NEW HAVEN — Yale University board of trustees has voted Tuesday to rescind the honorary degree awarded to Bill Cosby.
The decision comes a week after he was convicted of drugging and molesting a woman in the first big celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.
The University released the following statement:
Today the Yale University board of trustees voted to rescind the honorary degree awarded to William H. Cosby Jr. in 2003. The decision is based on a court record providing clear and convincing evidence of conduct that violates fundamental standards of decency shared by all members of the Yale community, conduct that was unknown to the board at the time the degree was awarded. The board took this decision following Mr. Cosby’s criminal conviction after he was afforded due process.
Yale is committed to both the elimination of sexual misconduct and the adherence to due process. We reaffirm that commitment with our action today.
Cosby, 80, could end up spending his final years in prison after a jury concluded he sexually violated Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He claimed the encounter was consensual.
Wesleyan University President Michael Roth also asked the Board of Trustees to revoke Cosby’s honorary degree that was awarded in 1987.
