Haverford College rescinds Cosby's degree
Haverford College has rescinded Bill Cosby's honorary degree, joining a list of schools nationwide that have sought to distance themselves from the embattled entertainer.
Haverford College has rescinded Bill Cosby's honorary degree, joining a list of schools nationwide that have sought to distance themselves from the embattled entertainer.
In an announcement Friday, Haverford officials said they approved a recommendation this month to rescind the degree they gave Cosby in 2002.
"Although his creative contributions at the crossroads of education, civil rights, and entertainment remain," the college's honorary degree committee wrote, "Dr. Cosby's admission that he acquired drugs for the purpose of giving them to women with whom he wanted to have sex undermines the educational and humanitarian principles for which the Haverford community honored him 14 years ago. The college is deeply troubled by the nature of the conduct to which Dr. Cosby has admitted, which we view as gravely inconsistent with Haverford's institutional values."
The statement referred to a 2006 civil deposition released last summer, in which Cosby admitted he had obtained Quaaludes to give to women before sex.
Haverford's decision mirrors one taken by other schools against Cosby, whose personality and accomplishments had made him a regular presence at college graduations over the decades. But an onslaught of sexual misconduct allegations from dozens of women nationwide has caused some to reconsider.
Swarthmore, Drexel, Brown, Fordham, Marquette, Tufts and Lehigh are among the universities that have rescinded degrees to Cosby in the last year.
He still holds such honors from two of the region's most prominent schools: Temple University, his alma mater, and the University of Pennsylvania.
The 78-year-old comedian faces criminal charges in Montgomery County for an alleged sexual attack in 2004 on Andrea Constand, a former Temple employee. He is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing March 8.
He has maintained that all his sexual encounters were consensual.
On Friday, Cosby's legal team again asked the state's Superior Court to halt the hearing, saying it should not proceed until the appellate court first rules on his argument that a 2005 promise from a former district attorney protected him from being charged over Constand's allegations.
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