Yale rescinds Bill Cosby's honorary degree

[beschizza]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/02/yale-rescinds-bill-cosbys-ho.html

…

[some_guy]

Maybe they could replace it with a dishonorary degree.

[Grey_Devil]

Only now are they rescinding it?

[jerwin]

convictions have consequences.

[Grey_Devil]

I don’t need a conviction to know i want nothing to do with Bill Cosby. And apparently so did the University of Connecticut

The University of Connecticut did likewise in 2016;

[aidtopia]

Now about that Presidential Medal of Freedom …

[srin]

Cosby’s medal in particular has never been so presidential as it is with this administration.

[agger_modspil]

To be fair, people are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Though, of course, in some cases … war criminals like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and whoever ran Guantanamo, should die penniless in jail.

[stinkinbadgers]

Slow news day?

@jerwin

convictions have consequences.

In this case do they though? It’s really very hard for me to think of anything sillier and less worthy of note than honorary degrees.

“We’re taking back our phony baloney honor that didn’t mean anything to begin with. Take that!”

[Grey_Devil]

Again, I don’t need a conviction to know Cosby is a scumbag and morally bankrupt. Additionally the majority of the women abused by him will never get justice in court.

[sluggo]

Whelp, there goes his cushy job after graduation

[Melz2]

@Grey_Devil

Only now are they rescinding it?

@Grey_Devil

And apparently so did the University of Connecticut

So did my alma mater, Central State; our communications center used to be named after Cosby, because he & his wife were big donors to the school. But they changed the name and rescinded his honorary degree back in 2015.

[jerwin]

atlantic’s headline may explain why it waited so long.

Cosby’s Honorary Degree Is the First Yale Has Rescinded in 300-Plus Years

[ficuswhisperer]

@agger_modspil

To be fair, people are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

That’s just the standard of law. There’s no requirements for others to confirm to this.

[agger_modspil]

Not as private individuals, no. But if you’re in any kind of authority or hiring or firing position, you should. Or you might end up with egg on your face like Peter Jackson, because you believed a smear campaign:

Jackson admitted to blacklisting actors Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino in response to a “smear campaign” orchestrated by Weinstein, resulting in both women falling out of the running for parts in the Lord of the Rings series.

“I recall Miramax telling us they were a nightmare to work with and we should avoid them at all costs,” Jackson said.

“At the time, we had no reason to question what these guys were telling us. But in hindsight, I realise that this was very likely the Miramax smear campaign in full swing. I now suspect we were fed false information about both of these talented women.”

There are good reasons for upholding the presumption of innocence. The imbalance of class justice, with perpetrators who can afford court cases and expensive lawyers and victims who can’t should be dealt with in other ways.

[GulliverFoyle]

While one can hope, it looks unlikely that Cosby will die in prison.

Bill Cosby could be sentenced to 30 years in prison. But it's likely to be much...

[Faffenreffer]

Institutional fig-leafing bothers me.

Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein were fêted (or fetid if you prefer) for their accomplishments, even though their behavior was an open secret in the entertainment industry. It’s entirely plausible to me that institutions like Yale knew of the rumors, chose to ignore them, and gave out the awards all the same. Now that Cosby has been unmasked, Yale and other institutions want to “signal that they’re taking the issue of sexual abuse on campus seriously” by rescinding those awards. Fine. Take his degrees, remove his name, close the barn door. If Yale wants to do something more substantive than “signal”, they could focus on keeping the MeToo dialogue going in classrooms; hire more women, award more women tenure, change the culture. Or they can continue trying to cover their shame with leaves while pointing at the Goodyear blimp and hoping we’ll all look away.

[sockdoll]

Cosby did legitimately earn his EdD degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1977, for whatever that’s worth. So wherever he ends up after sentencing he’ll still be Dr. William H. Cosby, Jr., convicted rapist.

[RickMycroft]

Bill Cosby, Roman Polanski expelled by Oscars academy | CBC News