Bill Cosby and the Question of the Honorary Degree

As sexual assault on college campuses became a national conversation in the U.S., dozens of women came forward with stories that Bill Cosby sexually assaulted them — and in many cases, that he drugged and raped them.

In response, some colleges that awarded Cosby an honorary degree have rescinded the award. Fordham and Marquette were the first two to do it, but with Springfield College’s recent announcement this week that it was revoking the comedian’s honorary degree, that number has grown to 12.

Still, a majority of the schools that awarded him a degree — at least 60 — have not revoked the honor. Vulture contacted more than 40 of these schools and listed their responses on their site. Some colleges replied that they were currently having discussions about the matter, while others made statements similar to George Washington University’s:

“It has never been the university’s practice to rescind an honorary degree.”

Not everyone at George Washington was pleased with that decision. Jennifer C. James, a professor, said that if the faculty or student body had been invited to weigh in, the decision may have been different.

“The decision to not revoke Bill Cosby’s degree is unfortunate…Colleges and universities across the country have used this circumstance to decide precisely what their institutions stand for,” she said.

On the other hand, Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, who was the president of George Washington University when Cosby received his degree, weighed in with an Op-Ed in The GW Hatchet:

“What good would it do to void Mr. Cosby’s diploma? Who actually celebrates it today? He is revealed and reviled. I am not keen on trying to rewrite history. We must own our past and learn from it. There is no Platonic device for awarding honors. We do our best to celebrate the good. We work with the best information available. But being human, we have erred in the past and will no doubt do so again in the future.”

Sisseton Wahpeton College in Sisseton, S.D. took a different approach. In President Harvey DuMarce’s response as to why they have not rescinded Cosby’s degree — the most lengthy of those included in Vulture’s article — he said,

“We are a small American Indian tribal college way out in South Dakota. A majority of our students are tribal members… While his alleged sexual improprieties are in the national headlines and we see those same headlines, too, his predicament, real or not, is not of any interest to our people way out here in South Dakota. Bill Cosby is a national figure that was once seen on television in the 1980s, but he is not of importance in our lives. Our younger students will likely say, ‘Who is Bill Cosby?’ He may be a big fish in the larger mainstream American society for public consumption, but out here he is of no consequence because he does not touch the lives of people out here… Our Board of Trustees will have to initiate formal action to rescind his honorary degree, but thus far they have expressed no opinion on his alleged crimes. If necessary, I can submit a formal request to them at the November 2015 regular board meeting.”

Delaware State University also downplayed the significance of Cosby’s honorary degree:

“I should note that there are relatively few people currently at DSU that were a part of the university in 2001. Most, if not all, of the current DSU leadership didn’t even know that an honorary doctorate had been awarded to him at DSU until it became a media subject over the last few weeks.”

The debate over Cosby’s degrees has also ignited a broader discussion about the very practice of awarding honorary degrees . After all, why give a degree to someone who didn’t study for it? Cornell University, for example, does not award honorary degrees at all. Lisa Lupin, associate vice president at Stanford University said that Stanford does not either, so as not to “diminish degrees for people who have worked very hard to earn them.”

Dan L. King, president of the American Association of University Administrators, however, sees real value in honorary degrees. After all, he earned his doctorate by “taking a lot of notes and passing a lot of exams,” while someone like Elie Wiesel — who has more than 100 degrees — has made “extraordinary contributions” to society, and his honorary degree can carry more prestige.

Either way, Bill Cosby’s contributions to society will doubtlessly be overshadowed by the horrifying stories dozens of women have told about his alleged crimes.

Cosby has yet to face any criminal penalties, though that might change — a criminal investigation into an accused assault in 2004 opened Oct. 23 in Pennsylvania.