More Colleges Pull Cosby Degrees

Spokesman Ken Service says the university’s Committee for Honorary Degree Recipients voted unanimously Nov. 13 to take back the degree issued when Cosby spoke at the 2002 commencement of the university’s satellite campus in Johnstown.

Service says Cosby’s past actions, that have since become public and subsequently admitted by him, were in conflict with the basis of awarding the degree and inconsistent with Pitt’s core values and principles.

Officials at Drexel University in Philadelphia and Bryant University in Rhode Island also decided Nov. 12 to rescind honorary degrees given to Cosby for the same reasons. The comedian has yet to be criminally charged and has denied allegations he had sex with women incapacitated by drugs he allegedly provided. However, in a deposition released earlier this year Cosby acknowledged using Quaaludes during alleged consensual sexual encounters.

Colleges and universities that have pulled Cosby’s degrees so far are Amherst College, Baylor University, Brown University, Fordham University, Franklin & Marshall College, Goucher College, Marquette University, Springfield College, Tufts University, University of San Francisco and Wilkes University, according to InsideHigherEd.com.