Academics
These Are the Colleges That Have Revoked Bill Cosby’s Honorary Degrees
The University of Cincinnati is the latest institution to pull an honor after the comedian’s sexual assault conviction.
University of Cincinnati trustees unanimously approved revoking Bill Cosby’s 2001 honorary doctor of humane letters degree Tuesday, joining a growing list of colleges who have rescinded degrees in the wake of the comedian’s sexual assault conviction.
Cosby could conceivably spend the rest of his life in prison.
Earlier this week, the Kennedy Center announced they would rescind his Kennedy Center Honors and Mark Twain Prize For American Humor.
Colleges began revoking Cosby’s many honorary degrees in 2015, when Jesuit schools Fordham and Marquette broke with longstanding tradition and took away Cosby’s degrees, saying he acted contrary to their values.
Cosby has been awarded at least 60 honorary degrees, according to Inside Higher Ed, and earlier this month Yale University revoked a degree for the first time in its 300-year history, pulling a degree given to Cosby in 2003.
“Yale is committed to both the elimination of sexual misconduct and the adherence to due process. We reaffirm that commitment with our action today,” they said in statement posted on their website last week.
Other schools have cancelled scholarships that were in Cosby’s name or removed him from its advisory boards.
These are the schools that have revoked degrees given to Cosby:
- University of Cincinnati
- Yale
- Notre Dame
- Boston College
- Temple
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Johns Hopkins University
- Amherst College
- Brown University
- Fordham University
- Franklin & Marshall College
- Goucher College
- Springfield College
- Tufts University
- University of San Francisco
- Wilkes University
- Drew University
- Haverford College
- John Jay College of Criminal Justice
- North Carolina A&T State University
- Oberlin College
- Ohio State University
- Baylor University
- University of Connecticut
- University of Pittsburgh
- Bryant College
- Colby College
- Drexel University
- University of Pennsylvania
Editor’s Note: College Media Network will continue to update this list as developments warrant.
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