Fordham University Rescinds Bill Cosby’s Honorary Degree

Just as things couldn’t get worse; Fordham University has destroyed the honorary doctorate they gave the comedian in 2001. And this is the first time in the school’s history a person has lost an honorary degree.

During a Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday, Fordham president Joseph McShane introduced a motion to cut Cosby’s doctorate — board members unanimously agreed.

In a statement to students, the school said:

“The University has taken this extraordinary step in light of Mr. Cosby’s now-public court depositions that confirm many of the allegations made against him.

By his own admission, Mr. Cosby’s sexual exploitation of women was premeditated and ongoing. 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.”

McShane concluded that the University could no longer stand by the degree it had awarded Cosby, especially as a Jesuit institution.