In wake of the sexual allegations made against Bill Cosby by more than 40 women, Marquette University in Wisconsin and Fordham University in New York have both decided to pull the honorary degrees they bestowed to the comedian years ago. Fordham presented Cosby with an honorary doctorate of fine arts degree in 2001, while Marquette granted Cosby an honorary doctor of letters when he was the commencement speaker at the school’s graduation in 2013.
Both colleges released statements explaining their decisions, reports CNN. Fordham, which had never before rescinded an honorary degree, described such a decision would be due to a recipient’s actions being “both unambiguously dishonorable and have a deep impact.” The vote was made unanimously by the university’s Board of Trustees. “By his own admission, Mr. Cosby’s sexual exploitation of women was premeditated and ongoing,” the statement read. “Equally appalling is his longtime strategy of denigrating the reputations of women who accused him of such actions. That Mr. Cosby was willing to drug and rape women for his sexual gratification, and further damage those same women’s reputations and careers to obscure his guilt, hurt not only his victims, but all women, and is beyond the pale.”
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