Officials with Philadelphia’s Temple University announced Friday that the school is rescinding an honorary degree given to comedian Bill Cosby two decades ago.
A jury of seven men and five women found Cosby guilty Thursday on three counts of aggravated indecent assault. Andrea Constand, the former director of operations for Temple University’s women’s basketball team, said Cosby drugged and molested her in 2004 at his home in Elkins Park.
Temple University awarded “The Cosby Show” star with an honorary degree in 1991 based on his career achievements.
“Today the Temple University Board of Trustees has accepted the recommendation of the university to rescind the honorary degree,” school officials said in a statement.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that more than 25 universities rescinded honorary degrees for Cosby before his conviction Thursday. The trial had been Cosby's second on the same charges after a jury failed to reach a unanimous decision on the case in June.
Among the universities that have revoked honorary degree given to Cosby are Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University and Indiana's Notre Dame University, the Inquirer reported. Several other universities are in the process of or considering revoking their honorary degrees, the newspaper reported, including Yale University.
Matt Slocum
Matt Slocum
Jurors deliberated the case against Cosby for 14 hours over two days before handing down their guilty verdict.
Cosby had maintained that he and Constand shared a consensual sexual encounter.
Dozens of women have made high-profile accusations that Cosby had drugged and assaulted them, but Constand’s case is the only case to result in criminal charges against Cosby.
Thursday’s verdict was hailed as the first conviction of a celebrity accused of sexual misconduct since the spread of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault.
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