There go the honorary degrees
TIME magazine lists some people and institutions that have cut ties with Bill Cosby.
Spelman College. In July, the historically black women’s college discontinued its endowed professorship with Cosby, who donated $20 million in 1988. The school had suspended the program in 2014 before terminating it completely.
CAA. The comedian’s talent agency, which had represented him since 2012, dropped him in late 2014.
New York University. In September, university officials removed“William H. Cosby” from the title of its Future Filmmakers Workshop.
NBC ditched a sitcom. A cable network dropped Cosby Show reruns.
Drexel University. The Philadelphia school revoked Cosby’s honorary degree in November.
The University of Pittsburgh. “Based on a unanimous recommendation from the University Committee for honorary degree recipients, the University of Pittsburgh has rescinded the honorary doctor of humane letters degree awarded to Bill Cosby in 2002 at the commencement ceremony on Pitt’s Johnstown campus,” the school announced in November.
Jerry Seinfeld and David Letterman. In July, both of the comedians asked for their endorsements to be removed from a 2014 Cosby biography titled Cosby: His Life and Times.
Drew University. The New Jersey university voted in October to revoke Cosby’s honorary degree.
Brown University. The Ivy League institution rescinded Cosby’s honorary degree in September. “It has become clear,” wrote Brown President Christina Paxson, “by his own admission in legal depositions that became public this summer, that Mr. Cosby has engaged in conduct with women that is contrary to the values of Brown.”
Disney removed a statue of him from a theme park.
Fordham University. In September, the New York City university’s Board of Trustees unanimously voted to rescind Cosby’s honorary degree. It was the first time Fordham ever revoked the honor.
Tufts University. The Massachusetts school announced in October that it was rescinding Cosby’s honorary doctorate of arts.
Goucher College. Cosby had received an honorary degree in 2001 when he was the school’s commencement speaker. In October, it was rescinded.
Oh well, there’s always the barbecue sauce.
Does that mean his bacon is cooked now?
What an ugly life story.
It means at least that his fame and glory are much dented and tarnished.
As are his humourous jokes. I used to laugh. Hoping to forget that part.
I did too, decades ago. Fortunately I lost interest in him well before The Cosby Show, so I never watched it or paid attention to him, so that’s a relief.
But that left all the more room to think Dawkins was the last word in wit and forthrightness.
I never saw much of ‘that show’ so I only really knew of him from his stand-up LPs. The content was MUCH darker and had none of the sleazy Moral Uplift he seems to have acquired since.
He WAS funny. But so was Richard Pryor, and so was Lenny Bruce. No one ever turned them into plaster saints.