Fordham University Revokes Cosby’s Doctorate As Comic Fights To Keep Minor’s Case Private


Bill Cosby hasn’t been charged with a crime, despite scores of sexual assault allegations lobbed against him in recent years, but that hasn’t stopped former allies from severing ties. Fordham University has just distanced itself from the disgraced comic, rescinding an honorary degree granted in 2001.

Marquette University has also rescinded an honorary degree given to Cosby, joining a short list of colleges that have stepped back from the comedian, including Central State University, Temple University and Spelman College, CBS News reported.

In taking back its honorary degree, Fordham used some pretty strong language against Cosby in response to rape accusations that began in 2005. In the past year, dozens of alleged victims have come forward; some of the cases go back decades.

“By his own admission, (his) sexual exploitation of women was premeditated and ongoing,” Fordham stated, according to The New York Times. “Equally appalling is his longtime strategy of denigrating the reputations of women who accused him of such actions.”

Fordham gave Cosby a honor doctor of fine arts degree in 2001 for “the significant role he played in breaking the color barrier in American television and popular culture, and his position as an inspirational figure for millions of African Americans,” The New York Daily News added.

Back then, Fordham said that it didn’t know Cosby had been accused of rape. The last straw: when the university learned, along with the American public, that Cosby admitted, in court documents, to giving Quaaludes to potential sexual exploits.

“That [he] 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.”

The university has never revoked an honorary degree before, but said they were within their right to do so if a recipient’s actions “were both unambiguously dishonorable and have a deep impact.”

As for Marquette, they withdrew a doctorate given to Cosby in 2013.

As news emerged that Fordham had distanced itself from the comedian, it also surfaced that Bill Cosby is fighting to keep private an upcoming deposition on a 1974 incident with a woman named Judy Huth, the Times added.

Huth’s attorney, Gloria Alred, said, “…we oppose their motion and we don’t think it is appropriate. We believe in transparency to the extent permitted by law.”

Huth has accused the comedian of forcing her to perform a sex act on him at the Playboy Mansion — when she was 15. The deposition is scheduled for Oct. 9. Huth’s case is one of the few accusations that can go to civil court, since she was a minor at the time of the alleged incident. In California, the statute of limitations can be extended for adults if they were sexually abused as children.

Whatever may be revealed during the October questioning, Cosby and his attorneys don’t seem to want it made public.

[Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images]

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