suicide. Tramo forwarded resumes and messages from students seeking research opportunities to Epstein, and his Institute for Music and Brain Science received a $100,000 check from Epstein’s charity Gratitude America Ltd. in 2017, according to documents released by the United States Department of Justice.

Appearing in the documents does not imply criminal wrongdoing. Several people mentioned in previous releases have denied wrongdoing relating to Epstein.

[Related: UCLA professor discussed students, class with Jeffrey Epstein, DOJ documents show]

Tramo disclosed his retirement in an email to a Daily Bruin reporter Friday afternoon. The reporter asked him to comment on a resolution and letter passed by the Undergraduate Students Association Council, which criticized Tramo’s communications with Epstein and condemned UCLA’s choice to not acknowledge the connection.

The Feb. 3 resolution called upon UCLA administration to release any information it has on any financial or research relationships the university and its entities may have had with Epstein and his affiliates. The Feb. 17 letter demanded that UCLA place Tramo on administrative leave and conduct an investigation on his behavior.

Tramo said in the emailed statement that he believes the council’s judgments lack context, adding that he interacted with Epstein in his capacity as a science philanthropist.

“The Council’s resolution is moot at this point, since I canceled my one Spring course and am retiring in June,” Tramo said in the emailed statement. “Unfortunately, up to 100 arts and humanities students won’t be able to earn a Life Sciences core credit by taking my GE course this Spring as a result of the McCarthyism, hysteria, and prejudice promulgated by the media, including the Daily Bruin, and exemplified by the Council’s resolution.”

Epstein was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008 and charged with sex trafficking of minors in 2019. Tramo said in the Friday email that he knew nothing about Epstein’s crimes before his 2019 arrest.

However, according to Bloomberg, Tramo emailed Epstein’s assistant in 2007 saying he would stand by Epstein while he was preparing to plead guilty for soliciting child prostitution.

Tramo’s profile on UCLA Newsroom’s media guide was not available as of 6:37 p.m. on Friday. The Wayback Machine – which is run by the Internet Archive, a non-profit which preserves webpages – showed that the page was available in early February.

A UCLA Media Relations spokesperson declined to comment on the resolution and on Tramo’s retirement, saying they could not comment on personnel matters.

Tramo said in the email that he believes he has received unfair treatment from misguided people over his ties to Epstein.

“It’s not fair to judge me as if I (and you) knew pre-2019 what we know post-2019,” Tramo said in the email. “I was seeking donations from him and other philanthropists for noble causes.”